Impact of Business Ethics on Nigerian Financial Institutions

Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2020 223
Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Impact of business ethics on Nigerian financial
institutions
M.E. Agwu
Faculty of Strategy and Entrepreneurship,
Lagos Business School,
Pan-Atlantic University,
Km 22, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Ajah, Lagos State, Nigeria
Email: edwinagwu@yahoo.co.uk
Email: edwinagwu@lbs.edu.ng
Abstract: Ethics represent sets of high moral standards and requirements in
office holders. This is on the premise that they will be held accountable for any
form of misdemeanour. It is also all encompassing and serves as yardsticks
for judgment of societal uprightness. The murky waters of business are
neck-deep in different types of moral and immoral dealings. Shortcuts and
unconventional practices have become prevalent. The codes of ethics which are
the sets of moral principles are relegated to the background. The banking
industry which plays an intermediation role in every economy has its own fair
share of these unethical practices. This paper therefore explores this Trojan and
its impacts on the Nigerian financial institutions. Findings reveals plethora
of unhealthy practices and discusses their effects on these institutions.
Furthermore, the paper recommends the need for a total clean-up and proposes
that government must intervene to sanitise these institutions which serve as the
heart and soul of the Nigerian economy.
Keywords: ethics; financial institutions; leadership; employees; Nigeria.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Agwu, M.E. (2020)
‘Impact of business ethics on Nigerian financial institutions’, Int. J. Business
Excellence, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp.223–241.
Biographical notes: Edwin Agwu is presently an Associate Professor of
Strategic Management at Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University,
Lagos State, Nigeria. He was a banker, active/versatile researcher, a seasoned
professional lecturer, management/training consultant, and accomplished
education/business manager; with 12 years banking and finance experience and
more than 18 years of lecturing experiences in various academic institutions in
the UK and Nigeria. He is an active researcher with several publications
and numerous citations in several international journals and conference
proceedings. He has also published extensively on very diverse research topics.
1 Introduction
Business ethics and corporate images are terms that are of late used synonymously due to
the high levels of businesses going bust. Business ethics cannot be considered a new
concept, but one that has been relegated to the back-burners by practitioners in order to
accentuate their shortcut practices. These unsavoury practices have occupied a prime of
place on various tabloids and a heated public debate has ensued, riding rough-shod on

224 M.E. Agwu
these bandwagon of debaters are academicians and practitioners. Hence the multifarious
business scandals caused by unethical behaviours of practitioners calls for serious debate
and scrutiny. Furthermore, leadership issues in various organisations are beginning to
come under discussion as it affects every fabric of the organisation. Business ethics and
leadership combine to form a strong corporate image which is a very vital element in
every organisation.
Although employees at their various levels in organisations have important roles in
ensuring and maintaining a good corporate image, most organisations do not understand
these employees’ roles in the achievement of their corporate image. The demands for
ethical behaviour by organisational leaders and researchers have increased in the last
decade due mainly to magnitude of the scandals plaguing the business ecosystem. Just as
some organisations have realised the importance of social responsibilities; they now face
even more complex demands concerning business ethics. Recent global corporate
scandals have done long-lasting damage to the image of most business organisations in
the developed economies. No single organisation is safe from corporate scandals, and one
main concern for organisation in these ethical misconducts is the negligence of ethical
corporate values and lack of ethical leadership (Schein, 2010).
Trevino and Brown (2004) suggest that unethical behaviour has been in existence
since the beginning of humanity, and now in this modern era, people are getting more
unethical than ever due to the complexity of modern business environments. In the
developed world, ethical and responsible businesses have significantly been adopted and
have truly become an inevitable norm. This is evident on how they follow laid down
laws, paying of taxes and salaries, and producing high quality products. But are these
same with organisations in the developing economies? This paper therefore sets out to
review the extent to which business ethics are conducted within the Nigerian financial
landscape.
2 Review of related literature
2.1 Overview of ethics
Ethics are the principles and values an individual uses to govern his activities and
decisions (Gibson, 2017). In an organisation, a code of ethics is a set of principles that
guides the organisation in its programs, policies and decisions for the business. Ayozie
(2012) viewed ethics as a “theory of morality which attempts to systematize moral
judgements, establish and defend basic moral principles.” The ethical philosophy an
organisation uses to conduct business can affect the reputation, productivity and bottom
line of the business. Furthermore, ethics concerns an individual’s moral judgements about
rights and wrongs. Decisions taken within an organisation may be made by individuals or
groups, these decisions are influenced by the culture and ethical standards of the
company. Morals are beliefs or principles that individuals hold concerning what is right
and what is wrong in a community or society (Berghofer and Schwartz, 2011). Berghofer
and Schwartz (2011) and Gibson (2017) opined that the concept of ethics and morality
does not only differ in interpretation and application, but also differs from culture to
culture and from one community to another.

