Linking Ethical Positions and Organizational Commitment:The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction

This paper investigates the independent effect of two dimensions (idealism and relativism) of ethical positions on organizational commitment with job satisfaction as a mediator. Ethical ideology is supposed to impact the ethical judgment of an individual in business contexts. Burgeoning business scams have urged the researchers to explore the impact of the individual differences in ethical ideology on organizational outcomes. Existing literature suggests that individuals high on idealism believe in universal moral principles and avoid choosing those options that involve harming others, but individuals high on relativism try to defy these universal moral principles and believe in relative ethical judgments. The arguments in this study are grounded on deontological and teleological theories. This study hypothesizes that idealists rely more on deontological considerations and relativists rely more on teleological considerations for ethical judgments. Social Exchange Theory has been employed to explain the effect of ethical positions of an individual on his/her organizational commitment. Data collection was done from 105 professionals employed in different sectors and in various organizations in India. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses. It was found that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between ethical positions (idealism and relativism) and organizational commitment. The results confirmed the negative relationship of idealism and the positive relationship of relativism with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.