https://doi.org/10.37955/cs.v6i3.2800

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eISSN: 2600-5743

Ethics, culture and organizational

climate as integral factors in SMEs

Ética, cultura y clima organizacional como factores

integrales en las PyMES

Héctor Enrique Hernández Altamirano

Universidad del Zulia, Manta, Ecuador

hhernandez@uta.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4692-5503

Luis Fabricio Lascano Pérez

Universidad del Zulia, Manta, Ecuador

lf.lascano@uta.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6364-6878

César Maximiliano Calvache Vargas

Universidad del Zulia, Manta, Ecuador

cm.calvache@uta.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7657-5191

ABSTRACT

Ecuadorian SMEs are a factor that contribute greatly to the

generation of wealth as well as employment, influencing the country's

economy, which translates into an impact on economic growth,

which shows the need for them to respond to the challenges posed in

the national and international contexts with innovative proposals

that allow them to develop competitive advantages. It should be

noted that most of these companies are small companies and belong

to the wholesale and retail trade sector; therefore, they are only

directed to the domestic market (national), so the business model is

focused on the ethics, culture and organizational climate that prevail

in these companies. Therefore, a descriptive research and non-

experimental design was carried out with the application of a

questionnaire that allows to know relevant data on ethics, culture and

climate within these organizations. The findings indicate that the

Centro Sur Vol. 7 No. 1- January - March – Revista Centro Sur - eISSN: 2600-5743

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efforts made by the management of SMEs identify a set of standards

and moral obligations that contribute to strengthen the profession by

promoting an ethical professional practice.

RESUMEN

Las PYMES ecuatorianas son un factor que contribuyen de gran

manera a la generación de riqueza al igual que el empleo, incidiendo

en la economía del país, lo que se traduce en un impacto en el

crecimiento económico, lo que evidencia la necesidad de que

respondan a los desafíos que se plantean en los contextos nacional e

internacional con propuestas innovadoras, que les permitan desarrollar

ventajas competitivas. Cabe destacar que la mayor proporción de estas

empresas son pequeñas empresas y pertenecen al sector comercio al por

mayor y menor; por lo que solo se direccionan al mercado doméstico

(nacional) por lo que el modelo de negocio se centra en la ética,

cultura y clima organizacional que en estas predominan. De allí que

se realizó una investigación de tipo descriptiva y diseño no

experimental con la aplicación de un cuestionario que permite

conocer datos relevantes sobe ética, cultura y el clima dentro de estas

organizaciones. Los hallazgos señalan que los esfuerzos realizados

por la Gerencia en las Pymes se logra identificar un conjunto de

normas y obligaciones morales que aportan en fortalecer la profesión

promoviendo un ejercicio profesional ético.

Keywords / Palabras clave

Ethics, Culture, Organizational Climate, Values, Morale

Ética, Cultura, Clima Organizacional, Valores, Moral

Introduction

The adoption of the organizational culture of an SME is related to the

various facets that the organization has, among which the

entrepreneurial fact within a competitive context at the level of

productivity and profitability that is reflected in these relationships

stands out. To this effect, it is convenient to begin by mentioning the

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global dynamics of society, as well as its impact on organizational

culture, which together with the constant innovations make

organizations in both the public and private sectors focus on the need

to be oriented towards technological changes and other areas.

For its analysis it is important to mention that etymologically ethics

comes from the Greek ethíkos which comes from ethos to mean habit

custom; from the Greek ethiké relating to customs, hence it is the

science that studies the values and ideal principles of human conduct,

while for Aristotle it is a science that deals with the nature and object

of human action (Torres, 2014).

"The word "ethics" comes from the Greek ethos which means,

customs or practices that are approved by a specific group, which we

call culture. Ethics is the science of morality. It seeks to determine

values and establish norms to regulate the behavior of human beings in

a society. That is why it is called a normative science, in contrast to

the more descriptive sciences, such as mathematics, biology and

physics." (Giles, 2004)

Taking into account the aforementioned concepts, ethics could be

defined as the impulse that a person possesses to seek and carry out

the good, so that all actions to be carried out must be subject to good

conduct.

