Examining ethical climate and organisational commitment in a railway industry: The moderating effect of gender, age, education and tenure Jeremy Mitonga-Monga Department of Industrial Psychology & People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa Correspondence: jeremym@uj.ac.za Presented at the International Conference of Community Psychology, 21-24 September 2022, Naples, Italy Table 1 Descriptive statistics: Mean, standard deviations, Cronbach alpha Coefficients and correlations Table 2. Moderating effect of Demographic variables (gender, age, education, and tenure) on the relationship between ethical climate and organisational commitment (N=825) Figure 2: Interacting effect between age, EC and OC Figure 3: Interacting effect between tenure, EC and OC Introduction Ethical climate (EC) applies moral values to workplace issues (Mitonga-Monga & Cilliers, 2015). An employee’s organisational commitment (OC) is a person’s belief in the employer’s goals and ideals and willingness to work toward them. It’s linked to job satisfaction, extra-role behaviours, higher dedication, lower absenteeism, and a lower likelihood of turnover (Karatepe & Agbaim, 2012). Previous empirical investigations revealed a positive relationship between the ethical atmosphere and work satisfaction (Jaramillo et al., 2006), organisational commitment (Mi- tonga-Monga, 2018), and decreased turnover and absenteeism (Jaramillo et al., 2006). Employee loyalty to and the ethical climate in the workplace are influenced by personal characteristics such as gender, age, education, and tenure with the organisation, with employees having a strong desire to belong to and work for a well-respected ethical organisation (Karatepe & Agbaim, 2012). The unknown is how demographics influence the ethical climate and employees’ levels of com- mitment. Personnel characteristics (gender, age, education, tenure) may impact the ethical climate-organisational commitment relationship. Organisational goals and ideals, as well as the economy’s future, depend on ethical behaviour within and across industries (Mitonga-Monga & Cilliers, 2016). Problem statement Empirical research on the variable’s influencing OC is well documented in the Unit- ed States, Europe and Asia. However, they are still scared in a developing country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). How personal traits influence, the relationship between EC and OC in a railway organisation in the DRC remains unexplored. Research question and objectives Question: How can personal characteristics (gender, age, education level, length of service) moderate the association between EC and OC? Objectives: This study aims to examine the moderating effect of personal factors (i.e., gender, age, education, and tenure) in the relationship between ethical cli- mate and organisational commitment in a transport company in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Proposed theoretical model Figure 1: Proposed theoretical model Research methodology A positivist quantitative cross-sectional study in a convenience sample of 825 per- manently employed employees in the Democratic Republic of Congo transport or- ganisations was included. 32% of the respondents were female, and 68.7% were males in their early to mid-adult years (31–40 years). Of them, 49,1% were univer- sity graduates, and the majority had between sixteen and twenty years of experi- ence working for the railroad organisation. Results Discussion Relationship between EC and OC: The results indicated that ethical climate cor- related positively and significantly with organisational commitment. The results also indicated that caring, law & codes, rules, independent and instrumental relat- ed positively and significantly with affective and normative commitment. These findings are consistent with Mitonga-Monga’s (2018) studies, which found that ethical climate positively relates to organisational commitment. Personal characteristics as moderators: Process Macro moderator regression results indicated that ethical climate predicts affective, continuance and norma- tive commitment. However, age and tenure acted as a moderator in the relation- ship between ethical climate and organisational commitment. Furthermore, the findings revealed that age and tenure explain perceptions of policies, regulations and employees’ level of identification and involvement in the organisation’s goals and values among matured and experienced individuals. These findings corrobo- rate those studies by Mitonga-Monga (2015), who reported that older and tenured employees are likely to have a more excellent knowledge of such cues regarding workplace behaviour than younger and less tenured employees. Limitations and future research: The study used a convenience sampling tech- nique from a single source to conduct research, and the results could not be gen- eralised to other occupational settings. This study only examined the effect of demographical variables in the relationship between ethical climate and organi- sational commitment. Implications: By implication and contribution, organisations which foster a favour- able psychological climate through the establishment of policies, regulations, and procedures emphasising high ethical standards, employees will be more commit- ted to and extend their membership in the employer organisation Research Instruments Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) Five-Likert scale α= 0.80 Five Likert scale α=0.89 19-items of ECQ (Victor & Cullen, 1988). 14 items of OCS (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS) Gender, Age, Education, Tenure Organisational Commitment Scale (OCS) Gender Education Tenure Age Emotional exhaustion Turnover intention To address this question, the following hypotheses were formulated: H1: H1: EC relate positively and significantly with OC H2: Gender moderates the relationship between EC and OC H3: Age moderates the relationship between EC and OC H4: Education moderates the relationship between EC and OC H5: Tenure moderates the relationship between EC and OC Ethical climate Organisational commitment Vari- ables M SD α 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Overall EC 4.07 0.53 0.84 1 .76** .83** .74** .72** .77** .78** .66** .69** .64** -.09** .18** 0.05 .18** Caring 4.15 0.60 0.77 1 .57** .47** .43** .47** .50** .432** .4** .40** -.10 .12** 0.04 .08* Law & Codes 4.06 0.75 0.84 1 51** .50** .53** .63** .59** .50** .52** -.09 .12** 0.04 .18** Rules 4.11 0.64 0.81 1 .51** .37** .58** .46** .52** .49** -0.06 .14** 0.04 .12** Inde- pen- dent 4.09 0.69 0.81 1 .44** .60** .54** .47** .5** -0.06 .14** 0.04 .12** Instru- mental 1.76 0.62 0.87 1 .65** .48** .65** .51** -0.04 .18** 0.03 .18** Overall, OC 4.11 0.55 0.83 1 .82** .85** .88** -0.04 .19** 0.04 .26** AC 4.13 0.53 0.82 1 .54** .59** -0.03 .11** 0.04 .22** CC 4.04 0.77 0.86 1 .61** -0.05 .16** 0.04 .21** NC 4.14 0.66 0.85 1 -0.02 .19** 0.01 .24** Gender 1.31 0.46 - 1 .03 -0.01 0.0 Age 1.88 0.64 - 1 .09 .18** Educa- tion 1.56 0.62 - 1 -.08 Tenure 2.41 0.97 - 1 Variable Β(SEs) t p 95% Confidence Interval R R2 LLCI ULCI OC Constant 4.08(.03) 123.58 0.00 4.02 4.15 0.80 0.65 Ethical climate 0.02(.00) 13.83 0.00 0.02 0.03 Gender 0.02(.02) 0.73 0.47 -0.03 0.06 Interaction gender * ethical climate -0.01(.00) -0.89 0.37 -0.00 0.00 OC Constant 4.12 (0.01) 369.62 0.00 4.09 4.14 0.81 0.66 Ethical climate 0.02(0.00) 36.91 0.00 0.02 0.02 Age 0.05(0.02) 2.81 0.01 0.02 0.08 Interaction gender * ethical climate -0.00(0.00) -3.31 0.01 -0.01 -0.00 OC Constant 4.11(0.01) 373.75 0.00 4.09 4.13 0.81 0.65 Ethical climate 0.02(0.00) 39.01 0.00 0.02 0.02 Education -0.00(0.02) -0.17 0.86 -0.04 0.03 Interaction gender * ethical climate 0.00(0.00) 1.64 0.10 -0.00 0.00 OC Constant 4.11(0.01) 377.69 0.00 4.09 4.47 0.82 0.67 Ethical climate 0.02(.00) 37.30 0.00 0.02 0.02 Tenure 0.06(0.01) 5.63 0.00 0.04 0.09 Interaction gender * ethical climate -0.00(.00) -3.18 0.00 -0.00 -0.01 Note. N = 825; ***p ≤ 0.001; **p ≤ 0.01; *p ≤ 0.05 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 Low EC HighEC OC Younger Older 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 Low EC HighEC OC Less Experience High Experience References Jaramillo, F., J. P. Mulki and P. Solomon: 2006a, The Role of Ethical Climate on Salespersons Role Stress, Job Attitudes, Turnover Intention, and Job Performance, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 26(3), 271–282. Karatepe, O. M., & Agbaim, I. M. (2012). Perceived ethical climate and hotel employee outcomes: an empirical investigation in Nigeria. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 13(4), 286-315. Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace, theory, research and application. California: Sage. Mitonga-Monga, J. (2015). The effects of ethical context and behaviour on job retention and performance-related factors. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Pretoria: University of South Africa. Mitonga-Monga, J & Cilliers, F. 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