Data-based ethical decision making, lateral relations, and organizational commitment

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 946-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Robert Valentine ◽  
David Hollingworth ◽  
Patrick Schultz

Purpose Focusing on ethical issues when making organizational decisions should encourage a variety of positive outcomes for companies and their employees. The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree to which data-based ethical decision making, lateral relations and organizational commitment are interrelated in organizations. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from business professionals employed at multiple locations of a financial services firm operating in the USA. Mediation analysis (based on structural equation modeling) was used to test the proposed relationships. Findings Results indicated that employees’ perceptions of data-based ethical decision making were positively related to perceived lateral relations, and that perceived lateral relations were positively related to organizational commitment. Research limitations/implications Given that information was collected using only a self-report questionnaire, common method bias could be an issue. In addition, the study’s cross-sectional design limits conclusions about causality. Another limitation involves the study’s homogenous sample, which decreases the generalizability of the findings. Finally, variable responses could have been impacted by individual frames of reference and other perceptual differences. Practical implications Results suggest that information flow enhancements should support or be consistent with horizontal information flow enhancements, and that together these factors should increase employee commitment. Originality/value Given the dearth of existing research, this interdisciplinary investigation is important because it fills gaps in the management literature. This study is also important because the results could inform decisions regarding the use of data analysis in ethical decisions and lateral forms of organizational structuring to improve work attitudes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-229
Author(s):  
Mahfuz Judeh

Organizations are increasingly being responsible for providing good and healthy work environment that can help in supporting employees performing their duties. Supportive work environment can increase the degree of employee engagement, which in turn, makes them more attached to their roles. The purpose of the current study is two-folded: to investigate the effect of work environment on engagement, and to test ethical decision making as a mediator between environment and engagement. Data were collected from a sample of 237 employees from transportation corporations listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (2019) in Jordan. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the model. Results proposed that engagement was significantly related to work environment and ethical decision-making. Work environment has a greater effect on employee engagement than on ethical decision-making. Moreover, the effect of ethical decision-making on employee engagement was greater than the effect of work engagement on ethical decision-making. Furthermore, the study yielded support for the claim that ethical decision-making played a significant role in the relationship between work environment and employee engagement. Therefore, employees having good working conditions and making ethical decisions tend to get higher levels of employee engagement.


2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chieh‐Peng Lin

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose important determinants of knowledge sharing, including co‐worker congruence, received task interdependence, organizational commitment and participative decision‐making. Exchange ideology is considered a moderator in this study.Design/methodology/approachA two‐step procedure of structural equation modeling is applied for data analysis. The moderating effects are simultaneously examined using data from employees across different industries.FindingsThis study suggests the influence of co‐worker congruence on knowledge sharing is stronger for individuals with low exchange ideology than for those with high exchange ideology, while the influence of received task interdependence on knowledge sharing is stronger for individuals with high exchange ideology than for those with low exchange ideology. The influence of participative decision‐making on knowledge sharing is stronger for individuals with high exchange ideology than for those with low exchange ideology.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations may relate to the possibility of a common method bias and causal ordering between knowledge and its determinants.Practical implicationsManagement who wish to increase the incentive to share knowledge should first establish a harmonious atmosphere that fosters interpersonal congruence among employees and encourages employees to work closely together. A culture that arouses employees' organizational commitment and encourages employees to participate in decision‐making is most likely to increase willingness to share knowledge. Finally, the implications for moderating effects of exchange ideology are also provided.Originality/valueThis paper clarifies the moderating impacts of exchange ideology and guide management to design a variety of strategies for different staffs and thus obtain successful knowledge sharing in an organization.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Xie ◽  
Soo Jeoung Han ◽  
Michael Beyerlein ◽  
Jiacheng Lu ◽  
Lillian Vukin ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to conduct two studies to investigate shared leadership and team creativity (TC) in leaderless short-term project teams (STPTs). Design/methodology/approach To answer the research question, this paper used a multi-level mixed-methods design. This paper analyzed video recordings, transcripts of STPTs’ collaboration and self-report surveys from an international engineering competition. In Study 1, this paper attempted to connect relation-oriented shared leadership (ROSL) and task-oriented shared leadership (TOSL) with TC by coding video recordings. In Study 2, this paper further investigated the proposed positive relationship between shared leadership and TC by surveying a sample of 166 students in 51 teams. Findings In Study 1, this paper found that shared leadership covaries with TC following a similar behavioral pattern. In Study 2, multi-level structural equation modeling results suggested that both TOSL and ROSL are positively correlated with TC. Originality/value In this mixed-methods multi-level research, this paper found that when the team’s shared leadership increases, their TC activity becomes frequent. This paper confirmed the qualitative finding by quantitatively investigated the relationship between shared leadership and creativity at the team level.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 2247-2258
Author(s):  
Mobolaji Famuyide ◽  
Caroline Compretta ◽  
Melanie Ellis

