ETHICAL CLIMATE AND PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENT IN AN ASIAN ACCOUNTING FIRM

This study examines the impact of organizational ethical climate and affective professional commitment on public accountants’ organizational-professional conflict and organizational commitment. We surveyed all professional employees in the Singapore office of an international accounting firm. The findings indicate that employee perceptions of the ethical climate in their organization have a significant impact on organizational-professional conflict, affective organizational commitment, and normative organizational commitment. In addition, we found some interesting interactive effects of ethical climate and affective professional commitment. Professionally committed employees reported lower levels of conflict and higher levels of organizational commitment when they felt the firm placed more emphasis on serving the public interest. These effects were not present for employees with lower levels of professional commitment. Regardless of their level of professional commitment, employees experienced increased organizational-professional conflict and decreased organizational commitment when they felt the firm placed greater emphasis on the pursuit of self-interest and firm profitability. We also found that taxation specialists perceived the least emphasis in the organization on serving the public interest.