The relationship between ethical climate and professional ethics with the mediating role of job engagement of elementary school teachers

The aim of the current research was to investigate the relationship between ethical climate and professional ethics with regard to the mediating role of job engagement of elementary school teachers in Qorve city.

The statistical population includes all elementary school teachers of Qorve city, who are teaching in the year 2022-2023, and the size of the population is 324 people based on the statistics obtained from the deputy of elementary education of the Department of Education. A sample of 176 teachers was selected through proportional stratified random sampling method based on Cochran's formula. The quantitative research method is of correlation type and covariance-based structural equation modeling approach. To collect data, Victor and Cullen's ethical climate questionnaire (1988), Salanova and Schaufeli's work engagement questionnaire (2001), and Cadozier's professional ethics questionnaire (2002) were used. The reliability and validity of the questionnaires were checked with Cronbach's alpha techniques and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data using Lisrel 10.20 software.

Ethical climate had a direct, positive and significant effect at the 0.05 level on the variable of professional ethics. Ethical climate had a direct, positive and significant effect at the 0.05 level on the variables of professional ethics and job engagement. Due to job engagement, ethical climate had an indirect, positive and significant effect at the 0.05 level on teachers' professional ethics; also ethical climate and work engagement were able to explain 56% of the variance of teachers' professional ethics.

Job engagement plays a mediating role in the relationship between teachers' ethical climate and professional ethics.