The Effect of Ethics on the Professional and Organizational Commitment of Accountants (A Case Study: The Universities of Medical Sciences)

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of ethics on professional and organizational commitment of accountants. For this purpose, the effect of some factors such as ethical climate and ethical culture of the organization on the affective organizational commitment and the organizational-professional conflict is investigated. Besides, the effect of Machiavellism on the affective organizational commitment, and the relationship between the affective organizational commitment and the organizational-professional conflict are also examined. This research is applied in terms of purpose, and regarding the method, it is a descriptive survey, and considering the time criteria, it is cross-sectional. The statistical population of this research include the accounting experts of the Universities of Medical Sciences of Iran who have participated in the new financial system plan of the Universities of Medical Sciences. The volume of the used population is 150 individuals. This research has been done in the year 2012, and in order to test the hypotheses, the regression model and Pearson correlation coefficient have been employed by using SPSS Software Version 18. The results of the research state that the effect of some aspects of ethical climate on the affective organizational commitment and the organizational-professional conflict, and also, the effect of ethical culture of the organization on the organizational-professional conflict are significant. Moreover, the results indicate that Machiavellism has a negative and significant effect on the affective organizational commitment. Investigating the relationship between the affective organizational commitment and the organizational-professional conflict also suggest the negative and significant relationship between these two variables. The obtained evidence in this research represent the effect of ethics on the organizational and professional commitment of accountants. As a result, it is important to contemplate some policies for improving the ethical environment of the organization.