EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROJECT MATERIAL
EFFECTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
Change is occurring at an incredible rate around the world. One change is influencing all organisations around the world, including the Nigerian financial sector, particularly Guaranty Trust Bank. Some experts believe that the only thing that is constant in life is change. No circumstance in life is permanent.
As a result, the Nigerian work environment is susceptible to change, given the dynamic and complicated difficulties that arise on a daily basis. The level of workplace ethics that exists within an organisation is emerging as a signal of merit or critical edge.
In the face of the expanding global economy, an organisation that is part of a proper framework for good governance must practise work ethics and incorporate good values into its organisational culture in order to achieve higher performance (Omisore et al, 2015).
Work ethics is currently an interesting subject in Nigerian management and business in general, due to its benefits in evaluating employees’ behaviour and performance, as well as its importance to organisational performance (Kapp and Parboteeah 2008, Schminke et al. 2005).
Companies and institutions worldwide, both public and private, use corporate governance guidelines to manage ethical performance (Rossouw, 2005). Despite its importance, no one organisation is immune to corporate scandals (Samir et al; 2015); in recent years, malpractices have been documented in companies that go beyond the legal and ethical environment.
Different incidents of workplace ethics and organisational performance have been documented in a variety of places around the world. In the United States of America (USA), for example, a case study of ENRON revealed the high risk of accounting practice, which is an element of unethical behaviours, as well as cases of World Com and Tyco (Komari & Fariastuti, 2013).
However, it has been stated that the lack of adherence or existence of some set of ethical norms has contributed to Africa’s plight, notably in Nigerian leadership (Agbude & Etete, 2013).
Developing countries, such as Nigeria, had corporate failures in the banking sector in 1997, with twenty-six commercial banks failing due to financial irregularities, including AfriBank Plc and Bank PHB.
Kenyan, Mauritian, and South African codes take the lead in delving deeper into what it means to govern ethical performance beyond the development of a code of ethics. The second King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (IoD of South Africa, 2002) contains the most extensive proposals for ethical governance.
Nigeria has been fighting evolving corruption for years, which has spread as a result of unethical activities in offices involving public and private workers and leaders, affecting institutional performance (Heilman and Ndumbaro 2002).
According to Bisimba and Peter (2015), LHRC and ZLSC (2015), and LHRC (2016), various scandals have occurred as a result of malpractices in the offices, including the case of Radar purchased from UK’s BAE Systems, the EPA affair, the David Jairo controversy, Tegeta Escrow, and the Richmond (Dowans) story. Reports of scandals, questionable corporate and political behaviour in various organisations are becoming increasingly common.
Anand et al. (2004) stated that organisational scandals involving global corporations such as Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, and Parmalat highlight the critical importance of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, and organisational ethics.
However, ethics programmes are designed to encourage ethical behaviour in organisations and aid employees in acting morally responsibly (McDonald, 1999). This study will look into the effects of organisational ethics on employee performance using Guaranty Trust Bank, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, as a case study.
1.2 Statement of Problem
For quite some time now, the banking industry has been regarded as one of the industries that hires workers on a regular basis. This is due to the increase of their customer base, which prompts them to desire to hire workers on a daily basis. They have established rules and standards for employing staff that everyone in the organisation must follow.
They term it organisational ethics. Several studies have found that organisations with illegal records have not only been obliged to pay for investigations and fines, but have also seen considerable stock price drops and, on average, poorer profitability rates than their law-abiding competitors.
In fact, many have seen substantial revenue declines, greater equity costs, and significant harm to their reputation among consumers and other stakeholders.
This requires the implementation of several measures to monitor and control organisations’ good governance, work ethics, and performance. However, there has been minimal change in attitudes, social structures, and power relations over time (Heilman & Ndumbaro, 2002).
The design of workplace ethics identified it as critical for organisations to regulate workers’ acts and practices at work in order to reduce unethical issues that affect organisational performance such as bribery, corruption, fraud, facilitation payments, discrimination, harassment or bullying, and other workplace misconduct.
Various researchers stated that workplace ethics is critical to the operation of any organisation, whether public or private. However, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of organisational ethics on employee performance using Guaranty Trust Bank, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, as a case study.
1.3 Research Objectives
The study has both general and specialised objectives. The broad or primary goal of this study is to investigate the effects of organisational ethics on employee performance using Guaranty Trust Bank, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria as a case example. The precise aims include:
i) To evaluate the relationship between workplace ethics and workers’ commitment to working at Guaranty Trust Bank.
ii) To examine employees’ commitment to ethical behaviour as a metric for organisational performance.
iii) To study the awareness of employees’ ethical behaviour on the organization’s performance.
1.4 Research Questions.
The following are some of the questions that this study aims to answer:
i) What is the relationship between organisational ethics and employee commitment to working for Guaranty Trust Bank?
ii) What is the level of employee commitment to ethical behaviour as a metric for organisational performance?
iii) What is the level of awareness of the impact of employees’ ethical behaviour on organisational performance?
1.5 Research Hypotheses.
The following are the research hypotheses that will be tested in this study:
i) There is a considerable association between organisational ethics and employee commitment.
ii) Organisational ethics have a substantial influence on employee performance.
1.6 Significance of the Study
This study is critical and valuable for the Nigerian government, stakeholders, managers, and non-profit organisations in determining the impact of organisational ethics and its contribution to organisational performance.
It provides metrics and recommendations that, if properly capitalised, will have a favourable impact on the performance of individuals and organisations in general.
It also challenges other scholars to conduct comparable studies on organisational ethics and expand their existing knowledge. It also provides recommendations to policymakers.
1.7 Scope of Study
This study employed Guaranty Trust Bank in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria as a case study to investigate the impact of organisational ethics on employee performance. This study will be conducted in four Guaranty Trust Bank branches in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
Due to time and cost constraints, this research will focus on only four Guaranty Trust Bank branches in Calabar where a research gap has been discovered.
It will also be unable to gather data from all of the employees of the above-mentioned organisations; hence, the study will only take a sample of a few employees who will be able to provide the necessary information from each of those organisations, thereby best representing the full population of the study.
The researcher will also confront the challenge of getting accurate data; in some cases, secondary data will be unavailable since it is considered confidential; in order to find data, the researcher will need to use online resources such as organisational websites and the Google search engine.
1.9 Definition of Terms
The following terms were utilised throughout this study:
Organisational ethics can be defined as a collection of values that include the right attitude, appropriate behaviour, respect for others, and good workplace communication.
Employee performance refers to the job-related activities that a worker is required to complete and how well they are carried out. Many firm personnel directors evaluate each employee’s performance on a yearly or quarterly basis to discover areas for improvement.
Ethics: The word ‘ethics’ comes from the Greek word ethos, which means ‘character’, hence an ethical person is someone who has character. Plato and Aristotle defined ethics as ‘what we ought to do’. Thus, it demands judgement and reasoning in decision making, which raises concerns about what is right, wrong, good or bad behaviour, fair or just.
Need help with a related project topic or New topic? Send Us Your Topic