Introduction: Ethical culture stands out as an important variable in comprehending ethical norms and ethical behaviour at work. The Corporate Ethical Virtues (CEV) Scale is a widely used measure of ethical culture in organisations. This study aimed to adapt and validate the CEV Scale to a Brazilian context. Method: In Study 1 (n = 1.219), the CEV Scale was translated and adapted, the reliability and the internal structure were tested and the discriminant validity of ethical climate measures was demonstrated. In Study 2 (n = 635), measurement invariance in two groups was demonstrated, and there was evidence of validity based on the relationships with related constructs. Results: The results indicated that the Brazilian version of the CEV Scale showed reasonable psychometric properties and provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Conclusion: This measure can be used by managers and consultants to diagnose ethical organisational culture.

Keywords:
Ethical organisational culture, corporate ethical virtues, scale validation, confirmatory factor analysis, factorial invariance

03_RLP_54_22003_Adaptation

Almeida, J. G., & Porto, J. B. (2019). Ethical Climate Index: Evidence of validity of the Brazilian version. RAM. Revista de Administração Mackenzie, 20(3), 2-28. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-6971/eramg190030

Arnaud, A. (2010). Conceptualizing and Measuring Ethical Work Climate: Development and Validation of the Ethical Climate Index. Business & Society, 49(2), 345-358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650310362865

Ashkanasy, N. M., Wilderom, C. P. M., & Peterson, M. F. (2011). The handbook of organizational culture and climate (2nd ed.). SAGE.

Cabana, G. C., & Kaptein, M. (2019). Team Ethical Cultures Within an Organization: A differentiation perspective on their existence and relevance. Journal of Business Ethics. 170, 761–780 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04376-5

Chan, D. (1998). Functional relations among constructs in the same content domain at different levels of analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(2), 234-246. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.2.234

Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14, 464-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834

Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9(2), 233-255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5

DeBode, J. D., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., & Walker, A. G. (2013). Assessing ethical organizational culture: Refinement of a scale. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 49(4), 460–484. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886313500987

Denison, D. (1996). What is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native’s point of view on a decade of paradigm wars. The Academy of Management Review, 21(3), 619-654. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1996.9702100310

De Cremer, D., & Moore, C. (2020). Toward a better understanding of behavioral ethics in the workplace. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 7, 369-393. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015151

Huhtala, M., Kangas, M., Kaptein, M., & Feldt, T. (2018). The shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues scale: Measurement invariance and mean differences across two occupational groups. Business Ethics: A European Review, 27(3), 238-247. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12184

Huhtala, M., Kangas, M., Lämsä, A.-M., & Feldt, T. (2013). Ethical managers in ethical organisations? The leadership-culture connection among Finnish managers. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 34(3), 250-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731311326684

Huhtala, M., Kaptein, M., & Feldt, T. (2016). How perceived changes in the ethical culture of organizations influence the well-being of managers: A two-year longitudinal study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(3), 335-352. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2015.1068761

International Test Comission. (2018). ITC Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (2nd ed.). International Journal of Testing, 18(2), 101-134. https://doi.org/10.1080/15305058.2017.1398166

Kangas, M., Feldt, T., Huhtala, M., & Rantanen, J. (2014). The Corporate Ethical Virtues Scale: Factorial invariance across organizational samples. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(1), 161-171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1851-7

Kangas, M., Kaptein, M., Huhtala, M., Lämsä, A. M., Pihlajasaari, P., & Feldt, T. (2018). Why do managers leave their organization? Investigating the role of ethical organizational culture in managerial turnover. Journal of Business Ethics, 153, 707-723. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3363-8

Kaptein, M. (2008). Developing and testing a measure for the ethical culture of organizations: the corporate ethical virtues model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 923-947. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.520

Kaptein, M. (2011). Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture. Human Relations, 64(6), 843-869. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726710390536

Karlsson, P., Aguirre, D., & Rivera, K. (2017). Are CEOs less ethical than in the past? Why more chief executives are losing their jobs after scandals and corporate misconduct. Strategy+business magazine. https://www.pwc.com/ee/et/publications/pub/sb87_17208_Are_CEOs_Less_Ethical_Than_in_the_Past.pdf

Klein, K. J., & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2000). Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations: Foundations, extensions, and new directions. Jossey-Bass.

Lloret, S., Ferreres, A., Hernández, A., & Tomás, I. (2017). El análisis factorial exploratorio de los ítems: análisis guiado según los datos empíricos y el software. Anales de Psicología, 33(2), 417-432. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.33.2.270211

MacLean, T. L., Litzky, B. E., & Holderness, D. K. (2015). When organizations don’t walk their talk: A cross-level examination of how decoupling formal ethics programs affects organizational members. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2), 351-368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2103-1

Mayer, D. M. (2014). A review of the literature on ethical climate and culture. In B. Schneider & K. M. Barbera (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organizational climate and culture (pp. 415-440). Oxford University Press.

Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). MPlus: Statistical analysis with latent variables. User’s guide. Muthen and Muthen (7th ed.).

Novelskaite, A., & Pucetaite, R. (2014). Validation of data collection instrument for measurement of ethical organizational culture in Lithuanian organizations. Economics and Management, 19(3), 290-299. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.19.3.8357

OECD (2018). Behavioural insights for public integrity: Harnessing the human factor to counter corruption. OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264297067-en

Ribeiro, P. E. C. D., Porto, J. B., Puente-Palacios, K., & Resende, M. M. (2016). Ethical climate within organizations: Validity evidence of a measure’s scale. Temas Em Psicologia, 24(2), 415-425. https://doi.org/10.9788/TP2016.2-02

Russell, T. L., Sparks, T. E., Campbell, J. P., Handy, K., Ramsberger, P., & Grand, J. A. (2017). Situating ethical behavior in the nomological network of job performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(3), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9454-9

Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013). Organizational climate and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 361-388. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143809

Tomás, I., Marsh, H. W., González-Romá, V., Valls, V., & Nagengast, B. (2014). Testing measurement invariance across Spanish and English versions of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire: An application of exploratory structural equation modeling. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 36(2), 179-188. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2013-0070

Toro-Arias, J., Ruiz-Palomino, P., & Rodríguez-Córdoba, M. P. (2022). Measuring ethical organizational culture: Validation of the Spanish version of the shortened Corporate Ethical Virtues model. Journal of Business Ethics, 176, 551-574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04687-y

Transparency International (2021). Corruption Perceptions Index 2020. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/nzl

Treviño, L. K. (1990). A cultural perspective on changing and developing organizational ethics. In R. Woodman & W. Passmore (Eds.), Research in organizational change and development (pp. 195-230). JAI Press.

Treviño, L. K., den Nieuwenboer, N. A., & Kish-Gephart, J. J. (2014). (Un)Ethical behavior in organizations. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 635-660. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143745

Treviño, L. K., & Weaver, G. R. (2001). Organizational justice and ethics program ‘follow-through’: Influences on employees’ harmful and helpful behavior. Business Ethics Quarterly, 11(4), 651-671. https://doi.org/10.2307/3857765

Umphress, E. E., Bingham, J. B., & Mitchell, M. S. (2010). Unethical behavior in the name of the company: The moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(4), 769-780. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019214

Victor, B., & Cullen, J. B. (1988). The organizational bases of ethical work climates. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33(1), 101-125. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392857