Mediating effect of organizational commitment on nurses’ ethical climate and ethical behavior ^†

Abstract Objective To study the relationship, the mediating effect of organizational commitment on nurses’ ethical climate and ethical behavior. Methods Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to perform path analysis in this exploratory study. The participants consisted of 280 Iranian nurses who were studied through proportional random sampling. The research tool was consisted of (1) the Ethical Climate Questionnaire by Cullen and Victor, which examines the ethical standards of selfishness, philanthropy, and ethical principles, as well as the reference sources of ethical arguments, including individual, regional, and global ones; (2) Allen and Mayer’s questionnaire, which measures organizational commitment in 3 areas: emotional commitment, continuous commitment, and normative commitment; and (3) Peterson’s Ethical Behavior Questionnaire, which combines nine items to form interconnected ethical behaviors and is based on a 5-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed using AMOS and SPSS v.23 software. Results The correlation coefficient between the two variables, ethical climate and ethical behavior, showed a significant relationship ( r = 0.10, p = 0.085). The organizational commitment showed a significant relationship between some dimensions and the total ethical climate. The ethical climate affects the organizational commitment (beta = 3.261) and behavior (beta = 0.121). Organizational commitment does not show any significant relationship with ethical behavior. The ethical climate affects the organizational commitment and the ethical behavior. Conclusions Nursing managers and nursing staff should consider the ethical climate that affects the organizational commitment and nursing ethical behavior.