Springer 2007
Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 81:313–322 DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9496-z
Perceived Behavioral Integrity: Relationships with Employee Attitudes, Well-Being, and Absenteeism
ABSTRACT. Relationships between the behavioral integrity of managers as perceived by employees and employee attitudes (job satisfaction and life satisfaction), well-being (stress and health), and behaviors (absenteeism) were tested using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n = 2,820). Using multivariate and univariate analysis, perceived behavioral integrity (PBI) was positively related to job and life satisfaction and negatively related to stress, poor health, and absenteeism. The effect size for the relationship with job satisfaction was medium-to-large while the effect sizes with respect to the other variables were small-to-medium. There was no support for the hypotheses that women would perceive lower levels of behavioral integrity and that the strength of the relationships between PBI and the outcomes variables would be stronger among women than among men. KEY WORDS: absenteeism, behavioral integrity, employee attitudes, job satisfaction, performance, managerial ethics, person-environment fit, stakeholder theory, stress
The beginning of the 21st century was marked by a plethora of scandals arising from financial misconduct of large publicly traded companies. Middle and senior level managers of firms such as Adelphia, Computer Associates, Enron, Tyco, WorldCom have not only been subject to civil sanctions, but also have been sent to prison as well. As the losses associated with unethical misconduct were wide spread, both in terms of finances and citizen and investor confidence in institutions, there is a renewed questioning of the ethical standards of managers. Given the magnitude of economic losses associated with actual misconduct, many observers have argued that acting ethically and with integrity is not only
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morally correct, but also will lead to improved performance and profitability over time (cf. Koehn, 2005; Simons, 2002b; Wee, 2002). Well before this spate of corporate collapses precipitated by unethical and illegal conduct at the highest levels of management, Jones (1995) used stakeholder theory and the economic theoretical frameworks of agency theory, transaction cost economics to argue that ‘‘firms that contract (through their managers) with their stakeholders on the basis of mutual trust and cooperation will have a competitive advantage over firms that do not’’ (p. 422). However, there has been limited empirical research to support theoretical arguments that good ethics are good business. Much of what has been written about in the popular press has been anecdotal and much of the empirical work has focused on relationships between the existence of ethics policies and codes of conducts and firm level performance (cf. Verschoor, 1998; Weaver et al., 1999; Webley and More, 2003). For their meta-analysis of the relationships between ethical behavior of managers as perceived by employees (‘‘perceived behavioral integrity’’ or PBI) and employee attitudes, Davis and Rothstein (2006) could locate only twelve usable studies with a combined n of only 3,026. They were able to identify only two studies which examined PBI in relation to behaviors such as performance and absenteeism (Johnson and O’Leary, 2003; Parry and Proctor-Thompson, 2002). Additionally, the number of extant primary studies was insufficient to allow the evaluation of potential moderators, such as gender, on the relationships. To add to the limited research on ethical behavior in business, this study examined correlates of ‘‘perceived behavioral integrity,’’ a construct that captures employee perceptions of the ethical behavior of
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managers. The following sections will describe the construct as well as theories that inform predictions about the relationship between PBI and important outcomes of interest to both employees and employers. Perceived behavioral integrity is the ‘‘perceived pattern of alignment between an actor’s words and deeds. It entails both the perceived fit between espoused and enacted values, and perceived promise-keeping’’ (Simons, 2002a: 19). In other words, PBI is the perception that an actor, such as a manager, engages in actions or evidences behaviors that are consistent with the statements of that manager with respect to values, priorities, expectations, and management styles (Simons, 1999, 2002a). From the perspective of influencing attitudes or motivating behavior of others, the perceptions of the observer, such as an employee, should be more influential than any actual measure of the target’s behavioral integrity. Simons (2002a) identified several factors that could lead to a manager being viewed as lacking in behavioral integrity: the manager’s need to satisfy diverse constituencies, the manager’s confusion or ambivalence regarding the company’s policies and values, and the manager’s own personality traits. Of course, the employee’s perceptions of the manager’s actual behavioral integrity would be shaped by their own perceptual filters. Simon’s model postulated that PBI would be related to the employee’s turnover intention, job performance, and exhibition of organizational citizenship behaviors. The construct of