Ethical Work Climate and Employee Performance

The increasing use of emergent technology such as AI in organisations have doubled the need for a more ethical climate in today’s workplace. Although the need for ethical workspace is on the rise, not very many studies are looking at the need for ethical work climate. The current study examines the effect of ethical work climate on employee performance drawing on relevant secondary data. Drawing on social exchange theory, the study’s findings show that an ethical work climate driven by increasing technology use can bolster employee performance. Employee performance is driven by satisfaction, cognitive capability and organisation citizenship behaviour driven by ethical work climate. Interestingly, the study suggested that there is a business case for the development of an ethical work climate instead of paying lip service to ethical climate issues to avoid government sanctions. It emerged that the same AI use necessitating ethical change in organisations seeking to bolster performance can be deployed by organisations to promote ethical work climate. The implications were discussed.