Assessing the Ethical Climate and Moral Judgments of Higher Education Support Staff: A Descriptive Baseline Study

This study establishes a baseline descriptive profile of the ethical decision-making landscape among 141 higher education support staff. Utilizing the Hunt-Vitell general theory of ethics, the study examines the prevailing ethical organizational climate, the cognitive balancing of deontological and teleological moral evaluations, and overall ethical judgments. The data collected via a 5-point Likert scale was normally distributed and analysed using descriptive statistics. The results reveal a highly robust and unified Ethical Organizational Climate alongside a balanced cognitive approach between Deontological and Teleological evaluations, culminating in strong Ethical Judgments. Demographically, the sample is characterized by high institutional tenure, dominated by the Executor tier. The findings suggest that extensive organizational longevity serves as a stabilizing mechanism, institutionalizing high ethical consensus across departments. These results provide insight into the role of tenure in fostering a shared ethical culture and balanced moral reasoning within higher education institutions. However, the study is limited by its descriptive design, reliance on self-reported data, and conducted within a specific organisational context, which may constrain generalizability. Future research should employ inferential and longitudinal approaches across diverse organizational contexts to further examine the relationships among ethical climate, moral evaluations, and ethical decision-making.

Ethical Organizational Climate, Deontological, Teleological, Ethical Judgments, Higher Education

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