PBI is related to other constructs such as trust, credibility, and psychological contracts (Davis and Rothstein, 2006; Simons, 2002a). Behavioral integrity is viewed as trait ascribed to the target in the present, drawn on an evaluation of past words and deeds, describing a pattern of alignment between another’s words and deeds. Trust, in contrast, looks forward to future decisions, with behavioral integrity being a key antecedent. Credibility, like trust, is forward looking and was considered by Simons to be a subclass of trust. Behavioral integrity is considered to be an antecedent to credibility as well. Psychological contracts are the perceptions of an agreement existing between an employer and employee (Rousseau, 1989). Pursuant to the psychological contract, the employee believes that employer has made a promise, implicit or explicit, to provide some future benefit to
the employee conditioned upon the employee making a certain contribution. Once the contribution has been made, the obligation to provide the future benefit has been created. The employer’s failure to discharge that obligation would be a violation of the psychological contract and perceived as a misalignment between words and deeds. This study was intended to contribute to our understanding of perceived behavior integrity in several ways. First, the relationship between PBI and important employee outcomes was examined. Second, by using data from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW), a nationally representative sample of 2,810 US working adults, we will have greater statistical power and generalizability of results relative to other smaller convenience samples previously used. Third, the data allow for testing relationships with a broad array of employee attitudes (job satisfaction and life satisfaction), wellbeing (stress and health) and behaviors (absenteeism) that have direct and indirect effects on organizational and employee performance. Finally, the sample size and gender composition allow us to test for the moderating effects of gender.
Underlying theory and related research In his discussion of stakeholder theory, Jones (1995) emphasized the instrumental aspects of the theory as opposed to its descriptive and normative aspects (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). While based on normative principles, instrumental theory would predict relationships between certain practices of an organization, enacted by its managers, with respect to its stakeholders, and certain end states. Relevant stakeholders would include employees as well as customers, investors, suppliers, and other external groups. Viewing the organization as a nexus of contracts, Jones drew on the frameworks of agency theory, transaction cost economics, and team production to argue that an organization whose managers were perceived by its stakeholders as acting with integrity and honoring their commitments would be an efficient contractor and would incur lower agency costs, transaction costs, and costs associated with team production. These contracting advantages would extend to all stakeholder groups, including employees. Employees were differentiated
Relationships with Employee Attitudes, Well-Being, and Absenteeism from other stakeholder groups in that they are likely to have the most frequent interaction with the organization’s managers and greater opportunities to test the extent of agreement between words and actions. Jones hypothesized that firms that engaged in certain practices that were indicative of a lack of trust or respect for its employees (e.g., outsourcing, relying on external rather than internal labor markets, or closely monitoring its employees) would perform less well than other firms that did not engage in such practices. Similarly, Pfeffer (1994) argued that firms whose relationships with their employees were trusting and cooperative in nature would outperform those that are not. Although instrumental stakeholder theory, based largely on economic principles, predicts that firms whose managers act with integrity with respect to employees would be superior performers, a number of established motivational theories provide further explanation of why that should be the case. From a behavioral perspective, Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory predicted that one of the key determinants of individual effort was instrumentality, the individual’s perception that achieving a desired level of performance will lead to the desired outcome. As such, the amount of effort exerted by an employee to perform his or her job will be related to their perceptions that their manager and the organization will comply with their explicit or implicit commitments to deliver the desired reward in exchange for performance. To the extent that the employee views the manager or employer as generally acting in an untrustworthy or unethical manner, he or she would be likely to exert less effort because the employee would likely believe the manager will follow through with promised rewards. Adam’s (1963) equity theory would also predict that PBI would affect employee performance. Adams postulated that an employee’s attitudes, perceptions, and behavior would be affected by their evaluating whether the ratio of their outcomes or rewards from their employer to their contribution was similar to the corresponding ratio of a referent other. To the extent that an employee perceived a condition of being relatively underrewarded, the attitudinal consequences would be dissatisfaction and tension, with the possibility of behavioral consequences such as decreasing the quantity or quality of work performed, or withdrawing from the workplace
