Abstract
Nowadays, there is an increased interest in exploring the exact way
which corporate ethical values impact employees’ motivation and performance [52],
[60]. Corporate ethical values (CEV) have gained special interest in the last
decades due to financial scandals (such as Enron, WorldCom) that had a great
impact on economic world [17]. Literature [11] suggests that corporate ethics
influence a firm’s effectiveness and survival. This study approaches corporate
ethical values as a motivating factor that affects employees’ performance.
Hence, it was studied among other motivators such as fair wages, promotion
incentives, self-esteem and creativity shedding light on their impact on work
performance. A case study method was used and a sum of 189 questionnaires were
gathered from a private institution and analyzed with SPSS software. For
triangulation reasons, secondary data were also collected and an interview with
a top manager was conducted. Creative work and self-esteem were evaluated
higher than the rest of the motivators. Regression analysis revealed that work
performance was significantly explained by pay incentives, self-esteem and
corporate ethical values. The predicting
capability of the suggested model was noteworthy (R2=0.209, sig<0.000),
while corporate ethical values were found to have the greatest influence among
all predictors. Moreover, considerable differences were detected between women
and men in the majority of motivating factors such as the hierarchical
advancement, security, the working conditions and responsibilities. The results
bring attention to the significant role that ethical values play in employees’
performance as well as to the divergences to motivating attributes between males
and females.
JEL
classification numbers: M12, M14, M54
Keywords: Corporate ethical values, Performance, Motivation,
Greece