The Role of Professional Ethics in Individual and Organizational Outcomes

Ethical issues are continually linked to the organizational, professional and everyday activities of individuals and are important in discussion related to decision making and determination of organizational policies, such as human resources, marketing, operational and production management and, finance, etc. Everything that is done in the workplace is somewhat based on moral beliefs. In fact, organizational decisions are interwoven with morality. Therefore, the elaboration and development of a set of common ethics in the organization will make individuals committed and leads to creation of an organizational culture that embraces ethics and strengthens positive organizational behaviors in the organization. Compliance with professional ethics standards by staff at medical universities can be effective in quality of the process and output of the academic system. The present study has been carried out with the objective of determining the effect of professional ethics on individual and organizational outcomes.
The present study is a descriptive-analytic study based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study consisted of 1200 male and female employees working in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in the academic year of 2015-2016. The sample size was estimated to be 250 individuals using Cochran's formula which was increased to 290 due to possibility of falling and its adequacy was confirmed on the basis of statistical power above 0.8 and a significant level of 0.50 in the analysis of hypotheses. Sampling was done using relative random – classed method among different classes of staff at the faculties of the University of Medical Sciences. Four questionnaires including standard professional ethics questionnaire, job engagement questionnaire, quitting questionnaire and increasing efforts questionnaire were used to collect data. The Standard job engagement questionnaire of Kanungo (1982) ontains 10 questions with a Likert scale of 5 degrees which its Cronbach's alpha coefficient has been reported to be 0.79. Discretionary effort was measured using the scales of increasing effort of Lloyd (2008) with 7 items which its Cronbach's Alpha has been estimated to be 0.87. Intention to quit job was measured using the scale of Intention to quit job by Colarelli (1984) with 3 items which its Cronbach's alpha is estimated to be 0.75. Professional Ethics Questionnaire has been created by Gregory & Hill (1990). This tool has been created in four dimensions of professional ethics (attachment and interest in work, perseverance and seriousness in work, healthy human relationships at work, and collective spirit and participation in work) and has the necessary validity due to appropriate theoretical background and the approval of experts with the subject specialization. This tool is responded based on 5-point Likert scale (1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree). Gregory & Hill (1990) reported Cronbach Alpha coefficient for this scale to be 0.81. In this study, Cronbach's alpha was 0.71 for professional ethics questionnaire, was 0.75 for job involvement, was 0.84 for quitting and was 0.78 for increasing effort.
Also, validation factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine the validity of the questionnaires. In order to show that structures of professional ethics, job vacancies, efforts and job involvement are different structures, we initially entered them into the equation with each other. X2 /df statistic shows that the value obtained for 4 factor model is 2.38 which is smaller than the target for this model. Therefore, the 4 factor model is likely to fit better with the data and is more consistent with the original theoretical model. Evaluation of other fitting statistics for models also shows that the best values based on above mentioned criteria are related to six-factor model in all cases. X2, DF, GFI, AGFI, CFI and NFI statistics in 4 factor model which are respectively equal to 26.15, 113, 0.90, 0.87, 0.93, and 0.89 are closer to one which shows the better fit of the model. The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) index is also equal to 0.068 in 4 factor model which is considered to be a good value. As a result, based on the obtained data, 4 factor model is more appropriate than other models and is approved.
Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data and to evaluate relations between variables and present the structural model.
Ethical considerations: Oral consent of the participants was obtained after obtaining the certification of Ethics Review Committee with the code of 1830-241 and expressing the objectives of study. Participants were reassured about the confidentiality of information.
Findings: 170 of participants were male (68%) and 80 of them were female (32%). Results of structural equation modeling showed that there is a positive causal relationship between professional ethics with job involvement and incremental effort (r = 0.25, r = 0.17, r = -0.01). Also, a negative causal relationship was observed between professional ethics and quitting (r = -0.32). There was a positive causal relationship between job involvement and increasing effort (r = 0.28) and there was also a negative causal relationship between job involvement and increasing effort and quitting (r = -0.22, r = -0.22).
Given the many challenges that today's education system faces in medical science universities, improvement and assurance of quality are required. One of the areas that the University of Medical Sciences should pay particular attention to is the field of ethics. Findings indicate that attention to professional ethics and its promotion among employees of the organization leads to job involvement and engagement of employees in their jobs as well as the increasing efforts of staff. Also, intention to quit the job by staff is reduced in this environment. Hence, special attention to professional ethics in the organization is recommended.