Do ethical work climates influence supplier selection decisions in public organizations? The moderating roles of party politics and personal values

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethical work climates (EWCs) and supplier selection decisions (SSDs), and the moderating roles of party politics and personal values on this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach – A total of 600 senior-level personnel from 40 Nigerian public organizations were surveyed using structured questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses developed for the study after assessing construct reliability and validity.

Findings – Results show that both high and low levels of external political pressures significantly reduce the perception that organizational SSDs are ruled based and pro-social in nature. Furthermore, regardless of the level of perception of instrumental personal values by employees, instrumental ethical climates significantly determine SSDs; principled/cosmopolitan climate and benevolent/cosmopolitan climate only become significant perceptible determinants when there is less room for the accommodation of personal goals during SSD processes.

Research limitations/implications – This study only examined the relationship between ethical climate
perceptions and SSDs without controlling for the effects of some important possible intervening variables on this relationship. Therefore, the study encouraged future researcher to enhance the generalizability of the findings by incorporate relevant control variables in the model, as well as examining other decision phases in the public buying process.

Originality/value – This study is original to the extent that only a few studies in the literature are devoted to perceptions of EWCs in African organizations, and no previous studies have examined this phenomenon in relation to SSDs in Nigerian public firms.