Impact of business ethics on Nigerian financial institutions 225
2.2 Corporate image
Corporate image can however be viewed as “the overall estimation in which an
organization is held by its constituents through perceptual representation of an
organisation’s past actions and future prospects when compared with other leading
rivals” (Fombrun, 1996). Corporate image confers clear-cut advantages and privileges on
organisations (Rayner, 2003). It proves difficult to imitate, at the same time, it creates
responsibilities (Agwu, 2014). The obligations that managers and the organisation owe
must meet the personal standards of the workers, the quality standards of customers, the
ethical standards of the community and the profitability standards of the investors.
Therefore, organisations sustain their corporate image by building strong and supportive
relationships with all of their constituents, i.e., customers, suppliers, investors,
community, government and others (Agwu, 2014). Villanova et al. (2000) stated that
corporate image is an overall perception of the organisation held by different segments of
the public. For example, the products and services consumer stakeholder buy are seen as
having personal and social meanings in addition to functional utility. Again, they are
interested in the long-term stability of the company and ability of the company to
maintain supplies, product/service, quality and price. The management are interested in
all aspects of financial ratio analysis that all outside investors used in evaluating the firm
to bargain effectively for more funds.
Agwu (2014) posit that organisations strive to ensure that they develop and maintain
a good corporate image for the following reasons:
 the enhancement of the corporate competitive advantage thus leading to higher
profitability
 promotion of favourable relationship with the community in the environment they
operate, else, it may experience difficulty in recruitment, selection and maintaining
the employee morale
 influencing investors and financial institutions
 establishment of a corporate goodwill for the organisation
 the creation of a good identity for the employees thereby leading to their satisfaction
 the stimulation of sales, thus influencing customer loyalty
 the promotion good relationship with the government, opinion leaders and various
interest groups (Ayozie, 2012; Agwu, 2014).
Daft (2005) stated that good corporate image builds strategic value for a company by
granting it a competitive advantage over rivals. They do this by trying to outwit rivals in
marketing new products, hiring the best job candidates and to show profitability. These
make them gain image which can engender higher sales. According to Freeman and
Stewart (2006) the image of an organisation can be associated with the self-image of an
individual customer, suggesting a model of how image affects patronage that people
become customers where the image of the provider is similar to the image they have of
themselves. Studies on corporate image have generally focused on the effect of
advertising, corporate logo, brand preference or interaction with employees on
organisation effectiveness and performance (Green, 2008).

226 M.E. Agwu
2.3 Ethical leadership
The respect that leaders must have requires that one’s ethics be without question. A
leader not only stays above the lines between right and wrong, he stays well clear of the
‘grey areas’ (Adewunmi, 1998). Ethical leadership is essential in an organisation because
leaders who strive for ethical conducts motivate others to act in ethical ways (Ko et al.,
2018). Ethical leadership has a structural component and a substantive character
opponent. Substantively, leaders can use their power in a positive way to influence
people. For many years, philosophers and spiritualists have guided people on ethical
ways to live and work. Even in light of availability of rich information and knowledge,
there are untold numbers of temptations and acts of unethical and illegal behaviours
within organisations as evidenced by daily news and government reports. Human beings
often have a tendency to deviate from the norm. It is a well-known fact that power can
corrupt a person in authority, and leadership in business is a power relationship which
requires business leaders to lead the way they want to be followed (Greenwood and
Freeman, 2018). Have powers opens the doors for a person with power to capitalise on
personal gains in certain situations. Motivations that spark wrong doings are greed, envy,
anger, fear and even jealousy. These motivations can be evident in unethical leaders who
can meddle with standard business codes to drive their interests in profit amassing
(Greenwood and Freeman, 2018).
According to Northouse (2007), leadership is a process whereby an individual
influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal or objective. Ethical
leadership can be defined as “the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct or
practices through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of
such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement and,
decision-making” (Brown et al., 2005; Ciulla et al., 2018). This definition shows that
ethical leaders can set the example for others and overcome any temptations to that may
warrant them to obscure ethical business standards. Freeman and Stewart (2006) defined
an ethical leader as someone with the ‘right values’ and ‘strong character’ and also a
person that makes himself an example for others to follow and withstand temptations that
may come along the way.
Freeman and Stewart (2006) opined that ethical leaders are stakeholders in
companies, striving to achieve the purpose, vision and value of his realm without
compromising self-interest. They also stated that ethical leaders embody the purpose,
vision, and values of the company and of the constituents, within an understanding of
ethical ideals. Ethical leaders link the goals of the organisation with that of the internal
employees and external stakeholders. To be an ethical leader, it is required that the
individual consider and be aware that positive relationships with all organisational
stakeholders are the gold standard for all organisational efforts. Such a leader must be
able to understand that good quality relationships built on respect and trust are the most
vital determinants of organisational success. Ethical leaders should understands that these
kinds of relationships germinate and grow in the deep rich soil of fundamental principles
such as trust, respect, integrity, honesty, fairness, equity, justice and compassion. They
must also know that complying with these basic principles, organisations will be able to
grow and be sustained (Ciulla et al., 2018).
Trevino (2000) typified a matrix comprising unethical leadership which comprises of
weak moral person, weak moral manager, hypocritical leadership which comprises of
weak moral person, strong moral manager, ethical leader which comprises of strong

