Individual Moral Development and Ethical Climate: The Influence of Person–Organization Fit on Job Attitudes Maureen L. Ambrose Anke Arnaud Marshall Schminke ABSTRACT. This research examines how the fit between employees moral development and the ethical work climate of their organization affects employee attitudes. Person–organization fit was assessed by match- ing individuals’ level of cognitive moral development with the ethical climate of their organization. The influence of P–O fit on employee attitudes was assessed using a sample of 304 individuals from 73 organizations. In general, the findings support our predictions that fit between personal and organizational ethics is related to higher levels of commitment and job satisfaction and lower levels of turnover intent. Ethical P–O fit was re- lated to higher levels of affective commitment across all three ethical climate types. Job satisfaction was only associated with ethical P–O fit for one of the three P–O fit variables and turnover intentions were significantly associated with two of the ethical P–O fit variables. The most consistent effect was found for the Conventional – Caring fit variable, which was significantly related to all three attitudes assessed. The weakest effect was found for the Preconventional – Instrumental fit variable, which was only predictive of affective commitment. The pattern of findings and implications for practice and future research are discussed. KEY WORDS: attitudes, cognitive moral development, ethical climate, P–O fit, value congruence Individual moral development and ethical climate: the influence of P–O fit on job attitudes Recent scandals such as WorldCom, Tyco, and Enron have focused increased attention on business ethics. Yet most of the attention addresses ethical concerns for stockholders and customers (e.g., Col- lins, 2000; Haigh and Jones, 2006). Equally impor- tant, of course, is the impact of ethical workplaces on employees. In this study, we examine how the organizationÕs ethical environment influences employees. Drawing on P–O fit research, we suggest that understanding the influence the organizationÕs ethical environment has on employees requires consideration of both the organizationÕs ethics and the employeeÕs ethics. Specifically, we explore how the fit between the ethical climate of the organiza- tion and employees’ cognitive moral development affects employee job attitudes. Research on organizational ethics In general, researchers have taken two different approaches to examining individualsÕ ethics in organizations. The first focuses on individualsÕ eth- ical orientations. This research considers issues such as individual level of cognitive moral development (Kohlberg, 1981, 1984), individual ethical frame- works (Jubb, 1999; Judge and Martocchio, 1996), and the effects of these on individualsÕ attitudes and behaviors. For example, researchers have studied how the moral development and ethical behavior of employees affect attitudes such as satisfaction and commitment (Schminke et al., 2005; Trevin ˜o et al., 1998; Victor and Cullen, 1988). The second stream of research focuses on orga- nizational attributes that affect the moral behavior and attitudes of employees at work. This line of investigation considers how ethical characteristics of organizations, including the ethical climate, codes of ethics, and ethical policies affect individual ethics (Chen et al., 1997; Cowton and Thompson, 2000; Journal of Business Ethics Ó Springer 2007 DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9352-1