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through turnover or increased absenteeism. Adams recognized that societal and cultural values would affect the conceptualization of ‘‘equity’’ by influencing the perceptions of what should be considered relevant inputs. For example, seniority, age, or gender might be considered as inputs that should be rewarded in one cultural context while productivity or performance alone might be considered as relevant inputs in a different context. To the extent that the managers and employing organizations profess they allocate rewards according to their organizational and societal norms and values, and then, in the eyes of the employee, allocate rewards differently, there should be corresponding and negative consequences on a variety of outcomes: job satisfaction, job performance, turnover, absenteeism, mental and physical health, stress, and uncooperativeness (Moser, 1988). While Adam’s (1963) equity theory predicts that perceptions of unfairness in the ultimate distribution of rewards will lead to undesirable outcomes, procedural justice theory emphasizes the fairness of the process and procedures by which decisions are made and rewards allocated (Thibaut and Walker, 1975; Lind and Tyler, 1988). Procedural justice has been found to be related to employee attitudes and performance (Cohen-Charash and Spector, 2001). The alignment between the rules and procedures espoused by the organization and the rules and procedures actually enacted is a necessary condition for procedural justice. Additionally, characteristics of procedurally just systems include the rule that allocation procedures should be consistent across persons and over time and that the personal self-interests of decision-makers should be prevented from operating during the allocation process. An employee’s perception that their manager’s behavior is inconsistent with the espoused values and practices would likely lead to a perceived violation of procedural justice. Finally, person-environment fit theories appear germane as they would also predict that there would be relationships between PBI and employee attitudes and behaviors. Values congruence is one of the more widely accepted operationalizations of person-organization fit (see Kristoff-Brown et al., 2005 for a review of the diverse conceptualizations of personenvironment fit). Under this operationalization of person-environment fit, the degree to which the individual perceives that their personal values are
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congruent with that of the employing organization will be related to employee attitudes and behaviors (job satisfaction organizational commitment, ease of adjustment, intent to turnover, and actual turnover) (Chatman, 1991; O’Reilley et al., 1991). Under the assumption that most people view themselves as trustworthy and engage in behaviors that are consistent with their espoused values and beliefs, their perception that their managers behave contrarily would be indicative of a lack of congruence in values. However, low levels of PBI would not invariably lead to values incongruence as individuals that perceived themselves as lacking in behavioral integrity would not experience misfit. Kristof-Brown et al.’s (2005) meta-analysis found that values-based congruence was positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment and negatively related to intent to quit. Personorganization fit in general was negatively related to turnover and strain. In their meta-analysis, Verquer et al. (2003) found that values-based congruence was positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intent. In their meta-analysis, Davis and Rothstein (2006) reported a mean r of .48 for the correlation between PBI and employee attitudes (primarily, job satisfaction and organizational commitment). Job satisfaction is related to a number of other important variables. In their meta-analysis, Kinnicki et al. (2002) found job satisfaction was positively related to organizational commitment, motivation and life satisfaction and negatively related to work and nonwork stress, poor health symptoms, intention to leave, absenteeism, and actual turnover. Additionally, several meta-analyses have found positive relationships between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (LePine et al., 2002; Organ and Ryan, 1995; Podsakoff et al., 2000). With respect to behaviors, in their study of bank employees, Johnson and O’Leary-Kelley (2003) found that employee perceptions that their employer had broken promises to them was positively related to absenteeism and negatively related to inrole performance, although it was unrelated to organizational citizenship behavior. In their study of bank employees, Dineen et al. (2006) found that employees’ PBI of their supervisors was positively related to the employees’ organizational citizenship behavior. As predicted by the theories described
above, and reinforced by the limited research on PBI and related constructs, it was hypothesized that: PBI will be positively related to (a) job satisfaction and (b) life satisfaction, and negatively related to (c) stress, (d) poor health, and (e) absenteeism.
