Organizational commitment of public service employees in Ghana: do codes of ethics matter?

Abstract

One of the most difficult and under-examined issues in the ethics research of developing countries is whether the establishment of codes of ethics in public service organizations leads to employees’ organizational commitment. This study investigates the link between codes of ethics and organizational commitment, as well as its three dimensions of affective, normative and continuance commitment, in Ghanaian public service organizations. Correlational, regression and descriptive statistics were used to study 228 participants conveniently sampled from selected public service organizations within the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Empirical evidence showed that codes of ethics significantly and positively predicted employees’ organizational commitment, as well as the three dimensions of the affective, normative and continuance commitment of employees. Points for practitioners Codes are intended to educate the general public, and employees in particular, about the mission of an organization, to foster a good ethical climate, and to provide guidance for resolving ethical problems in an organization. To ensure employee commitment to the organization, the codes should be effectively implemented, well communicated and strictly enforced with impartiality; otherwise, the codes will appear merely as ‘cosmetic dressing’ to the organization.

Organisational Justice and Organisational Commitment among Secondary School Teachers

“…Researchers explore OC as a threedimensional notion (Meyer and Allen, 1991), namely, AC, continuance commitments (CC), and normative commitment (NC). Although interconnected, in their perspective, they are unique (Meyer et al, 2002;Steijn and Leisink, 2006) while AC mirrors staff mental connection with the organization, ongoing commitment interventions have tangible advantages and NC, reveal a sense of coercion to proceed with the work process (Kumasey et al, 2017;Meyer and Allen, 1997).…”

Do public sector organizations ensure labor ethics? Perspectives from ethics and workplace spirituality in Bangladesh's garment sector

“…Belle and Cantarelli (2017) conducted a meta-analysis to identify unethical actions (e.g., greed, egocentrism, and self-justification) that would benefit individuals and lead to unethical behaviors. Kumasey, Bawole, and Hossain (2017) studied the relationship between the codes of ethics and organizational commitment in Ghanaian public service organizations. Marx (1949) argued that public administration could be conceived as good or bad depending on its degree of efficacy in achieving public service goals.…”

Mediating Roles of Corporate Goal-Setting, Goal-Orientation and Corporate Ethical Values on Work Attitudes of Bank Employees

“…However, these studies have been carried out primarily in the United States, Europe, and Asia (Adams, Taschian, & Stone, 2001). Despite the importance of these variables, one of the regions that have been neglected by researchers is sub-Saharan Africa despite the fact that investigators (e.g., Irwin, 2011;Kumasey, Bawole, & Hossain, 2016;Okpara, 2003) have recognized that culture or country has an influence on employee attitudes. For instance, extensive reviews of literature on this issue show that very little research has been undertaken in Nigeria to examine this problem.…”