moral person, strong moral manager), and ethically silent or neutral leadership which
comprises of weak/strong moral person, weak moral manager. Trevino and Brown (2004)
stated that “an executive must be seen as both a ‘moral person’ and a ‘moral manager’ to
have a reputation of ethical leadership.” A moral person is someone with a good
character showing good levels of honesty and trustworthiness, caring about the employee
welfare and is seen as approachable by his or her subordinates. A moral manager is a
person who leads others on the ethical dimension allowing employees to know what is
expected of them. Such a person also holds his employees accountable for unethical
behaviour, hence, setting ethical standards to communicate ethics messages. They also
use the position of leadership to promote ethical conducts in organisations. They use
positive and negative reinforcements (incentives and punishments) to guide ethical
behaviour in the organisation. Trevino et al. (2004) expanded the executive ethical
leadership reputation by citing examples of leaders in each of the reputation matrix. He
combined the ‘moral person’ and ‘moral manager’ dimensions to bring about a
two-by-two matrix. A leader who is strong on both dimensions is seen to be an ethical
leader.
2.3.1 Characteristics of an ethical leader
Resick et al. (2006) cited in Duan et al. (2018) identified five key attributes that
characterised ethical leadership which includes:
 character and integrity
 ethical awareness
 community/people-orientation
 motivating which involves encouraging and empowering others
 managing ethical accountability.
Freeman and Stewart (2006) and Cels (2017) further identified the following
characteristics of an ethical leader. They are:
 the articulation and embodiment of the purpose and values of the organisation by the
leader
 the leader’s focus on organisational success rather than on individual ego
 the leader finds the best people in the organisation and develops them to a more
effective and efficient person
 the leader builds a living conversation about ethics, values and the creation of value
for stakeholders
 the leader takes a charitable understanding of others’ values in the organisation
 the leader makes tough calls while being imaginative and proactive in the
organisation
 the leader creates stakeholder’s support and societal legitimacy.

228 M.E. Agwu
The characteristics of an ethical leader was also discussed by O’Connell and Bligh (2009)
and entrenched in Agha et al. (2017) as they identified the following nine characteristics
of an ethical leader from a synthesis analysis of past researches which are:
 the leader uses an ethical lens
 the leader makes ethical decisions
 the leader considers the long-term implications of business decisions needed to be
taken in the organisation
 the leader considers other’s welfare when making decisions and treats others in the
organisation fairly
 the leader acts ethically and is a role model for ethical behaviour
 the leader communicates the importance of ethics to everyone in the organisation
 the leader understands everyone in the organisation and those he/she works with
 the leader holds others accountable for acting ethically
 the leader offers training and support for employees on how to act ethically in
organisation.
2.4 Cross-cultural differences within business environments
Every culture has its values and norms that are improved on over generations.
Increasingly the business environment is tending toward a global economy. With this
trend come excitement, opportunity, and unfortunately potential for problems associated
with differing attitudes and practices commonly encountered when interacting with
different individuals within the business space. According to Sims and Gegez (2004),
these cross-cultural differences within the business environment bring a lot of challenges
when the concept of business ethics is considered. Ethics, when viewed as an accepted set
of rules are a prerequisite to any business transactions organisations may have to
undertake. In most cases, parts of the rules are covered by legal stipulations or
regulations. However, these can hardly ever be fully detailed or up to date.
According to Schnebe and Bienert (2004), O’Neill et al. (2017), laws and regulations
are mostly the reflection and outcome of a clear and sanction able set of morals that is
understood as commonly given by the society that institutes and follows them. Apart
from making profit, the aim of a business firm is to be found in its very existence as a
community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs
and who form a particular group at the service of the whole society (Young, 2012). The
role of the perception of ethical behaviour of a business and of exercising moral
judgement is very important especially with the increasing interest and debate
surrounding globalisation. According to Ahmed et al. (2003), national and international
business transactions largely depend on shared perceptions as to what is ethical
behaviour. Global business ethics has now become a significant problem for many
multinational organisations (O’Neill et al., 2017).

