Work ethics perceptions of Pakistani employees: Is work experience a factor in ethical maturity

Globalization has placed modern organizations in tremendous competition locally and regionally across borders; thus, the ultimate goal of every organization is the same which is profitable survival. In order to make sure that this profitable survival goal does not come at the cost of harming others, guiding principles are needed to bring goodness and fairness for the stakeholders' interests. This paves the way for designing, implementing and adopting ethical principles in the organization to keep competition fair and just. This study has been carried out in three big cities (Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad) of Pakistan to identify and assess the relationship of workplace ethics with age, qualification, management experience, government work experience and on-the-job ethics training. Collected data from 380 male and female Pakistani respondents were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical measures. The results indicate that there is a significant relationship between ethical maturity of employees and such demographic variables as age, qualification, on-the-job ethics training, having had an ethics course, and years of management experience. However, government work experience did not demonstrate any significant results with ethical maturity. Implications and suggestions for management development and training are provided.