Hypotheses 1a–e
Gender differences There is some research that suggests that women may have different attitudes and behaviors with respect to ethics. Baker and Hunt (2003) found that all female groups of students scored significantly higher on moral orientation than all male groups, while Bjerregaard and Lord (2004) found that female students were less likely to commit ethical violations and more likely to view ethical violations as more serious than their male counterparts. In addition, Davis et al. (1999) meta-analysis found that women reported greater levels of stress than men and that the relationships between stress and psychological symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic problems were stronger among women. Davis and Rothstein (2006) did not find support for their hypothesis that the relationship between PBI and attitudes would be stronger among females (r = .52) than among males (r = .47). However, they suggested further research on gender as a possible moderator as they could only code their 12 studies as being mostly male (k = 9) or mostly female (k = 3). Accordingly, it was hypothesized that: With respect to differences between men and women, (a) women will report lower levels of PBI then will men and (b) the relationships between PBI and the attitudinal and behavioral variables will be stronger among women than among men.
Hypothesis 2a–b
Methods Sample Respondents were a representative sample of employed adults who participated in the 2002 National
Relationships with Employee Attitudes, Well-Being, and Absenteeism Study of the Changing Workforce, a telephone survey sponsored by the Families and Work Institute (see Bond et al., 2003 for complete details). Participation in the survey was limited to households with at least one member who worked at a paid job or operated an income-producing business in the civilian labor force, and who lived in a non-institutional residence with a telephone. Bond et al. (2003) estimated the response rate as 52%. I used data from the unweighted sample of wage or salaried employees (n = 2,810). The majority of the samples were female (58.4%), married or living with a partner in a similar arrangement (63.5%), and other than managers or professionals (59.3%). Their mean age was 41.71 years (SD = 12.58) and the mean tenure with their current employer or in their current line of work was 7.93 years (SD = 8.48). The median individual pre-tax income from all sources was $38,000 (m = $91,539, SD = $1,181,639).
Measures Demographic variables Demographic variables included gender, age, marital status, pre-tax individual income, tenure with current employer or in current line of work, and occupational level. Gender was coded as 0 = female, 1 = male; marital status was coded as 0 = single, 1 = spouse or partner in residence; 0 = other, occupational level 1 = manager or professional. Age, income, and tenure were continuous variables. As the distribution for income was skewed, income was logarithmically transformed for all analyses. Perceived behavioral integrity was measured by two items, ‘‘I can trust what managers say in my organization’’ and ‘‘Managers in my organization behave honestly and ethically when dealing with employees and clients or customers’’ (rated on a four-point scale, 1 = Strongly agree to 4 = Strongly disagree). Items were averaged and scored so that higher values indicated higher levels of PBI behavior integrity. Coefficient alpha was .79. Job satisfaction was measured by three items: ‘‘All in all, how satisfied are you with your job?’’ (rated on a four-point scale, from 1 = Very satisfied to 4 = Not satisfied at all); ‘‘Taking everything into consideration, how likely is it that you will make a
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genuine effort to find a new job with another employer’’ (rated on a three-point scale, 1 = Very likely, 2 = Somewhat likely, 3 = Not at all likely) and ‘‘Knowing what you know now, if you had to decide all over again whether to take the job you now have, what would you decide?’’ (rated on a three-point scale, 1 = Take same job again without hesitation, 2 = Have second thoughts, and 3 = Definitely not take same job). Items were standardized, averaged and reversed scored so that higher values represented greater satisfaction. Coefficient alpha was .71. Life satisfaction was assessed by three items, ‘‘All in all, how satisfied are you with your family life?’’ and ‘‘All in all, how satisfied would you say you are with your marriage (or relationship with your partner)?’’ and, ‘‘All things considered, how do you feel about your life these days?’’ The first two items were rated on four-point scale (1 = Extremely satisfied to 4 = Not too satisfied) and the third item was rated on a four-point scale (1 = Very satisfied to 4 = Very dissatisfied). Items were averaged and reversed scored so that higher values indicated greater satisfaction. For individuals without partners, the score consisted of the average of two items. Coefficient alpha was .75. Stress and well-being Stress and well-being were measured by ten items (e.g., ‘‘In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed?’’ (rated on a five-point scale, where 1 = Never and 5 = Very often), and ‘‘How stressful has your personal and family life been in recent months? (rated on a five-point scale, 1 = Extremely stressful and 5 = Not stressful at all). Two items tapped depression (e.g., ‘‘During the past month, have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed, or hopeless?), with responses of 1 = Yes and 2 = No. Items were standardized, averaged, and reversed scored so higher values were indicated more stress. Coefficient alpha was .83. Health Respondent perceptions of their health were measured by a single item in which the person was asked to rate their current state of health. The response scale ranged from 1 = Excellent to 4 = Poor, such that higher values indicated poorer health.
