Journal of Occupational

1. To determine the factors influencing occupational ethics in the faculty members of Farhangian University

2. To determine the current status of each of the identified influencing factors in occupational ethics among faculty members at Farhangian University

 
Materials and Methods
This study uses a mixed research approach (quantitative and qualitative) with a sequential explanatory design, and it is applied in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the qualitative section of this study consisted of academic experts and officials at Farhangian University. In the qualitative section of the study, 23 experts and officials at Farhangian University were interviewed. In the qualitative section, the sample size was determined based on the saturation principle, according to which the researcher continued interviews to the extent that new interviewees did not add new indices to the previous ones [18]. The interviewees were comprised of 4 executives, 4 top professors, 8 employees of the Education and Research Department, 4 educational experts on campus, and 3 employees from the Office for Studies and Curriculum Development at Farhangian University, who were selected by purposive sampling. The data collection tool was interviews. The statistical population of the quantitative section of the study included all faculty members at Farhangan University from all around the country. One of the methods used for estimating the sample size is the use of a formulaic approach, such as the Cochran formula [19]. The statistical population included 874 people, and the sample required for the quantitative section included 267 people, for which the Cochran formula was used at the error level of 0/05. The country was divided into five regions using multistage cluster sampling, which included the north of the country (with 258 faculty members), the south of the country (with 140 faculty members), the east of the country (with 176 faculty members), the west of the country (with 199 faculty members), and the center of the country (with 101 faculty members). In addition, three campuses were selected from each region, and the researcher randomly selected the sample from each university according to the sample-to-community ratio. Next, he distributed the questionnaires among those faculty members who were accessible. In this research, a library research method, a semi-structured interview, and questionnaires were used for data collection. Semi-structured interviews were used in the qualitative section of this study. In the data sampling process, the researcher analyzed the data to complete the incomplete items by receiving new information from new participants. After 23 interviews, main factors and sub-factors were repeated in past interviews, and the research was saturated. During the interviews, opinions on appropriate indicators were collected to determine the factors influencing occupational ethics and the desired main factors and sub-factors were reviewed and finalized. The time of interviews was from 30 to 60 min. To ensure the validity of the qualitative section of the research, the valuable comments of the professor’s familiar with this field and those of the experts at Farhangi University, who were knowledgeable in this field, were utilized. In the meantime, the participants were asked to help analyze and interpret the data. Inter-rater reliability was also used to calculate reliability. In an interview using inter-coder reliability (ICR), one of the professors of the Educational Department familiar with coding was asked to participate in the study as a secondary coder. Next, the researcher, in cooperation with the secondary coder, coded three interviews and calculated the percentage of inter-coder reliability as the reliability index of the analysis; the reliability of the two coders was calculated at 1.75%, indicating appropriate reliability.
In this study, a research-made questionnaire created by the codes of the interview for data collection was used, which was completed by surveying faculty members at Farhangian University. The items of the research questionnaires consisted of two parts, including (A) general questions, the purpose of which was to obtain general and demographic information about the respondents. This section included five questions about gender, age, education, academic rank, and work experience. The second part (B) included the Occupational Ethics Researcher-Made Questionnaires that consisted of 61 items with a five-point Likert scale developed by reviewing theoretical and practical basics as well as the results of exploratory interviews with open and axial coding of exploratory interview texts. It is worth noting that during the distribution of the questionnaires, the researcher was present and attempted to clarify the ambiguities about the content of the questionnaires verbally. In this study, face validity, content validity, and construct validity were used to calculate validity of the research. The face validity of the final questionnaire, which had no errors, was verified with the cooperation of the researcher, several members of the sample, supervisors, and advisors. To investigate content validity, CVR and CVI forms were used. It is worth mentioning that content validity was assessed by the experts, interviewers, supervisors, advisors, PhD students in this field, and several subjects before the distribution of the questionnaires. Based on content validity (CVR= 0/65 and CVI=0/84), no questions were omitted, but some questions were corrected. After confirming the content validity and construct validity of the research instrument, two types of convergent and divergent validity were used with the help of Lisrel software. Divergent validity was used by the Fornell and Larker test as well as the transverse load test, which was employed in a pilot study on a sample of 40 individuals of the statistical population to ensure the reliability of the questionnaires. Next, the data were analyzed using two methods (alpha coefficient). In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the influencing factor of occupational ethics (0.88) and the retest coefficient of the influencing factor of occupational ethics (0.84) were calculated.
According to the introduction to this section, it can be said that the research method is applied in terms of purpose, and the research method is mixed (quantitative and qualitative), with a sequential explanatory design. The implementation stages of the research, in both qualitative and quantitative phases, are exhibited in the following figure:

 
Fig. 1. Steps of the Explanatory Design Research’s (20)
 

 
Table 1. Final coding using the semi-structured interview technique        

 
As the table shows, the fit indices of the model are in a favorable condition.
To investigate content validity, CVR and CVI forms were used. It is worth noting that content validity was assessed by experts, including the interviewees, supervising and advising professors, PhD students in this field, and several subjects before the distribution of the questionnaires. Based on content validity (CVR= 0/65 and CVI=0/84), no questions were omitted, but some questions were corrected. After confirming the content and construct validity of the research instrument, two types of convergent and divergent validity was used with the help of Lisrel software. Divergent validity was used by the Fornell and Larker test as well as the transverse load test, and the results of which showed that component reliability was confirmed because the Cronbach’s alpha and the composite reliability coefficient were above 0.7, and AVE was> 0.5. Convergent validity was confirmed because of CR> 0.7%, CR> AVE, and AVE> 0.5. In addition, divergent validity was confirmed because of MSV  