2.5 Nigerian financial and business ethics
The Nigerian financial system is one of the largest and most diversified in sub-Saharan
Africa. In recent years, the system has undergone significant changes in terms of the
policy environment, number of institutions, ownership structures, depth and breadth of
markets, as well as in the regulatory framework. The Nigerian financial system has
received different attention in recent years and their differences from other financial
domain within and outside the Nigerian economy has been glaring from their increased
aggregate capital system from negative 74% to a positive 5% of risk adjusted assets.
There are also evidences of improved structure, strict banking supervision framework for
effective banking operations and de-licensing of non-bank financial institutions that do
not meet capital requirements in the Nigerian banking sector when compared with other
financial domains in the financial industry as well as other financial systems in
sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2000; Otchere et al., 2017). These have given the
financial system a clean bill of health and a good standing within the international
community resulting in world-wide trust and investors’ confidence.
Ikpefan et al. (2015) stated that the financial business in Nigeria defined by the
Section 61 of Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 1991 is “the business
of receiving deposits on current account, deposit account or other similar accounts,
paying or collecting cheques drawn by or paid in by customers, provision of finance or
such other business as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may, by order
published in the Gazette, designate as banking business.” However, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), according to Sanusi (2013) issues guidelines to banks and redefines
banking businesses in Nigeria as
“The business of receiving deposits on current, savings or other accounts;
paying or collecting cheques drawn or paid in by customers; provision of
finance, consultancy and advisory services relating to corporate and investment
matters; making or management of investment on behalf of any person; and the
provision of insurance marketing services and capital market business or such
other services as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria may, by gazette,
designate as banking business”
with the introduction of universal banking.
Carse (1999) and Alawiye-Adams and Ogundele (2018) stressed that banking is
therefore a business like any other type of business has the characteristics to run as a
going concern and make profit for the stakeholders of the organisation and for its
expansion. The business of banking goes beyond profit making. This is because of its
crucial role to occupy in the economy of financial intermediation and custodian of private
and public assets. This crucial role has made it mandatory for banks to imbibe good
business ethics in order to show them as ethical, sound, safe and reliable organisations.
Adewunmi (1998) stated that the General Assembly of Bank Chief Executives had
formulated the General Standards expected of bankers and banking institutions in Nigeria
prior to the introduction and adoption of a code of ethics in the banking industry in
Nigeria. The aim was to ensure the highest level of compliance to good and effective
banking practice and a strong commitment to high ethical standards in the
banker-customer relationship (Agwu, 2014). The current literature has observed the
banking sector and other financial sector in the Nigerian economy as well as other
economies, this observed differences although has been probed by previous researches
(e.g., Otchere et al., 2017), it has led to important questions like:

230 M.E. Agwu
a Do banks in Nigeria stick to these ideals of ethical practice?
b Why have the Nigerian banks deviated from the ethical expectations?
c What is responsible for the unethical practices in Nigerian banks?
In providing a theoretical explanation, Francis (2000) stated that every business aims to
make money and be successful, but making money in an unethical manner will cause a
breach in the Nation’s social system. The author further added that organisations must be
taught good business ethics in order to make them make money in an ethical manner.
That is, with honour. Unethical business practices in a bank can be dangerous to the bank,
to the depositors, to other banks, and to the customers at large. Solomon (1999) therefore
stated that thinking in terms of ‘making money’ and ‘the market’, devoid of any larger
sense of obligation or ethics, never made any country or culture ‘great’. “Indeed, such
crude self-interest thinking is what destroys many countries and culture.” Hunkin (2002)
stated that “unethical behaviour can promise many things which could be survival,
providing a solution to conflict or punishment, providing the chance to exploit or flatter,
and self-enrichment. In business, its impact on both the innocent and the guilty and on
social trust is hazardous.”
Competition and the struggle for customers and profits are not sufficient to justify
unethical practices in the banking industry (Huang et al., 2017). There must be a proper
attention given to ethical training, ethical orientation and ethical awareness if Nigerian
banks are to be regarded as ethical corporations with ethical values attractive to
customers, depositors and investors. The interest in business ethics may be related to
recessions, and their likelihood, and also to recent changes in the law (Dowling, 1988;
Francis, 2000; Mossaz and Coghlan, 2017). An understanding of business ethics also
necessitates an appreciation of some legal concepts such as duty of care, safety,
harassment and issues of privacy and freedom of information. All these are purposed at
preventing unpleasant situations, which could have been avoided in the first place
(Duska, 1999; Butterfield et al., 2000; Atuma and Agwu, 2014).
Solomon (1999) stressed that the concept of ‘survival of the fittest’ is among the most
damaging legends in business talk. The basic idea is that life is very competitive whether
in business or indeed in any other area of life. It is also true that business is and must be
competitive at all times, but it is not true that business practices have to be done in an
unethical way. Business must be done with a sense of honour and decorum and managers,
especially of banks must behave ethically and ensure the integrity of the banking
profession is maintained. Agha et al. (2017) argued that in order for a high ethics
company to be maintained, every manager should do the following:
 behave ethically them-selves
 screen potential employees
 have a meaningful code of ethics
 implement ethics awareness training
 reinforce ethical behaviour
 create a structure to deal with ethical issues.

When managers act ethically, they are thereby creating a culture for corporate
governance based on best practices and acceptable international standards. Sanusi (2003)
stated that “the quality of corporate governance making an important difference to the
soundness and unsoundness of banks has become a worldwide saying.”
2.6 CBN and NDIC as harbingers of ethics
The CBN and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation are saddled with the regulatory
functions of the financial institutions in Nigeria. The Nigerian financial institutions are
highly regulated with well documented policies. And as a result of the introduction of
universal banking services in 2000, the CBN introduced the Financial Services
Regulation Coordinating Committee (FSRCC) for greater supervision and surveillance.
The aim of which was reduce the risk of bank insolvency and the potential cost of bank
failures to depositors (Sanusi, 2013). Despite these lofty but giant strides to stem the tides
of unscrupulous elements, the Nigerian financial landscape was still replete with
unethical activities. Appropriate sanctions were however, prescribed by the CBN,
Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and or any appropriate Act applicable
to banks. The CBN also directed all banks in the country to setup codes of conduct desks
that would guide their practices and detail their compliance to highest ethical and
professional standards
3 Organisational performance
Organisational performance consist of three specific areas of firm or organisation’s
outcomes (Agwu, 2014), and they are:
 financial performance which involves profits, return on assets, return on investment
and others
 market performance which involves sales, market share and others
 shareholder’s return which involves total shareholder return, economic value added
and others.
3.1 Measurement of organisational performance
There are three common ways to which organisational performance can be measured.
The first way involves using a single measure based on the belief in the relationship of
that measure to performance (Hawawini et al., 2003) The second way involves using
several different measures to compare analyses with various dependent but identical
independent variables (Peng, 2004; Miller, 2004). The third way involves using
aggregates of dependent variables, assuming convergent validity based on the correlation
between the measures (Duan et al., 2018). This way of organisational performance
measurement is most common with subjective measures of performance (Varadarajan
and Ramanujam, 1990). Operational and market measures can also be aggregated (Agwu,
2014).

