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.