Culture has always been analyzed by anthropologists and sociologists

as part of a sociocultural system, but in recent years it has taken on

other characteristics when related to the business side, where

different symbolic elements are shown.

From this premise, small organizations are perceived in small

societies, which take on different cultural traits and, in turn, assume

values within the sociocultural context.

"Culture, in such a sense, is a learned product of group experience,

and therefore something locatable only where there is a definable

group possessing a meaningful history." (Schein, 1988)

It can be mentioned then that, as a fruit or result of the interaction

between people, is the organizational culture, which implicitly creates

their beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, to face and solve survival and

development problems.

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It is important to make a direct link with management as a discipline,

since it allows the analysis of organizational culture with the purpose

of generating organizational models.

Culture is created by people capable of influencing others in such a

way that leadership can be mentioned as a driving force for the

creation and conduction of skills to generate business dynamism, as

well as in social units.

The organizational culture model helps in terms of the learning that

managers adjust according to their decisions with the purpose of

improving their results, allowing an evolution according to the

philosophy of the leaders together with the active members of the

organizations.

Every time you adopt attitudes about a type of organization, it is

intended to captivate and cultivate in people's beliefs for certain

concepts of products making them attractive to their philosophy,

promoting long-term results in companies in other words allows a

loyalty of its customers.

Materials and Methods

"The morality really practiced by men is then only considered as a

collection of habits, of prejudices that have no value unless they

conform to the doctrine; and as this doctrine is derived from a

principle that has not been deduced from the observation of moral

facts, but has been taken from foreign sciences, it is inevitable that,

on more than one point, it contradicts the existing moral order"

(Catoggio, 2004).

"Culture has fundamentally three attributes: it is something that is

shared by all members of a social group; it is something that the most

permanent members of a group try to pass on or transfer to newer

members; and it consists of something that shapes behavior,

structures the individual's perception of the world and influences the

way a person responds to his or her environment. Taking into

account that culture influences values, attitudes and behavior, and

the latter shapes culture." (Soto & Cardenas, 2007)

"Productivity can also be defined as the relationship between results

and the time it takes to achieve them. Time is often a good

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denominator, since it is a universal measure and beyond human

control. The shorter the time it takes to achieve the desired result, the

more productive the system is." (Prokopenko, 1989)

It is known that morality is present in society and that it is part of

ethics. Companies must be prepared and aware of these issues,

especially if they are reflected in society and the environment.

It is complex because for us as people we know what is right and

wrong in society, in a business way organizations could be considered

that they are not, since they focus on the economic part, on internal

decision making, while the effect it can have on society is not

considered.

Results

Values possess an internal strength as a desirable ideal, or as what

most people need to incorporate into their lives, not as an aspiration

but as part of their lives. Hence, it could manifest itself as the essence

of human behavior in a society, which is unwavering and above all

must be fair.

Therefore, we could mention as virtues and to cite as an example two

very important virtues of a fair man, justice, and of a loyal one,

loyalty, these virtues are the ones that many evaluate for any type of

work, management, or simply for "friendship".

"Value is a good estimated by the subject, but not only by him, but

also by others. Values are taken from life and collective experience.

Norms can be there, without losing their character of principle or

imperative, even if they are not recognized. It would not make sense

to call a good a value if it is not recognized and esteemed as such. To

have values, to discover values, is to speak of something vital, which

moves one to live, not of something abstract, far from life, however

interesting it may be." (Yarce, 2001)

Values are expressed in different forms: social, religious, economic,

human, intellectual, spiritual among others, so some are subjective

such as aesthetic and others are more objective such as economic. All

these types of values can become virtues, which is precisely why

virtues can be said to be the complementary part of values.

