Ethical Work Climate and Ethical Attitudes of Procurement Officers: Empirical Evidence from Government Organizations in Uganda

Abstract

This paper aims at establishing the effect of ethical work climate on
ethical attitudes of procurement officers working in Ugandan public
entities. A cross-section research design was employed and primary
data were collected from 89 government organizations. A sample of
198 procurement officers was drawn from the population of 393
procurement officers. A total of 190 usable questionnaires were
returned, giving a 95 percent response rate.
Findings from this study indicated a significant positive relationship
between ethical work climate and ethical attitudes. Being a crosssectional study by its nature, subject to common method variances, a
replication of the study using a longitudinal approach is recommended.
This should be supplemented with more interviews from a crosssection of procurement officers in these organizations to tap salient
issues from respondents.
Key words: Ethical work climate, Ethical attitudes, procurement
officers, Government organizations.