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Absenteeism was measured by a single item asking respondents how many days they had missed work in the prior 3 months, other than for scheduled vacation days.
exceeded the threshold to be considered large. The univariate relationships with each of the dependent variables were significant, although there was variation in effect sizes: job satisfaction, p £ .001, g2p = .19; life satisfaction, p £ .001, g2p = .04; stress, p £ .001, g2p = .04; health, p £ .001, g2p = .01; absenteeism, p £ .01, g2p = .00. The results were similar when the demographic variables were added as covariates (although in this case, the g2p for absenteeism reached the .01 threshold for a small effect size). After finding support for the hypothesis that PBI is related to the dependent variables, I examined the univariate relationships of each of the outcome variables. The zero order correlations between PBI and other individual variables were statistically significant and in the expected directions: PBI was positively related to desirable outcomes such as job satisfaction (.44) and life satisfaction (.19) and negatively related to undesirable outcomes such as stress ().21), poor health ().12), and absenteeism ().06). I then conducted a series of two-step hierarchical regression analyses on each of the five dependent variables to test whether PBI would account for additional variance beyond the demographic variables. The first step consisted of the demographic variables (age, sex, marital status,
Results Given the large sample size and its power to detect statistically significant differences that are trivial in effect size, I will only discuss effects that were statistically significant at p £ .01 or lower and at a minimum reached the benchmark for a small effect size with the following benchmarks for magnitude of each effect size: correlations (r), .10 for small effect size, .30 for medium, .50 for large; multivariate and univariate partial eta-square (g2p ), .01 for small, .06 for medium, and .14 for large; for regression (f2), .02 for small, .15 for medium, and .35 for large (Cohen, 1992). Effects that meet those criteria are highlighted in bold italics in the tables. Basic statistics and correlations appear in Table I. As job satisfaction, life satisfaction, stress, health, and absenteeism were likely to be correlated, I first conducted a multivariate analysis with PBI as the covariate. The multivariate F statistic based on the Wilks lambda F(5, 2774 = 137.93) was significant at p £ .001, and the effect size (g2p ) of .20
TABLE I Basic statistics and correlations Variables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 12.
Mean
SD
1
2
3
4
5
Age 41.71 12.59 – Sex .42 .49 ).04 – Marital status .64 .48 .12 .09 – Income 10.44 .91 .19 .24 .14 – Level 1.59 .49 ).09 .08 ).07 ).25 – Tenure 7.93 .48 .46 .07 .09 .27 .13 PBI 3.14 .86 ).02 ).07 .02 ).08 .06 Job satisfaction )0.02 .80 .20 ).07 .13 .07 .10 Life satisfaction 3.19 .66 .07 .03 .17 .04 .06 Stress .02 .63 ).15 .13 ).10 ).11 ).04 Health 1.82 .72 .05 ).07 ).03 ).11 ).10 Absenteeism 1.34 4.69 ).04 ).04 ).05 ).04 ).04
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
– ).07 (.79) .16 .44 (.71) .08 .19 .31 (.75) ).13 ).21 ).34 ).57 (.83) ).02 ).12 ).13 ).20 .38 – ).03 ).06 ).07 ).06 .13 .11 –
Note. Ns from 2542 to 2810. Categorical variables: Sex, 0 = Male, 1 = Female; Marital Status, 0 = Single, 1 = Married or living with partner; Level, 0 = Other, 1 = Professional or Manager. PBI = Perceived behavioral integrity, scored so that higher values indicate lower levels. Correlations ‡ .04 were significant at p < .05; ‡ .05 were significant at p < .01; ‡ .07 were significant at p < .001. Effect sizes (r) that reached the .10 threshold for small are shown in bold