232 M.E. Agwu
 Accounting measures: These measures are the most common and readily available
means of measuring the performance of an organisation. An example of the use of
these measures was evident in Freeman and Stewart (2006) discovery that the
correlation between accounting and economic rates of return was above 0.75, and
Jacobson (1987) discovering that despite a weak R2 of 0.2, return on investments
was capable of differentiating the performance between firms and overtime.
 Financial market measures: Market value-based measures are the preferred means
for characterising the performance of organisations. These measures are forward
looking; they look into the future of the organisation (George and Jones, 2006).
These measures consider the intangible assets of the organisation more effectively
than accounting data (Duan et al., 2018). How much of the rent for example,
generated from an organisation’s activities flows to shareholders and the
informational efficiency of the market is dependent on the connection between
market measures to the actual performance of the firm. The firms being instruments
of shareholders show the usual justification of these measures.
 Mixed market/accounting measures: Mixed market/accounting measures has an
advantage of being better able to balance risks that are ignored by accounting
measures. These measures do this against operational performance issues which are
occasionally lost in market measures.
 Quasi objective measures: Certain objective performance information through
self-report techniques is elicited by these measures. Venkatraman and Ramanujam
(1987), Kotlar et al. (2018) differentiated these measures from objective values
collected from secondary sources. However, this is a harsh distinction, as the
vulnerabilities of accounting systems suggest that similar imperfections can satisfy
both sources.
3.2 Employee loyalty
Employee commitment or loyalty is an important concept because high levels of
commitment or loyalty lead to many favourable organisational results. It shows the extent
to which employees or workers identify with an organisation and is committed to its
goals and objectives. Biljana (2004) was of the opinion that the commitment of
employees is an important issue. This is because it may be used to predict employee’s
performance, absenteeism and other behaviours. Rajendran and Raduan (2005) stated that
the organisational commitment is the subset of employee commitment, which comprises
of work commitment, career commitment and organisational commitment. They also
stated that the greater the organisational commitment, the higher the level of productivity.
Employees with a strong affective commitment which involves employee’s emotional
attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organisation continue
employment with the organisation because they want to do so. Kooij and Boon (2018)
stated that strong level of affective commitment to an organisation happens because
employees share values with both the organisation and its members, and it is therefore
predicted to be positively associated with work performance. The establishment of a
committed and loyal workforce may be associated with enhanced firm performance
through less opportunistic behaviour on the part of employees (Green, 2008; Northouse,
2007). Employee commitment and loyalty have an important role in the principal-agent

issues surrounding the separation between the ownership and control of an organisation
or firm.
The costs associated with delegated decision-making in the organisation clearly
depend on the extent to which the interests of the principal and agent differ (Cels, 2017).
Employees who show a high level of commitment and loyalty towards their employer
may have interests which are aligned with those of their employers; the agency costs
often associated with the employee-employer relationship are reduced. Due to the high
importance of employee loyalty, various researchers (e.g., Kooij and Boon, 2018) stated
the following steps as ways to improve on employee’s loyalty in cases where employee
loyalty is low. They are:
 create a dialogue with employees (open communication)
 competitive pay
 understand the broader context of employees’ lives
 approach employees with a feeling of discovery
 good working conditions
 give employees constructive feedback on a regular basis
 listen to employees even if you can’t always do what they want
 be honest with employees
 emancipate action/empowerment/freedom to succeed
 advocate for employees
 career plan for employees/discuss professional development opportunities with
employees
 engage all employees in understanding the organisation’s mission and goals
 help the uncommitted employees leave
 provide learning environment
 create partnerships.
3.3 Employees commitment and sustained productivity
Past researches (e.g., Kooij and Boon, 2018; Ennis et al., 2018) have established
significant relationship between organisation commitment will and behavioural
outcomes: lower turnover and higher performance. Employees who are committed to
their respective organisation or firm are more likely not only to remain with the
organisation but are also likely to exert more efforts on behalf of the organisation, and
work towards its success and therefore are also likely to exhibit better performance than
the uncommitted employees. Employee commitments have positive effect on
organisations. It has led to improve performance; reduced absenteeism and turnover,
thereby resulting in sustained productivity.
Commitment to organisation is positively related to such desirable outcomes as
motivation (Mowday et al., 1974; Kooij and Boon, 2018) and attendance (Mathieu and

