Employee Work Ethics and Organization Performance: Reviewing the Relationship in the Kenyan Insurance Industry
Keywords:
Employee Work Ethics, Ethical Values, Organization Performance, Insurance SectorAbstract
Faced with a highly competitive and highly volatile operating atmosphere, insurance companies are forced to seek means and ways to acquire and maintain a competitive advantage. This study considers the ethical values of employees as the important area of interest for insurance managers who are performance oriented. The researcher planned to establish how employees cope with the dynamics of the contemporary customer. More particularly, the study looked at how ethical practices affect employee and the insurance company performance. The study investigated ethical values, ethical guidance and ethical reporting as the major constructs for employee work ethics within the insurance sector in Kenya. The researcher used the employee risk triangle, social exchange and expectancy theories as the basis upon which the study model was founded. The researcher considered the insurance industry as the unit of analysis. The target population was established as the insurance companies and insurance intermediaries operating in the republic of Kenya at the time of the study. Study targeted all the 62 insurance companies in Kenya realizing 65% response rate with primary data being collected using a structured questionnaire in these companies. All the three employee work ethics constructs of ethical values, ethical guidance and ethical reporting were observed to affect the performance of insurance companies in Kenya. The study confirms that employee work ethics affects the performance of insurance companies, and therefore, employee work ethics should be an area of focus for the modern insurance companies, highlighting the value of work ethics in improving job performance, hence contributes to the literature and theoretical models related to ethics in the modern organization.
Keywords: Employee Work Ethics, Ethical Values, Organization Performance, Insurance Sector
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