Relationships with Employee Attitudes, Well-Being, and Absenteeism income, level, and tenure), with PBI added in the second step. The results are shown in Table II. The B coefficients for PBI were significant at p £ .001 for each dependent variable and in the hypothesized direction (positively for desirable outcomes such as job and life satisfaction and negatively for undesirable outcomes such as stress, health, and absenteeism). In each case, the amount of incremental variance was statistically significant at p £ .001. The effect size for the amount of incremental variance varied from less than small (absenteeism), to small (life satisfaction, stress, and health) to large (job satisfaction). Hypothesis 2a, which predicted that women would perceive lower levels of behavioral integrity, was not supported. The mean of 3.19 (SD = .84) of the 1,627 women was lower than the mean of 3.07 (SD = .88) for men (t(2788) = 3.62, p < 001, although the d of .14 between men and women did not reach the .20 for a small effect size. The results were similar when age, marital status, income, tenure, and level were added as covariates. Hypothesis 2b, which predicted that the relationships of PBI with the outcome variables would be stronger for women, was not supported. The first order correlations were similar: job satisfaction, male r = .44 vs. female r = .43, (z = .1, p = .92); life satisfaction, male r = .22 vs. female r = .18, (z = .87, p = .38); stress, male r = ).24 vs. female r = ).20, (z = 1.07, p = .28); health, male r = ).14 vs. female r = ).12, (z = .58, p = .56); absenteeism, male r = ).08 vs. female r = ).06, (z = .57, p = .57). Similarly, when the Chow test was conducted, the interaction term for gender x PBI was not statistically significant with respect to any of the five dependent variables and g2p did not exceed .00.
Discussion The results of this study provide support for the assertion that good ethics is also good business with respect to one key stakeholder group. PBI was related to higher job satisfaction, which prior research has found to be positively related to a variety of important outcomes, such as employee commitment and job performance. Similarly, PBI was negatively related to stress, absenteeism, and poor employee
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health, each of which may impact organizational performance in terms of productivity and increased costs (as well as the quality of life of the employee). Contrary to expectations, there were no substantial differences between men and women with respect to their perceptions of behavioral integrity or the strength of the relationships between these perceptions and attitudes, well-being, and absenteeism. It appears that men and women are similar with respect to these aspects of perceptions and responses to ethical treatment. The cross-sectional design of the study and its reliance on self-reported data results in the limitations that are characteristic of this type of research. While the hypotheses were predicated on a causality whereby the perceptions of a lack of behavior integrity on the part of managers in the organizational would lead to employees having lower levels of job satisfaction, the cross-sectional design does not allow for tests of causality. It is possible, for example, that employees might first become dissatisfied with their jobs because they had not received the recognition and tangible and intangible rewards they felt they merited. The dissatisfied employees might then ascribe the blame for what they perceive as an unfair outcome to duplicity or lack of integrity on behalf of their managers. The measure of PBI consisted of only two items and was unidimensional in nature. While additional items tapping into other domains would have been preferable, there is evidence that these measures might be satisfactory. First, Craig and Gustafson (1998) concluded that the 31 items in their Perceived Leadership Integrity Scale had a unidimensional structure, as did Parry and Proctor-Thomson (2002) in their 28-item revised version of the scale. Notably, the observed correlation (.44) between the measure of PBI and job satisfaction in this sample (n = 2,790) and the mean r in Davis and Rothstein’s (2006) meta-analysis (.48, n = 3026) were similar (z = 1.93, p = .05), which suggests that this measure was assessing the same construct as were the studies that were included in their meta-analysis. The study is limited by there being a common source, employee’s self-reports, for all variables. However, as the primary independent variable was employees’ perceptions of, rather than actual, behavioral integrity, the issue is less severe than if the relationships between some objective measure
.07 .08 30.12*** – – – 6, 2499
.14*** ).08*** .10*** .01 .08*** .08**
Model 1
.45*** .26 .35 126.81*** .20 .25 659.35*** 7, 2498
.13*** ).06*** .09*** .05** .03 .11***
Model 2
Job satisfaction
.04 .04 18.14*** – – – 6, 2497
.03 .02 .17*** ).02 .06** .05*
Model 1
.20*** .08 .09 30.93*** .04 .04 103.21*** 7, 2496
.02 .03 .17*** ).00 .04* .06**
