ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR: A STRATEGIC STANDPOINT

Abstract

What constitutes ethical behaviour lies in a “grey zone†where clearcut right versus wrong and good versus bad dichotomies may not always exist. This paper is an empirical study on organizational culture and ethical behaviour from a strategic standpoint. Its objectives were to determine if there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and ethical behaviour and if there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and employees’ values. The participants of the study were employees of selected public and private organizations in Lagos, Nigeria. The selection was through simple random sampling technique. The sample size was 92 respondents. Two (2) hypotheses were formulated and tested using regression analysis. Hypothesis one revealed that there is significant relationship between organizational culture and ethical behavior; the coefficient of determination (R²) is 0.370. It shows that 37% of the variation or change in ethical behaviour is caused by variation in organizational culture. Hypothesis two also shows that the coefficient of determination (R²) is 0.423. It means that 42.3% of the variation or change in employees’ values is caused by variation in organizational culture, which connotes that organizational culture has significant relationship with employees’ values. The study recommends that management should constantly review its organizational culture to be sure that it remains strong on the vision of the founders of the organisation, because organizational culture can be eroded as more people come into the organization with their various individual behaviours and values.