The ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness. Methodology:A quantitative empirical analysis was conducted on the basis of a survey of 147 respondents within the public sector in Finland. A multivariate linear regression analysis was done to examine how the ethical culture of organisations is related to organisational innovativeness.Findings: A positive link was found in the ethical culture of an organisation and organisational innovativeness: ethical culture was important to behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness.Within the ethical culture of an organisation, the dimension of the congruency of management in particular had an important role in organisational innovativeness. Research limitations/implications:The data was collected from the public sector, and therefore, future studies from the private sector organisations are needed. The results lend support to previous research arguments for the positive effect of an ethical organisational culture on organisational outcomes, particularly the organisational innovativeness described in this article. Practical implications:It is suggested that congruency of management, discussability and supportability are the organisational virtues which can most effectively enhance organisational innovativeness, specifically behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness in practice. Originality/value:The research paper provides empirical evidence on the interrelation between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness, evidence which is scarce in existing literature on organisational innovativeness. Thus, the paper helps fill this gap in the literature in the field.

Does it Pay to Be Ethical? Examining the Relationship Between Organisations’ Ethical Culture and Innovativeness

“…This finding supports the idea that the ethical culture of an organisation promotes ethical behaviour. Riivari et al (2012) investigated the role of ethical culture on organisational innovativeness in a pilot study and found that the two are linked. Huhtala et al (2011) investigated the role of ethical culture in the occupational well-being of managers and found that ethical culture is positively associated with managers' work engagement.…”

“…Finally, Riivari et al (2012) investigated the relationship between the ethical culture of an organisation and innovativeness. Their study indicated that there might be a link between the two.…”

The Relationship Between Ethical Organisational Culture and Organisational Innovativeness: Comparison of Findings from Finland and Lithuania

“…In this respect, our study lends cross-cultural support to the research in Finland on the impact of ethical organisational culture on organisational innovativeness (Riivari and Lämsä, 2014;Riivari et al, 2012). Moreover, it indicates the crucial importance of congruency of management, discussability and clarity for enhancing a public organisation's capability to innovate, in particular, at behaviour and process levels in both socio-cultural contexts.…”

“…This gap has been addressed in recent studies by Riivari et al (2012), Riivari and Lämsä (2014), who have found a positive interrelation between ethical organisational culture and organisational innovativeness. Their studies were carried out in the Finnish society, which is strongly dominated by values of accountability, equality, trustworthiness, honesty and justice (Helkama and Seppälä, 2006;Lämsä and Viljanen, 2014).…”

“…Moreover, they can encourage employees to be innovative by displaying role model behaviour, fostering a culture of learning and dialogue by giving feedback and asking for advice from specialists, hence, encouraging process and behaviour innovativeness. Empirical research on the interrelations between different virtues of the CEV model and dimensions of organisational innovativeness in Finland has yielded positive results (Riivari et al, 2012;Riivari and Lämsä, 2014). These authors demonstrate that congruency of management affects organisational innovativeness and, in particular, behaviour, process and strategy innovativeness.…”