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"Virtue is the operative embodiment of courage. Virtue comes from

the Latin "vis" which means strength or power and from the Greek

"areté" which means: perfection, strength, value, service, excellence."

(Yarce, 2001)

So virtues could become habits with the purpose of acting well. Virtue

highlights the positive aspects of a person based on his values or

principles, for example, when it is mentioned that a person is kind,

the value of kindness to himself and to others is highlighted.

For people, virtues allow them to act in a better way, always seeking

excellence and personal operability of values both at a social and

corporate level.

Beliefs, principles, customs, norms are values that are part of an

organizational or business culture, so they play an important role in the

internal of the institutions because the individual values are aligned

with those of the entity, thus there is motivation in the style and way

of working to lead by developing one's own potential and influencing

the members of the team to be more productive.

For the beginning of business ethics it is important to identify and

analyze the values that society has and then outline them with the

culture, and implement them in the company to motivate staff to

adopt such values and work for the benefit of the company.

"Companies are necessarily ethical, what happens is that their

behavior may be morally exemplary or it may not be, but a company

can never be a-moral." (Crespo, 2003)

The ethical commitment to the profession is determined by the

professional practice, since it looks after the professional interests

and results, for example, the physician must be concerned about the

health of his patients, as well as the lawyer must seek justice for his

client, acquiring this condition tacitly as an integral axis in terms of

the purpose of his profession.

For the development of a professional and ethical practice, there will

always be the value of social commitment, which refers to ethical

behavior and professional competence, framed in positive actions for

the good of the social and business community.

Here it is important to point out that professional responsibility is

not limited to performing the professional practice well and

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efficiently, it also means the ethical professional practice that implies

the good use of professional skills because the application of these

professional knowledge and skills directly and indirectly affect the

living conditions of society and the welfare of the population (Ibarra,

2007).

For Brunet, the climate reflects the values, attitudes and beliefs of the

members, which, due to their nature, are in turn transformed into

elements of the climate. Thus it becomes important for a manager to

be able to analyze and diagnose the climate of his organization for

three reasons:

Assess the sources of conflict, stress or dissatisfaction that contribute

to the development of negative attitudes towards the organization.

Initiate and sustain a change that will indicate to the manager the

specific elements on which he/she should focus his/her interventions.

Follow the development of his organization and anticipate problems

that may arise. The manager can thus exercise control over the

determination of the climate in such a way as to be able to manage

his organization as effectively as possible.

Organizational climate researchers point out that organizational

climate is made up of several components and this multidimensional

nature is important when a human resources management specialist

wants to choose a questionnaire to proceed with the evaluation of his

or her organization's climate.

In this sense, Brunet explains in this scheme the way in which

components such as individual and group behavior, organizational

structure and processes interact to create an organizational climate

that, in turn, produces the results observed at the level of

organizational, individual or group performance.

Thus, organizational climate scholars, supported by these

questionnaire components, have tried to characterize specific

organizational situations with respect to universal dimensions and

principles and have proposed different instruments to measure

organizational climate in a company, including the Likert

questionnaire, which measures the perception of climate in terms of

eight dimensions.

Along the same lines, the authors Schneider and Bartlett, cited by

Brunet, formulated a questionnaire to measure the perception of the

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climate within insurance companies in terms of six dimensions:

employer support, structure, involvement with new employees,

employee autonomy and the degree of general satisfaction.

In the same sense, to study the organizational climate, the technique

of Litwin and Stinger (1978) stands out, which uses a questionnaire

that postulates the existence of nine dimensions that would measure

the existing climate in a given organization, such dimensions are the

following:

Structure: This represents the perception that the members of the

organization have of the number of rules, procedures, formalities and

other constraints they face in carrying out their work. The extent to

which the organization emphasizes bureaucracy versus the emphasis

placed on a free, informal, flat-structured work environment.