Model 2
Life satisfaction
21.37*** – – – 6, 2499
.05
).11*** ).11*** ).07*** ).03 ).03 ).06*
Model 1
.03 .03 11.61*** – – – 6, 2499
).23*** .10 .05 39.49*** .05 .05 141.03*** 7, 2498
Model 1
.08*** ).05* ).03 ).08*** ).09*** ).01
Model 2
17.17*** .02 .02 49.15*** 7, 2498
).14*** .04
.09*** ).06** ).02 ).09*** ).08*** ).02
Model 2
Health
).10*** ).12** ).06** ).05* ).00 ).07**
Stress
Dependent variables
.01 .01 2.20* – – – 6, 2494
).05* ).03 ).03 ).01 ).03 .01
Model 1
4.35*** .01 .01 17.18*** 6, 2493
).08*** .01
).04 ).04 ).02 ).02 ).02 .01
Model 2
Absenteeism
Note. Categorical variables: Sex, 0 = Male, 1 = Female; Marital Status, 0 = Single, 1 = Married or living with partner; Level, 0 = Other, 1 = Professional or Manager. PBI = Perceived behavioral integrity, scored so that higher values indicate lower levels. In each model, blocks of variables were entered in successive order. Effect sizes (f2 and Df2) that reached the .02 threshold for small are shown in bold * p < .05, two-tailed ; ** p < .01, two-tailed; *** p < .001, two-tailed
PBI R2 f2 Total F DR2 Df2 DF DF’S
Age Sex Marital Income Level Tenure Step 2
Step 1
Independent variables
Hierarchical regression: demographics, perceived behavioral integrity on satisfaction, stress, health, and absenteeism
TABLE II
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Relationships with Employee Attitudes, Well-Being, and Absenteeism of actual behavioral integrity and the dependent variables. A related limitation, and one which may have attenuated some findings, was related to the measures of physical health and absenteeism. First, each measure was comprised of a single item. Second, there was limited variability in each. For example, participants were asked about their attendance over only a relatively short period. During the prior 3 months, 63% reported no absences and the average number of days absent was only 1.3. In contrast, Johnson and O’LearyKelley (2003) used employer supplied data over a 10-month period, and found a mean of 3.55 days absent. Participants were asked to rate their overall health with four response options; however, only 1% responded that their health was ‘‘poor,’’ and 49% responded that it was ‘‘good.’’ It is possible that including additional items inquiring about symptoms of health, and providing a greater number of response options, might have produced more accurate measures of health. Research should continue to investigate the relationships between perceptions of behavioral integrity and attitudes and behaviors that would be related directly to job performance. For example, to the extent that the technology of a firm requires more interdependence or teamwork among employees, where the productivity of an individual employee is not easily measurable, or where there is potentially greater variability of the employee in his or her ‘‘in-role capacity,’’ the relationships between PBI and performance may be stronger than in situations where individual productivity is easily measurable or task design leaves little room for variability in performance. Accordingly, future research should use finer-grained measures of work-related behaviors than absenteeism or turnover, such as organizational citizenship behavior, and attitudes, behaviors and performance should be evaluated at the team or work-group level as well as at the individual level. Finally, research should evaluate situational factors that may moderate relationships, such as job design and technology. While it may be argued that organizations and their managers should engage in ethical behaviors and activities for reasons unrelated to financial performance, determining whether ethical behaviors are positively or negatively related to bottom line performance would be viewed as relevant by many
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organizational stakeholders. This research suggests that employee as well as organizational outcomes may be affected by the perceptions of employees that their managers act in a trustworthy and ethical way in their treatment of employees and customers. It provides further evidence that what is good ethics is also good business.
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Department of Management, Marketing & Decision Sciences, Adelphi University, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY, 11530, U.S.A. E-mail:
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