Background: Neonatal nurse practitioners have become the frontline staff exposed to a myriad of ethical issues that arise in the day-to-day environment of the neonatal intensive care unit. However, ethics competency at the time of graduation and after years of practice has not been described. Research aim: To examine the ethics knowledge base of neonatal nurse practitioners as this knowledge relates to decision making in the neonatal intensive care unit and to determine whether this knowledge is reflected in attitudes toward ethical dilemmas in the neonatal intensive care unit. Research design: This was a prospective cohort study that examined decision making at the threshold of viability, life-sustaining therapies for sick neonates, and a ranking of the five most impactful ethical issues. Participants and research context: All 47 neonatal nurse practitioners who had an active license in the State of Mississippi were contacted via e-mail. Surveys were completed online using Survey Monkey software. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the University of Mississippi Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB; #2015-0189). Findings: Of the neonatal nurse practitioners who completed the survey, 87.5% stated that their religious practices affected their ethical decision making and 76% felt that decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment for a neonate should not involve consultation with the hospital’s legal team or risk management. Only 11% indicated that the consent process involved patient understanding of possible procedures. Participating in the continuation or escalation of care for infants at the threshold of viability was the top ethical issue encountered by neonatal nurse practitioners. Discussion: Our findings reflect deficiencies in the neonatal nurse practitioner knowledge base concerning ethical decision making, informed consent/permission, and the continuation/escalation of care. Conclusion: In addition to continuing education highlighting ethics concepts, exploring the influence of religion in making decisions and knowing the most prominent dilemmas faced by neonatal nurse practitioners in the neonatal intensive care unit may lead to insights into potential solutions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald F. Arnold ◽  
Jack W. Dorminey ◽  
A.A. Neidermeyer ◽  
Presha E. Neidermeyer

PurposeThe aim of this exploratory research is to compare three sectors of the auditing profession – internal auditors, external auditors from larger international firms, and external auditors from smaller/regional firms – in regard to the influence of situational context on their ethically‐related decision‐making and judgment evaluations.Design/methodology/approachAgainst the backdrop of five vignettes applied with a survey, the paper examines the potential influence of social consensus and magnitude of consequence on the ethical decision path of these three auditor groups.FindingsThe paper finds that, in all cases, social consensus and magnitude of consequences exert influence on the ethical decision path. In the case of social consensus, however the paper finds that the ethical decision path is fully mediated for large firm auditors but is only partial mediated for the other two groups of auditors.Originality/valueThis research examines responses from both internal and external auditors. Comparison between such groups is unique because these groups have not been well researched in the past literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Benoliel ◽  
Haim Shaked ◽  
Nechama Nadav ◽  
Chen Schechter

PurposeToday’s educational complexities require principals to adopt a more systemic perspective toward school management. Although research has emphasized the benefits associated with the holistic perspective of systems thinking, research in the educational field has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of principals’ systems thinking (PST) in the relationships between instructional leadership (IL) and subject coordinators’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by surveying a sample of 226 subject coordinators from different elementary schools randomly chosen in Israel. Subject coordinators completed questionnaires on their PST competencies, their principals’ IL, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe results confirmed the main hypotheses: PST did facilitate subject coordinators’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Findings also showed that PST mediated the relationship between IL and subject coordinators’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction.Originality/valueBy integrating research from both educational and non-educational literature, this study contributes to deepen our understanding regarding the antecedents and consequences of the PST as perceived by their subject coordinators, providing a broader leadership framework on their functions in today’s complex school systems.


