The effects of ethical climate(s) on workers’ positive and negative outcome The mediating role of identification and trust

A wide body of literature showed the pivotal role of organizational identification (OI) in understanding organizational processes and individuals’ quality of life in the workplace. The workers’ sense of belongingness is closely related to building processes of moral values, including the perception of trust toward other people and the organization itself. Recent evidence has introduced the perceived ethical climate as an antecedent of OI and perception of trust, beyond its impact on workers’ attitudes, behaviors, and well-being. Concerning this background, we examined the relationship between two specific ethical climates (self-interest vs. friendship) and workers’ well-being, incorporating the interplay between OI and trust as a core underlying mechanism driving these relationships. Two hundred and ninety employees filled out questionnaires to examine perceived ethical climate, OI, trust, and a series of measures concerning satisfaction and work tension derived from their work experience, understood as proxies of workers’ psychological well-being. Structural equation modeling confirmed that a perception of an ethical climate of friendship fostered OI and trust, which elicited higher satisfaction. An opposite pattern resulted when workers perceived a climate of self-interest. Due to unsatisfactory indices, we necessarily removed work tension from the final model despite the associations confirming our intentions. Findings suggest that HR practices should carefully consider employee perceptions of a collectivistic (vs. individualistic) ethical climate as key determinants of positive organizational outcomes. We discuss results considering the social identity approach and present practical implications for HR management