The Relationship between Idealism, Relativism, Machiavellianism and cultural Values with Unethical Behaviors (Case Study of a Public Sector Organization)

Cultural values and moral ideologies through the creation of a system of cognitive, moral and cultural reference for the people affect the collective and personal behavioral decisions. This effect comes into play through the creation of congruent between a special value or ideology and special behavior. In the workplace people with a desire to one or more cultural value or moral ideology, may behave unethically. This study was conducted with the aimed to investigate the role of moral ideologies (idealism, relativism and Machiavellianism) and cultural values (materialism and power distance) on unethical behavior, after controlling for occupational stress and burnout. The research statistical population was employees of a chemicals manufacturing industry, of which 287 persons were selected by convenience sampling. Research instruments were idealism, relativism, materialism, power distance, Machiavellianism, job stress, burnout and unethical behaviors questionnaires respectively. Data were analyzed with the use of Pearson’s correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression analysis. The results showed that after controlling for occupational stress, idealism and power distance (22.3% of variance) are able to predict unethical behavior. But when it was controlled burnout, idealization, materialism and power distance (20.7% of variance) were predicted unethical behavior.