Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Ethical climate is one of the most important variables that may affect Job
satisfaction. The way in which nurses view their organization’s ethical climate has a direct
effect on their job satisfaction. Therefore, if employees perceive a favorable Ethical Climate,
they are likely to have a higher level of Job Satisfaction. However; there is no study done
on the relationship between hospital ethical climates and nurses’ job satisfaction in
Ethiopia.
OBJECTIVES: To assess the relationship between hospital ethical climates and nurses job
satisfaction in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, south west Ethiopia, 2016.
METHODS: Institutional based cross - sectional study was conducted on 266 nurses in
Jimma University Specialized Hospital from March to April 2016. The study participants
were selected by using simple random sampling method. Data was collected using self
administered questionnaires, and was entered into Epidata 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS
Version 20.0. Independent t-test and one way ANOVA were used to compare means of
different groups. Pearson’s correlation was used to assess the correlation between each
dimension of hospital ethical climate and job satisfaction of nurses. Variables significant at
bivariate analysis (P< 0.25) were considered as a candidate for the multivariable linear
regression analysis. All analyses were conducted at the 0.05 significance level.
RESULTS: The percentage mean score for ethical climate and job satisfaction were53.4 %
and 51.3% respectively. Law and code climate significantly influenced job satisfaction (β =
1.53, p = 0.000). Caring climate also significantly influenced nurses job satisfaction (β =
0.99, p = 0.000). The result also showed that an independence climate significantly
influenced job satisfaction (β = 0.62, p = 0.041). On the other hand, rule climate and
instrumental climate did not significantly affect job satisfaction (β = 0.380, p = 0.409 and β
= - 0.208, p = 0.290 respectively).The adjusted R square was 0.601, indicating that 60.1%
of the variations in job satisfactions was explained by ethical climate variables.
CONCLUSION: The different dimensions of ethical climates existing in the hospital have a
negative or positive impact on nurses’ job satisfaction and maintaining a positive ethical
climate is a key to increasing nurses’ job satisfaction.
