Research Proposal on The Relationship between Personality Characteristics & Ethical Behavior among Employees in the Private/Public Sector

The Relationship between Personality Characteristics & Ethical Behavior among Employees in the Private/Public Sector

Introduction

People are unique when compared on each other. This is also true among the employees working within the same organization. Many theorists and business analysts pictured the idea that the individuals create their own description in the organization and because of the uniqueness of each individual, they can be judged according to how well they perform. For most of the time, the conflicts arise because of the differences of the personality and the involvement of one employee in the issues because of the ethical behavior.

Background and Problem Statement

In both private and public organizations, the quality of the workforce refers to the merit and professionalism of personnel as gauged by objective assessors. Excellent managers in all sectors are expected to provide employees with supportive working environments. It is the managers' responsibility to provide a vision, but at the same time, to provide the tools for translating this vision into actions. As mentioned in various other studies, an efficient, skillful, professional, and committed public service supports governments in their work (Vigoda-Gadot & Mizrahi, 2008). The flexibility of an employee can explain the existence of the work relations in the organization and their behavior can be mirrored on how well they perform for the organization. In the start of selection process of the Human Resource Managers, they consider the personality trait of the individuals to determine their effectiveness and contribution in the organization. Moreover, the tests are administered as well as training to observe if the attitudes and ethical behavior of the candidate suites to the organization. However, is there a relationship between the personality characteristics and ethical behavior to determine the effectiveness of the employee?

Research Aim and Objectives

The main aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between personality characteristics and ethical behavior among employees in the public and/or private sector. The study prepared the objectives that should be included in the investigation and the areas that should be considered. First is to review the theories and models of personality and ethical reasoning based on the academic contexts. Second is to determine the impact of personality and ethical behavior on the actions of employees within the organization. Third is to link the findings in the recent issues held in the corporate or government sectors. And fourth is to recognize the actions of the management in the determination of ethical and unethical behaviors among their employees.

Literature Review

In measuring the performance of the employees, there are requirements that they should meet or variables that should be taken. Part of the requirements is the managerial quality of an employee. The managerial quality is perceived among the employees and includes the human quality, transparency and accountability, morality and ethics, and innovativeness. Human quality refers to the professionalism and quality of private/public personnel and the administrative leadership. Transparency and accountability refers to the acceptance of criticism, a sincere desire to improve poorly functioning programs or performance in state services, and a willingness to be exposed to outside evaluators in order to improve future results. Morality and ethics refer to general attitudes toward ethics and the fairness of civil servants. Innovativeness reflects entrepreneurial actions, flexibility, and the willingness to adopt new ideas, and the initiation of original enterprises by private/public servants in order to improve services to the people (Vigoda-Gadot & Mizrahi, 2008). A manager can look at certain personality characteristics that tend to be related to job success, test for those traits, and use the data to make selection more effective. The ethical behaviors, on the other hand, create an influence in the working condition of an employee. It is said that individuals with high in self-monitoring show considerable adaptability and can be highly sensitive to external cues or behave differently in different situations presented before them (Perry et al., 2002; Mayer, Kuenzi, & Greenbaum, 2009). 

Methodology

The method is focus on quantitative research and thereby uses the combination of survey and interview. In the survey, the questionnaires will be in a form of Likert Scale and be conducted on the sample population of the employees working in both private and public sectors. In this way, the researcher will gain the perceptions and ideas of the employees regarding their personality and ethical behavior and how these factors create an impact in their role within the organization. While on the interview, the managers or supervisors will be asked concerning the attitudes, personality, and ethical behaviors of the employee and gain the insight on how they control the situation.

 

References:

Mayer, D.M., Kuenzi, M., & Greenbaum, R.L., (2009) Making Ethical Climate a Mainstream Management Topic: A Review, Critique, and Prescription for the Empirical Research on Ethical Climate [Online] Available at: http://www.bus.ucf.edu/dmayer/SJO/Research/Articles/Mayer,%20Kuenzi,%20Greenbaum_Ethical%20Climate%20Chapter_In%20Press.doc [Accessed 16 September 2010]

Perry, G.M., Duffy, P.A., Robison, L.J., & Nixon, C.J., (2002) Ethical Negotiation Tactics Among Students at Land Grant Universities [Online] Available at: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/36601/1/sp02pe01.pdf [Accessed 16 September 2010].

Vigoda-Gadot, E., & Mizrahi, S., (2008) Public Sector Management and the Democratic Ethos: A 5-Year Study of Key Relationships in Israel, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18(1):79+