The Impact of Human Values on Ethical Climate: A Private Hospital Practice

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the impact of human values on ethical climate. The study also explores the factors affecting either human values or ethical climate. Methods:The study exploited the data of the staff in a private hospital operating in Istanbul. Accordingly, the data of 178 individuals was obtained in four weeks period starting from March 2019. Human values were measured by Human Values Scale which was validated by Dilmaç (2007). Ethical climate was measured by Ethical Climate Scale which was introduced by Schwepker ( 2001) and validated by Eren and Hayatoğlu (2011). The study employed one-way variance analyses and Kruskal Wallis tests to understand the variations in human values and ethical climate perception upon socioeconomic factors. Additionally, ordinary least square regression was performed to identify the effect of human values on ethical climate perception.Results: It was found that better human values were associated with increasing perceptions of ethical climate. Further, the number of children, age and the length of service had considerable impacts on both human values and the perception of ethical climate. Finally, marital status and educational status did not have any significant impacts on human values and ethical climate. Conclusion:It was identified that the people with better human values were more careful about ethical rules. The findings are important to understand the motivations of ethical climate in a competitive atmosphere. It is believed that further studies investigating ethical climates in public and private organisations comparatively will contribute to the literature.