The Study Of Ethical Influence Of Small And Medium-sized Enterprises'(SMEs) Operators On Basis Of Person-organization Ethical Fit

In pace of increasingly fierce market competition, how to be the final winner and retain the competitive edge has become the most urgent problem currently to a vast number of Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In essence, the market economy is a kind of ethical economy. Countless successful cases of Chinese and foreign enterprises tell us, generally most excellent companies have tremendous ethical power inside, which is the ultimate source of core competitiveness and competitive advantages pushing them forward. To the SMEs that are new blood of reform and open policy, business ethics construction is exactly the necessary way for their managing improvement internally and strengthening themselves. And of all the factors that push business ethics construction forward, enterprise operator no doubt acts as the crucial factor.Based on preliminary analysis on current situation of SMEs' ethics construction and the role that enterprise operators played, and referring to literatures in the fields of psychology, management and ethics, we put forward the concept of "ethical influence", and conducted a series of studies on its source and mechanism.In the first study, we interviewed 70 staff of different levels from 17 representative SMEs, through which we made deep exploratory works on current situation of enterprises'ethical practice, and contents of business ethics and moral operators. Results showed that, enterprise operators played a leading role in promotion of ethical system and cultivation of ethical culture. As ethical representation of enterprises when dealing with all kinds of relationships in and outside the organizations, business ethics involved the relationships between enterprises and employees, enterprises and consumers, enterprises and their competitors, enterprises and government & public, enterprises and financial institutions, as well as enterprises and natural environment, which further contained 14 specific aspects. As a moral operator, one should possess four characteristics: good decision-making ideas, employee orientation, ethical charisma and explicit ethical behaviors.In the second study, the organizational ethical climate model of SMEs was constructed and tested. Firstly, based on the ethical climate index (ECI; Arnaud et al., 2004), combined with the depth interview data, questionnaires of organizational ethical climate and organizational performance of SMEs were developed through steps of translation, pre-testing, item analysis and revising. Then, we tested them with a formal sample of 785 employees (of different levels) from 84 representative SMEs across industries and regions. Results revealed that, SME's organizational ethical climate had 5 dimensions (collective moral awareness, focus on others, focus on self, collective moral motivation, and collective moral character), and organizational performance had 3 dimensions (ordinary satisfaction, ethical satisfaction, general performance), each of which had satisfactory reliability and validity; there were some differences among different types, size, property and age of enterprises, whereas generally no significant difference at individual levels; each dimension of ethical climate had significant effect on ordinary satisfaction, ethical satisfaction and general performance, all of which were positive except the dimension of focus on self.In the third study, a word list of ethical influence of SMEs' operators was developed on the basis of interview results about moral operators and by using the method of characteristic list, and then was tested with a sample of 200 employees from different SMEs of different industries. Results indicated that, the ethical influence word list was one-dimensional, and the structure of which had good explanatory power and internal consistency; ethical influence had positive aspects as well as negative aspects; its content involved decision-making ideas, employee orientation, ethical charisma, ethical behaviors, and so on.In the fourth study, the influences that moral traits of SMEs'operators had on their ethical influence and organizational performance were analyzed. We conducted a survey with questionnaire on 306 operators and 2985 employees of different levels in 306 SMEs of different regions and industries. Results showed that, after controlling operators'individual variables and organizational characteristic variables, only prevention focus had significant but negative effect on ethical influence, whereas other moral traits' effects were all insignificant; meanwhile, moral traits had different degree of effects on different dimensions of organizational performance, especially the greatest effect on ethical satisfaction.In the fifth study, the concept of "person-organization ethical fit" was put forward and investigated. Firstly, "person-organization ethical fit" was operationally defined. Then by using method of objective measures,5 dimensions of ethical fit were proposed, they were fit between moral attentiveness and collective moral awareness, fit between promotion focus and focus on others, fit between prevention focus and focus on self, fit between moral identity and collective moral motivation, and fit between self control and collective moral character. Possible differences on these dimensions at organizational and individual levels were further explored, incorporates of which were revealed by multiple comparison analysis. Finally, ethical fit's influence on organizational performance was analyzed. Results indicated that, after having controlled for individual and organizational characteristic variables, 5 dimensions of ethical fit predicted 3 dimensions of organizational performance to different degree, especially ethical satisfaction was predicted the best.In the sixth study, the moderating effects that person-organization ethical fit had between moral traits of SMEs' operators and their ethical influence as well as organizational performance were analyzed. Results showed that, ethical fit had significant moderating effects on moral attentiveness, moral identity and self-control's influences on ethical influence and organizational performance (ordinary satisfaction, ethical satisfaction, general performance). On that basis, these moderating effects of ethical fit were further compared across SMEs' types and stages of development. Results revealed that, there were such differences between high-ethical-risk and low-ethical-risk enterprises; meanwhile, there was in most situations no difference between mature and developing enterprises, and under some significant situation, the moderating effects only exited in mature enterprises.In the last part, the main conclusions were summarized; the theoretical contribution and practical implications were discussed, as well as the limitations and directions for future research. On that basis, a preliminary framework of leaders' ethical influence theory based on person-organization ethical fit was put forward.