Determinant factors of ethical judgements among officers in a higher education institution / Muhamad Safwan Sarifbudin

The dedication of an institution to an academic integrity culture raises the bar for any academic activity, fosters academic trust, and attracts and produces honest and responsible people in the community. A good academic integrity policy statement should serve as a road map for an institution to define its approach to academic misconduct. It should be particular, focusing not only on the discovery of academic misconduct and corresponding sanctions but also on preventative actions. Given the shortcomings of present policies' detection and reactive tactics, creating and implementing a preventive strategy for academic misconduct would appear to be a fairer goal. Furthermore, because a poorly written policy may cause more harm than good, institutions should seek the advice of specialists to assist them in their efforts to maintain academic integrity. Applying Hunt and Vitell theory, the objective of this study is to examine the ethical judgments in relation to organizational ethical climate, deontological evaluations of rules compliance and teleological evaluations of perceive consequences. Data were collected from 220 officers from Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) and analyzed using SPSS statistics version 27. The results confirmed that organizational ethical climate, deontological evaluations, and teleological evaluations have a significant impact on ethical judgements, as was expected. This study provides the management with important insights for changing the ethical judgements and behavior of officers, thereby promoting ethical conduct in the workplace. Therefore, it is envisaged that improving ethical judgements among the officers will restore the public's trust in the higher education and, as a result, align with the country's aim to eventually become a corrupt-free nation.