Business & Management Studies: An International Journal

Yazarlar: Meryem Derya YEŞİLTAŞ, Tuğba İMADOĞLU

Konular:-

Anahtar Kelimeler:Makyavelizm,Etik Konum,Etik Konum Algısı,İşe Angaje Olma Machiavellianism Ethics Position Ethics Position Perceptions Work Engagement

Özet: INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE Today, under the influence of the changes in the world, employees are committed to working within the scope of ethical rules. Employees who are committed to their job and integrate themselves with their work show higher performance. It has been found that these employees have more motivation and effort to learn and apply what they have learned in their work than others. (Bostancı & Ekiyor, 2015). Another important point is these employees do all the tasks by exhibiting ethical behaviour as a result of achieving better, more accurate and creating positive values ​​(Gündoğdu, Ünal, & Kılınç, 2018). Individuals display ethical behaviours according to the values ​​and beliefs of the period in which they grew up. Values ​​are criteria that refer to positive or negative situations. Machiavellian values refer to negative criteria, not based on fair, beautiful, justice, honesty, equality, etc. The research was conducted to examine the public employees' ethical position perceptions of Machiavellian tendencies and work engagement behaviour. As a result of the literature review, although many studies have been done separately on Machiavellianism, engagement and ethical position, no study has been run across evaluate the relations between Machiavellianism, perception of ethical position and job engagement together. In this context, it is predicted that the findings obtained will contribute to both the literature and the practitioners. METHOD In this study, quantitative method and online questionnaire were used. The research sample consists of public employees in Turkey. The surveys were distributed via e-mail and social media tools to reach public employees in seven geographical regions, and 257 public employees participated in the survey. Convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods were used together. Although the research was done throughout Turkey, only 257 participants were reached. First, descriptive statistics were used to draw inferences about the data. Secondly, the Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed. Also, correlation and multiple linear regression analyzes were made to test the hypotheses. RESEARCH MODEL In this study, the perception of ethical position, Machiavellianism and engagement are examined from the perspectives of public employees. The three research hypotheses determined by the purpose of the study are as follows: H₁: Employees' perceptions of ethical position have a significant effect on Machiavellian characteristics. H2: Employees' perceptions of ethical position have a significant effect on their engagement. H₃: Employees' Machiavellian characteristics have a significant effect on engagement behaviour. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSIONS According to the results of the research, it has been determined that ethical position perceptions have a significant effect on Machiavelism and work engagement. It has been determined that the relativism and veracity dimensions of ethical position perception have a positive effect on Machiavelism, whereas the idealism dimension affects negatively. When the effects of ethical position perception on work engagement were examined, it was found that only the sub-dimension of idealism significantly affected, and the dimensions of relativity and veracity did not have a significant effect. H₁ hypothesis and H₃ hypothesis were accepted. H₂ hypothesis has been accepted in the dimension of idealism. The study of Güney and Mandacı (2009) supports the relationship between Machiavellian trends and perception of ethical position. Celep et al. (2004) 's findings that work ethics affect the level of commitment to work is partially supported. Besides, it was determined in the study of Gül and Erol (2016) that work commitment is a factor that positively affects professional, ethical behaviour. In this context, it can be said that these studies support the current study. They are increasing the efforts required to develop the conditions that will ensure the positive regulation of Machiavellian tendencies and engagement behaviours determined to affect the perception of ethical position. In order to increase the effort, essential duties fall on public employees, professional associations and, in a way, the society. If it is desired to create an ethical position perception, an institution with individuals who display ethical behaviour is required. It is necessary for organizations to create a working environment in line with the expectations of the employees and to develop an ethical understanding that enables them to use their time efficiently so that employees will be able to exhibit less Machiavellian characteristics. In future studies, it is thought that comparing public and private sector employees, reaching higher samples and examining hypotheses at a specific region/province will contribute to the literature. Only the formation of the public employees of the sample, with a low rate of return on the use of online survey method, the sample size constraints of Turkey's research is the basis for a study to be low in general. As another constraint of the research, it can be said that the validity and reliability of the data collected depend on the measurement feature of the applied questionnaire.

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