234 M.E. Agwu
Zajac, 1990; Ennis et al., 2018) and is negatively related to outcome as absenteeism and
turnover (Kooij and Boon, 2018; Ennis et al., 2018). Employees with high level of
organisational commitment give a secure and stable workforce (Steers, 1975; Kooij and
Boon, 2018) and as a result giving competitive advantage to the organisation. The
committed employee has been discovered to be more creative and such employees are
less likely to leave an organisation than those who are uncommitted (Porter et al., 1974;
Ennis et al., 2018). Tolentino (2004) stated that sustained productivity improvement is
dependent on the enterprise’s human capital which involves the skills, knowledge,
competencies and attitudes that reside in the individual employee of the enterprise. It is
also dependent on its social capital which involves trust and confidence, communication,
cooperative working dynamics and interaction, partnership, shared values, teamwork and
so on, among these individuals. A committed employee is seen to be one who stays with
the organisation even in rough times, attends work regularly, protects company’s assets
and shares company’s goal (Meyer and Allen, 1997; Ennis et al., 2018; Kooij and Boon,
2018). Therefore it is evident that for sustained productivity, employee commitment is an
important factor.
3.4 Ethical leadership behaviour and employee organisational commitment
Previous empirical research has shown that ethical climate in an organisation usually
results into a reduced level of role conflict and role ambiguity and higher satisfaction,
which in turn results into a reduced level of turnover intention and organisational
commitment (Jaramillo et al., 2006; Valentine and Barnett, 2003). Sims and Kroeck
(1994) discovered that ethical fit was significantly involved in the turnover intentions and
employee commitment in an organisation. Trevino et al. (2000) stated that ethical
leadership adds to employee commitment, satisfaction. Mathieu and Zajac (1990) stated
that leadership dimensions such as employee empowerment, initiating structure,
consideration, communication, and participative leadership are all antecedents of
organisational commitment at individual level. In other words, prior research has shown
that organisational commitment is higher for employees in organisations whose leaders
motivate them to participate in decision-making, treat them with consideration, fairness
and are supportive of them (Jermier and Berkes, 1979; Allen and Meyer, 1990; Ennis
et al., 2018; Kooij and Boon, 2018). Mize et al. (2000) and Mozumder (2018) stated that
there is a positive relationship between ethical behaviour and employees’ level of
commitment. Brown et al. (2005) also discovered from seven studies conducted on
various sample groups such as MBA students, employees from large, multi-location
financial services, doctoral students and others, that followers of an ethical leader in
organisation have the desire to put additional effort into their work.
3.5 Ethical leadership behaviour and employee trust in leaders
The construct of trust has received significant attention and has been looked at under
different perspectives (Mayer and Davis, 1999; Berghofer and Schwartz, 2011). Also,
this variable has been seen as an important component of effective leadership (Bennis
and Nanus, 1985; Oxley, 2018). Hogan et al. (1994), Bitner and Hubbert (1994) and
Oxley (2018) added that trust is a central component of follower’s perceptions of
effective leadership and these suggests that employees’ trust in leaders of their
organisation will increase their compliance with organisational rules and laws, increase

their zones of indifferences and thus facilitate the implementation of organisational
change (Van Zyl and Lazeny, 2002). Robinson (1996) stated that employee trust in
leaders of their organisation directly affects their contributions to the organisation in
terms of performance, intent to remain and civic virtue behaviour. Dirks and Ferrin
(2002) stated that trust in leaders of an organisation is vital for creating relationships
between leaders and subordinates and creating confidence in the leaders’ character.
Despite its vitality for both theoretical and practical reasons, there is evidence suggesting
that trust levels for management in many organisations are dwindling (Ponnu and
Tennakoon, 2009; Ponnu and Tennakoon, 2009). Some researchers have noted that
organisations routinely violate what the employees believe are the employers’
obligations, leading to a general erosion of trust for employers (Bitner, 1990; Robinson
and Rousseau, 1994; Ponnu and Tennakoon, 2009). Calder (1977) stated that the study of
topics such as trust, which “belong to the world of everyday explanation,” leads to a
proliferation of approaches to understanding them, as there are plenty of connotations of
the terms involved. Nonetheless, the literature on trust has been based on the following
beliefs that:
 trust is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships
 trust is essential to the development of managerial careers
 trust in a specific person is more relevant in terms of predicting outcomes (Ponnu
and Tennakoon, 2009).
The literature on trust as a construct shows that most perspectives of trust acknowledge
that a leader’s words must accurately predict his/her future actions in order to create a
necessary, although not sufficient condition for the development of trust. Ethical/moral
leaders are those who have the moral courage to transform their moral intentions into
behaviours despite pressures to do otherwise (Daft, 2005). Such leaders of organisations
believe in virtues such as honesty and attempt to practice it in daily lives. Hence, we
expect that the behavioural consistency between such leader’s words and actions will be
relatively high and consequently they will be trusted by their workmates. At the same
time, several other scholars have focused their definitions of trust on the notion that an
individual believes the person who he/she trusts will behave in a way that is favourable to
the person (i.e., benevolence).
George and Jones (2006) defined trust in general as “a person’s confidence and faith
in another person’s goodwill,” while Robinson (1996) and Cui et al. (2018) stated that
trust as “one’s expectations of belief about the likelihood that another’s future actions
will be beneficial, or at least not detrimental, to one’s interest.” Meyer and Allen (1997)
defined trust as the willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party. This
conceptualisation distinguishes trust itself from its outcomes, which are various types of
risk-taking in the relationship with the trustee Trust looked at in this manner does not
involve risk exactly but is a willingness to engage in risk-taking with the focal party.
Such outcomes could include cooperation, sharing sensitive information, and voluntarily
allowing the trustee control over issues that are important to the trusted party. Further,
based on the organisational as well as leadership literature, it is evident that an ethical
leader is one who does not seek to accomplish his/her own self-interest at the expense of
others, but who genuinely looks after the group’s interest. Ideally, such a leader bases
his/her behaviour on moral principles that respect the rights of others and treats them

