The ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative empirical analysis was conducted on the basis of a survey of 147 respondents within the public sector in Finland. A multivariate linear regression analysis was done to examine how the ethical culture of organisations is related to organisational innovativeness.

Findings

A positive link was found in the ethical culture of an organisation and organisational innovativeness: ethical culture was important to behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness. Within the ethical culture of an organisation, the dimension of the congruency of management in particular had an important role in organisational innovativeness.

Research limitations/implications

The data were collected from the public sector, and therefore, future studies from the private sector organisations are needed. The results lend support to previous research arguments for the positive effect of an ethical organisational culture on organisational outcomes, particularly the organisational innovativeness described in this paper.

Practical implications

It is suggested that congruency of management, discussability and supportability are the organisational virtues which can most effectively enhance organisational innovativeness, specifically behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness in practice.

Originality/value

The research paper provides empirical evidence on the interrelation between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness; evidence which is scarce in existing literature on organisational innovativeness. Thus, the paper helps fill this gap in the literature in the field.

Citation

Riivari, E., Lämsä, A., Kujala, J. and Heiskanen, E. (2012), "The ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 310-331. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601061211243657