A model for improving the relationship between integrity and work performance
International Journal of Ethics and Systems
ISSN: 2514-9369
Article publication date: 29 September 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Senior executives and leaders of public sector institutions (PSIs) are responsible for the development, preservation or restoration of employee integrity (EI). This conceptual paper aims to address the direct impact of EI on work performance (WP). It also explores the interceding effects of job satisfaction (JS) and employee organisational identification (OI) and the context-conditional impact of purposeful leadership (PL).
Design/methodology/approach
This research builds a research framework coupled with suppositions by integrating literature from both theoretical and empirical works in the fields of integrity management, human resource management, performance management and leadership using a systematic literature review approach. Firstly, the authors explicitly express the authors’ list of goals through replicable design. Secondly, the authors find all research papers that would satisfy the requirements for inclusion. Thirdly, the authors evaluate the truthfulness of the results from the incorporated research, and, finally, the authors offer a summary and synthesis of the features and outcomes of the incorporated research.
Findings
This study finds that EI will be favourably linked to WP, and this encouraging connection will be favourably interceded by JS and OI, both independently and together. Also, PL will favourably moderate the EI–JS connection as well as the EI–OI linkage.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a novel framework for specialists and academics in four multidisciplinary fields for improving the EI and WP of employees using JS and OI as strategic devices. It also considers the conditional influence of PL, which has been underexploited in the academic sphere. Thus, this research sets the stage for forthcoming academics to investigate this research framework empirically in diverse PSIs worldwide.
Practical implications
To guarantee that PSIs draw, grow and preserve workers who symbolise the beliefs of the institution, their leadership must uphold a “values-grounded approach” to all facets of its human resource practises – comprising recruitment, performance appraisals, training, leadership development platforms and promotions.
Social implications
This study reveals the importance of improving integrity in PSIs and the diverse mechanisms through which EI translates into WP. It also highlights the possible benefits that purposeful leaders can offer as well as the problems that they can potentially help mitigate.
Originality/value
This research adds to the sparse literature on the construct of PL within PSIs’ settings and offers a new conceptual model for boosting employee WP through the facilitating roles of JS and OI, both separately and together.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the efforts of the Editor (Dr Jacob Rendtorff) and all the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and feedback, which altogether has helped to improve the quality and quantity of this manuscript.
Citation
Konadu, K., Opoku Mensah, A., Koomson, S., Abraham, E.M., Amuzu, J. and Agyapong, J.-A.M. (2023), "A model for improving the relationship between integrity and work performance", International Journal of Ethics and Systems, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOES-01-2023-0017
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited