An Integrated Model of Justice and Ethical Climates and the Influence of Cultural Diversity

Abstract

The business ethics literature has paid little attention to the similarities, differences, and interactions between 'justice climate' and 'ethical work climate', two key perspectives on the moral dimension of organizations that are related to cultural diversity. In this conceptual paper we argue that integrative studies of justice and ethical work climates could contribute significantly to our understanding of the moral dimensions of organizations. We propose a model showing that an organization's moral climate can perform both normative and evaluative functions. With the globalization of business and increasing diversification of the labour force, cross-cultural differences regarding organizational perceptions and behaviours are increasingly salient. Hence, we also explore the influence of cultural diversity in our integrated model with the Chinese business context as a specific example. We conclude by discussing directions for further research on the relationship between cultural diversity and moral climate in organizations.

Ethical Climates in Organizations: A Review and Research Agenda

“…Even Arnaud, in a study with Schminke (2012), reverted to using a modified version of the Cullen (1987, 1988) ECQ. Despite this, in line with other scholars (Macklin, Martin, & Mathison, 2015), we call on researchers to consider using the ECI (Arnaud, 2010) as it provides a basis from which researchers can measure the wider multidimensional nature of ethical climates, and therefore enriches Cullen's (1987, 1988) initial work which only captures the moral reasoning dimension of ethical climates.…”

Diversity climate enhances work outcomes through trust and openness in workgroup communication

“…Furthermore, the definition of diversity climate as used in the present research is related to some other types of climate measures commonly mentioned in diversity literature. For example, the diversity climate as defined in this study may be linked to ethical climate (Victor and Cullen 1988 ), which refers to perceived norms and values in workgroups, and the broader moral climate , as described by Macklin et al ( 2014 ), which also encompasses perceptions/evaluations of just behavior in the workplace. Using the definition as presented above, it follows that diversity climate is strongest when the ethical climate of a workgroup or organization allows for a wider range of acceptable behavior (thus allowing for diverse cultural heritages to be displayed/expressed) as well as providing justice to all groups in the organization, regardless of their cultural background.…”

Organizational Justice, Behavioral Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility: Finally the Three Shall Merge

“…They argue that both institutional and cultural differences surrounding harmony, detectability, and consequentialism lead to such crosscultural (China vs. U.S.) differences. Macklin, Martin, and Mathison (2015) then broaden our treatment of ethics (and raise it to a higher level of analysis) by proposing a model of moral climate, which integrates the literature on justice climate with that on ethical climate. Justice climate, or a work group's shared perception of how fairly they are treated, and ethical climate -a work group's shared perceptions surrounding norms of what is considered 'good' and 'bad' behavior (Li & Cropanzano, 2009) -jointly influence moral climate.…”