236 M.E. Agwu
fairly. Also, ethical leaders involve their employees in decision-making within their firms
to enhance procedural justice and autonomy over their work lives the employees’
experience. Such involvement facilitates not only the well-being and potential growth of
the employees, but also the amount of trust that employees placed on their leader.
Moreover, Brown et al. (2005) stated that ethical leadership is positively related to the
affective trust in leader, while Robinson (1996) stated that trust for management is tied to
important productivity related outcomes.
4 Summary and conclusions
The Nigerian business environment has always been faced with instability and dangers
which can be traced to unethical conducts by experts and non-experts alike. In spite of
structures always put in place to curb these moral infringements, there are still proofs of
absence of responsibility. The professional bankers in the Nigerian environment are still
lacking in the area of compliance to ethical standards and in fulfilling their parts and
obligations to the overall population. This demonstration of unreliability has prompted a
diminished certainty level by investors and stakeholders in the banking profession. There
is therefore need for an exhaustive approach in taking care of this tremendous issue of
resistance to ethical codes and policies. As this is a subject that influences and affects
everybody, all hands must be on deck furthermore the issue of ethical leadership is vital,
in light of the fact that to make an organisation ethical most times it begins from the top
management so managers ought to be ethical themselves to uphold and enforce ethical
and moral standards and code of ethics.
To keep up a high ethical organisation, each manager must imbibe a high moral ought
to behave morally themselves. Screen potential representatives, have a significant code of
ethics, implement ethics awareness training, fortify moral conduct, create a structure to
manage moral issues. By carrying on ethically managers are making a society for
corporate governance in view of the best practices and satisfactory international
principles. The corporate image of an organisation is an inward component. This implies
that an organisation can shape, however not completely control, the way stakeholders see
it. This can be accomplished through the organisations genuineness and trust that they
provide for their clients likewise with steady compliance to ethical values. The banking
profession in Nigeria is to a substantial degree, self-regulated professional banking bodies
as opposed to government. This has regulated in a lassies-faire demeanour in agreeing to
principles on ground because most violations cannot be prosecuted on a crime, however
in other nations where there are government involvement, the level of consistence to
ethical standards is higher.
5 Recommendations
Based on the above, the following recommendations are proffered:
 Financial managers must demonstrate serious commitments to ethics in the conduct
of bank’s business.
 Ensure holistic implementation of ethics-related policies and procedures throughout
the financial institution.

 There is need for clearly defined ethics in the organisation that will guide the
employees in their day to day dealings and transactions.
 Management of financial institutions need to show that they will constantly monitor,
evaluate and redress any culture deficiencies through regular culture and ethics
assessments.
 There is need to shun crookedness and perverseness in all business dealings. This
will eventually boost the image of the company. Integrity may seem not to pay in the
short run but it will most probably pay in the long run.
 Management of firms must strive to promote equity and fair dealings among their
employees as well as among stakeholders.
 Managers should strive to encourage ethical practices not only to ensure moral
conduct but also to gain whatever business advantage there may be in having
potential customers and employees regard the organisation as ethical.
 Another way to promote ethics in the organisation is to provide the organisation with
appropriate training, several organisations conduct training programs aimed at
encouraging ethical practices within their organisations, such programs do not
attempt to teach what is moral or ethical but, rather to give manager criteria they can
use to help determine how ethical a certain action might be.
 The CBN and NDIC serves as the regulatory bodies of the financial institutions in
Nigeria. Their roles and strong policies can ultimately place a strong stamp of
authority on every aspect of these institutions. Therefore, their roles in sanitising
these institutions and ensuring proper ethical can be inculcated in their supervisory
and examination roles.
5.1 Suggestions for future studies
While this study explored the topic from a review point of view, future studies could
utilise among others an empirical approach.
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