Empowerment: This is the feeling of the members of the organization

about their autonomy in making decisions related to their work. It is

the extent to which the supervision they receive is general and not

narrow, i.e., the feeling of being their own boss and not being double

checked at work.

Reward: Corresponds to the members' perception of the adequacy of

the reward received for a job well done. It is the extent to which the

organization uses reward more than punishment.

Challenge: Corresponds to the feeling that the members of the

organization have about the challenges imposed by the work. The

extent to which the organization promotes the acceptance of

calculated risks in order to achieve the proposed objectives.

Relationships: It is the perception on the part of the members of the

company about the existence of a pleasant work environment and

good social relations both among peers and between bosses and

subordinates.

Cooperation: It is the feeling of the members of the company about

the existence of a spirit of helpfulness on the part of managers and

other employees in the group. Emphasis placed on mutual support,

both at higher and lower levels. Standards: The members' perception

of the organization's emphasis on performance standards.

Conflict: It is the feeling of the members of the organization, both

peers and superiors, accept dissenting opinions and are not afraid to

face and solve problems as soon as they arise.

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Identity: It is the feeling of belonging to the organization and that it is

an important and valuable element within the work group. In general,

the feeling of sharing personal objectives with those of the

organization.

When referring to job performance, he defines it as: the emphasis

demonstrated by the employee who finds in the performance of his

task significance for the achievement of his individual objectives.

It also emphasizes that this emphasis is given by a series of

characteristics with which the employee is endowed, such as:

personality and individuality, aspirations, values, attitudes,

motivations and individual objectives; in addition to the abilities,

skills and knowledge necessary to carry out business tasks. These

aspects together determine their work performance.

In this regard, Chiavenato, in relation to behavior, points out that

there is a causality in which both heredity and the environment have

a decisive influence on it. He also emphasizes that performance is

motivated, that is, it is always directed or oriented towards some

particular objective and finally the author refers to the presence of an

impulse, a desire, a need and a tendency, expressions that serve to

indicate the motives of behavior.

It follows that the behavior of people in a company is complex and

depends on internal factors (derived from their personality

characteristics) and external factors (derived from business

characteristics).

Considering the above, the importance of motivation as one of the

internal factors that requires greater attention in order to understand

the behavior of people in their work performance is evident.

Soteldo defines the word motivation as that which drives a person to

act in a certain way, a definition that allows us to respond to the

different attitudes that are observed in the performance of the

individual as a resource in organizations, and to explain why a

propensity towards a specific behavior is originated.

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Conclusions

In the case of change processes through management technologies in

the organization, the vision and behavior of managers in the

complexity perspective implies understanding and accepting that

these technologies are not unique standardized and determinant

methodologies that lead to efficiency despite their functionality in the

organizations in the countries of their origin.

Knowledge of the organization is approached in terms of its totality,

not its isolated parts. It implies that the observer, in order to know a

problem, its causes, effects and solution, identifies and establishes

the relationships resulting from the interaction between the parts

that constitute the organization.

The absence of this systemic thinking is restrictive in the processes of

change in small and medium enterprises in Ecuador. The decision to

implement a management technology results from the need

perceived by managers to solve problems related to planning,

processes and structure, quality, people management, change and

learning, knowledge in the organization and others. To build initial

conditions conducive to change, the cultural dichotomy that appears

in the requirements (a humanitarian culture) for technology to be

functional producing a process of administrative innovation (explicit

culture); is sufficient argument to explain the difficulties and results

that its application has had in small and medium enterprises in the

province of Tungurahua in Ecuador. The mentality of entrepreneurs

in small and medium enterprises in the province of Tungurahua has

not evolved over time. This situation is reflected in their behaviors,

and the organizations they manage promote an explicit culture

favoring mechanistic management models (Taylor, Fayol and Weber).

The explicit culture that the owners, businessmen and leaders of

small and medium enterprises have built is determined by the

administrative model that results from their paradigms of

management of their companies.

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