Author(s):  
Patricia Larres ◽  
Martin Kelly

AbstractThis paper contributes to the contemporary business ethics narrative by proposing an approach to corporate ethical decision making (EDM) which serves as an alternative to the imposition of codes and standards to address the ethical consequences of grand challenges, like COVID-19, which are impacting today’s society. Our alternative approach to EDM embraces the concept of reflexive thinking and ethical consciousness among the individual agents who collectively are the corporation and who make ethical decisions, often in isolation, removed from the collocated corporate setting. We draw on the teachings of the Canadian philosopher and theologian, Fr. Bernard Lonergan, to conceptualize an approach to EDM which focuses on the ethics of the corporate agent by nurturing the universal and invariant structure that is operational in all human beings. Embracing Lonergan’s dynamic cognitive structure of human knowing, and the structure of the human good, we advance a paradigm of EDM in business which emboldens authentic ethical thought, decision making, and action commensurate with virtuous living and germane to human flourishing. Lonergan’s philosophy guides us away from the imposition of over-arching corporate codes of ethics and inspires us, as individual agents, to attend to the data of our own consciousness in our ethical decision making. Such cognitional endowment leads us out of the ethics of the ‘timeless present’ (Islam and Greenwood in Journal of Business Ethics 170: 1–4, 2021) towards ethical authenticity in business, leaving us better placed to reflect upon and address the ethical issues emanating from grand challenges like COVID-19.


Author(s):  
Bonnie Rogers ◽  
Anita L. Schill

Work has become increasingly technologically driven and fast paced, with long work hours, new/emerging hazards, and rising health care costs. Threats to worker safety, health, and well-being including non-traditional work arrangements and practices, precarious work, uncertain hazardous exposures, and work organization issues, such as heavy workloads, design of work, uneven work hours, and difficult interpersonal relationships among workers and managers are apparent. Furthermore, the relationship between personal health risk factors and workplace risks and exposures has drawn increased attention and concern. As employer economic pressures continue to build, it is anticipated that ethical dilemmas for practitioners will become increasingly complex. A review of relevant Total Worker Health (TWH) literature, related ethical constructs and competencies, an examination of codes of ethics for occupational safety and health and health promotion/education disciplines was conducted. A case study for TWH utilizing an ethical decision-making model for the analysis of key ethical issues and solutions was completed. TWH approaches to protecting safety, promoting health, and advancing well-being are increasingly being adopted. These approaches can reveal ethical dilemmas, and ethical constructs are needed to guide decision-making. A core set of proposed ethical competencies for TWH professionals are identified as a transdisciplinary framework to support workplace ethical culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 1016-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Said Elbanna ◽  
Tamer H. Elsharnouby

Purpose The purpose of this study is to address a timely research question by clarifying whether formal planning is a worthy approach for hotels. In so doing, the authors developed a theoretical model that extends prior research by exploring how the formal planning process influences organizational capabilities and decision-making style. The model also examines the impact of the three identified factors on planning effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 175 hotels located in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings The study concludes that the practice of formal planning in the tourism sector does matter and both organizational capabilities and decision-making style are important factors in predicting planning effectiveness. Research limitations/implications Generalizations to organizations operating in other sectors, such as manufacturing or government sectors, should be drawn cautiously. Practical implications Taking into account oil price volatility and serious political crises in the region, this study provides several insights to hotel managers into how the formal planning process can influence planning effectiveness. Originality/value The findings enrich the debate on the role of formal planning in the tourism sector, which has been relatively devoid of similar studies.


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