Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies

Ethical behaviour ensures employees follow organisational social norms in the conduct of their tasks and assignments. But studies have been somewhat silent on the individual-level factors influencing this positive work behaviour, especially in an African public sector context. Further, the contextual factors impacting ethical behaviour at work are yet to be fully known. Therefore, the study examined the relationship between quality of work life and work motivation on ethical behaviour given job satisfaction as a contextual factor. The study collected data from 191 mid-level employees in the Delta State Ministry of Health in Nigeria, and subjected same data to the PLS-SEM analytical procedure. The results demonstrated that job satisfaction and ethical behaviour are positively related, job satisfaction mediates quality of work life and work motivation relationship with ethical behaviour, and quality of work life relationship with ethical behaviour is mediated by work motivation and job satisfaction sequentially. The study concluded that the link between quality of work life and work motivation on ethical behaviour can be explained by the mediational mechanism of job satisfaction. The results imply that public organisations can support ethical behaviour when certain individual-level (psychological) factors are well positioned and managed to achieve desirable outcomes.