The purpose of the study is to provide basic materials to find out a way to improve the organizational commitment of the employees of social welfare organizations. In order to investigate the factors that have effects on the organizational commitment of the employees of a social welfare organization, the ethical management, organizational image and social desirability that the employees were aware of were analyzed.
Both a literature study and a positive study were implemented simultaneously to attain the purpose of the study. In the positive study, a structured self-entered questionnaire was used for the employees who had participated in 'Promoting Business for Leading Organization of Social Welfare and Ethical Management' from 2007 to 2009. 270 effective questionnaires out of 314 ones that answered the items were analyzed and the items were composed of five scales.
The items were analyzed through a coding process by SPSS 20.0 program and AMOS 20 statistical program to prove the correlation among variables. At first, an identifiable factor analysis for the model was implemented to obtain the reliability and validity of the survey instruments and t-test and ANOVA were implemented to investigate the difference between each variable according to the general characteristics of the subjects.
Next, Pearson's correlation analysis was implemented to identify the correlation among factors of each variable and multiple regression analysis was implemented to see the influential force that ethical management factors have on the dependable variables. Finally, the influential force and the intermediary effect among variables were verified using a structural equation.
The result of the study is summarized as follows.
First, organization members were perceiving that the group who had some other education except ethical management had a better organizational image than the other groups who didn't and the more they had the ethical management education, the better they had the organizational image. However, the level of perceiving ethical management was not different in the factors such as age, working periods, worker's position, organization's established period and employee's working area. In addition, the higher the members' positions were, the stronger social desirability they had and the strength of social desirability was perceived in the order of under 10 years, under 20-30 years, over 30 years and under 10-20 years by the established period of the organizations.
Also the groups who were working in small and medium-sized cities were aware of more strong social desirability than the groups who were working in big cities but there was no difference in the factors of gender, age, working period, whether having the other education other than ethical management or not and whether having education related to ethical management or not. Furthermore, men had stronger organizational commitment compared with women and the older they were and the higher position they had, the higher level of organizational commitment they showed.
Second, ethical management showed a positive effect both on organizational image(ß=.805, p=.000) at p<.001 and social desirability(ß=.384, p=.000) at p<.001. Therefore, it was analyzed that as the ethical management of a social welfare organization was implemented better, the employees perceived the better organizational image and the stronger social desirability.
Third, according to the result that analyzed the effects ethical management has on organizational image, in the model where a general characteristic was put, the education associated with ethical management(ß=.203, p=.001) showed a positive effect at p<.001 and gender(ß=.171, p=.005) and whether implementing other programs other than ethical management or not(ß=.127, p=.036) also showed a significantly positive effect on organizational image at p<.01 and p<.05 respectively.
As a result, when the organizations implemented training associated with ethical management more and organizations practiced other programs other than the ethical management, the organizational image improved more.
Also men compared with women had a more positive effect on the organizational image. Whereas, in the model into which the ethical management factors was put, it was analyzed that as respecting users' rights(ß=.254, p=.000), establishing ethical infrastructure(ß=.236, p=.000), evaluating and improving ethical management(ß=.113, p=.050) among other ethical management factors were well practiced, the organizational image also more improved.
Fourth, in the effect ethical management has on social desirability, there were no statistically significant variables in the model where a general characteristic was put. In contrast, as the evaluation and improvement on ethical management(ß=.173, p=.029) were practiced better, social desirability showed to enhance more.
Fifth, with regard to the effect ethical management has on organizational commitment, in the model where a general characteristic was put, gender(ß=.191, p=.002) and whether implementing other programs other than ethical management or not(ß=.134, p=.025) showed a significantly positive effect on organizational commitment at p<.01 and p<.05 respectively and men compared with women revealed a positive effect on organizational commitment. In addition, when an organization implemented other programs other than ethical management one, there were more positive effect on organizational commitment. On the other hand, in the model in which ethical management factors were put, respecting users' rights(ß=.197, p=.012) and evaluating and improving ethical management(ß=.147, p=.030) among low-rank variables of ethical management revealed a significantly positive effect on management commitment at p<.05. Thus it is analyzed that as respecting users' rights and evaluating and improving ethical management were well practiced, organizational commitment appeared to become stronger.
Sixth, though there was no direct effect in the process where ethical management leads to organizational commitment as shown by the total effect(ß=.595), but the indirect effect(ß=.510, z=8.218, p=.000) that leads to organizational commitment through organizational image as an intermediary variable in ethical management showed a positive effect at p<.001. Therefore, it is analyzed that organizational image had a full intermediary effect on the relationship between the ethical management of a social welfare organization and the organizational commitment.
Seventh. the hypothesis 7 that social desirability will mediate the effective relationship between ethical management and organizational commitment was supported. The total effect was ß=.085 in the process where ethical management leads to organizational commitment so there was also no direct effect but the indirect effect(ß=.085, z=3.232, p=.001) which leads to organizational commitment through social desirability as an intermediary variable in ethical management revealed a positive effect at p<.001, thereby social desirability had a full intermediary effect on the relationship between the ethical management of a social welfare organization and organizational commitment.
The implication based on the result of the study can be summarized as follows.
First, educating ethical management is able to control a nonethical action and implementing ethical management is an important element to form organizational image. Therefore, ethical management should be established in order to upgrade the organizational image of a social welfare organization. The organizational image formed by this process could naturally lead to employees' organizational commitment.
Second, implementing the education and programs related to ethical management, respecting users' rights, setting up ethical infrastructure and evaluating and improving ethical management among other elements were variables that could improve organizational image.
So it can be suggested that to achieve a successful ethical management, more systematic management is needed for the ethical management variables that have effects on each organization member's job attitude such as implementation of ethical management education and related programs, the respect for users' rights, the establishment of ethical infrastructure, and the evaluation and improvement of ethical management.
Third, it was shown that as the implementation of the programs other than the ethical management education, the respect for users' rights and the evaluation and improvement of ethical management were more well practiced, organizational commitment was more strengthened.
Consequently, it is necessary for an organization concerned to establish and manage a system to support ethical management in which a fair and systematic evaluation instrument and a process can be established.
The limitations and implications of the study are as follows. Firstly, because the independent variable of the study, the degree of practicing ethical management, is the level in which each member of a community welfare center is perceiving, there are limitations that there exists a subjective individual difference among members.
Secondly, this study was only implemented for the community welfare centers that participated in 'Promoting Business for Leading Organization of Social Welfare and Ethical Management', so there are also limitations that it was impossible to compare the centers with other community welfare centers that did not attend the project in this study.
Thirdly, the study investigated the influential relationship through a cross-sectional analysis where the ethical management that each members of social welfare organizations was aware of influenced on the organizational commitment of the organization members through the intermediary variables of organizational image and social desirability.
But it would also be necessary to search for whether ethical management has effects on each member's organizational commitment or not by a longitudinal research in which it can be possible to examine the process where the ethical management of a social welfare organization is implemented and established by way of a demonstrative project. Finally, it would be recommended that a research where the low-rank variables of ethical management can be set up as a manual form should be continued for more social welfare organizations to introduce and practice the ethical management programs in their organizations.