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to design and explain a model for occupational ethics in faculty members at Farhangian University. Based on the obtained results, the variables of ethical intelligence, ethical leadership, organizational commitment, organizational culture, organizational climate, work engagement, interactional justice, occupational competence, and personal development were identified as influencing factors in relation to occupational ethics. In this regard, some of the findings of past research are in line with the findings of the present study; for instance, Shahbazi and Rahgozar (2017) in their study showed that ethical intelligence has a significant correlation with organizational trust [22]. In another study similar to the present one, the researchers concluded that trust and honesty among individuals of an organization lead to occupational ethics [12]. Niazazari et al (2014) stated that occupational ethics had a significant positive correlation with organizational commitment [2]. Mesbahi and Abbaszadeh (2014) found out that occupational ethics consist of five themes, including individual ethics, managerial factors, organizational factors, job ethics, and extra-organizational factors [23]. Behzadi et al (2015) concluded that ethical leadership, ethical climate, and conscientiousness play a central role in explaining the variable of organizational virtuousness [24]. In another comparative study, Fallahi et al (2019) reported the four major variables of professors’ characteristics, professors’ capabilities, promotion of respect, and promotion of the university as different aspects affecting professional ethics in professors [25].
Moral intelligence is one of the major factors influencing occupational ethics at the faculty. Moral intelligence is the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Professors possessing this type of intelligence have strong ethical beliefs and the ability to apply them. In addition, they treat each other with respect. These professors adjust their behavior based on the values they believe in. Given that the results of this study indicate the positive effect of moral intelligence, to explain the effect of moral intelligence on occupational ethics, one could say that moral intelligence leads to organizational trust. Individuals in their social relationship with each other avoid skepticism and establish an intimate relationship, which could not be realized without having trust in such a relationship. When the level of trust in the organization is high, employees show confidence in the leadership of the organization practically and show more enthusiasm in performing their duties correctly [22]. Ethical leadership is one of the other factors influencing occupational ethics in professors. Teachers who know the components and principles of ethical leadership communicate well with their colleagues and encourage students to develop ethical and appropriate communication. Behzadi et al (2015) showed that ethical leadership improves organizational climate, and according to other researchers, the ethical climate of an organization enables one to anticipate behaviors, such as respect for others, self-sacrifice, as well as honesty and sacrifice [24].
Another feature of professors with occupational ethics is commitment to university issues. Since organizational commitment is a type of emotional devotion to the organization, many employees who achieve their identity from the organization participate in organizational activities and enjoy membership in the organization [26]. They consider themselves responsible for any issues raised in the university and do not spare any efforts in this respect. However, if they do not have necessary organizational commitment and do not consider themselves an effective part of the organization, they will not be able to perform their duties properly and keep behaving ethically. Researchers believe that one of the factors influencing organizational commitment is occupational competence, which was identified as an influencing factor on occupational ethics in this study. According to researchers, occupational competence contributes to improving occupational performance by enhancing occupational commitment [27].
In addition to organizational commitment, organizational culture is a set of values and beliefs to which the faculty members of Farhangian University adhere and perform their duties to improve it. If organizational culture is formed based on accountability, justice, honesty, and respect for each other, it will lead to occupational ethics. Strong organizational culture influences social capital in teachers and fosters ethics. In addition, social capital increases employee willingness to go beyond the requirements of their formal job, thereby directing personal interests in line with organizational objectives and generating a strong interest in the overall activities and philosophy of the organization. Thus, organizational social capital helps foster organizational citizenship behavior within organizations [28]. In addition, researchers believe that educational organizations develop occupationally and ethically when their members are developed. Therefore, teachers and professors are considered the major cause of change in the educational system due to their awesome responsibility for educating different people [29]. As a result, based on the findings of this study as well as the existing research literature on the importance of ethics in all aspects of the social life, conducting more research seems to be essential for the identification of factors influencing ethics among teachers and professors. Further research is recommended to be conducted in this field to examine the methods and trainings needed for the reinforcement and improvement of occupational ethics among professors and teachers at Farhangian University. As a result, upon boosting occupational ethics in teachers and professors at Farhangian University, we will be able to foster ethical students and an ethical community.
Although useful findings were achieved in the present study, some limitations existed in the process of conducting this study, similar to other studies. One of the major limitations was the selection of the research sample from faculty members at Farhangian University, which led to difficulties in the generalization of the research results to other university professors and teachers. To overcome this issue, it is suggested that further research be conducted on the current subject with the professors of other universities and teachers included. Therefore, based on the findings of this study, it is concluded that the providing of necessary trainings to enhance ethical competence among faculty members at Farhangian University is required. This is due to the fact that ethical competence positively influences all activities of professors and leads to eagerness and passion among students at Farhangian University towards their professors and what they teach.  The results of this research will contribute to the development of ethics throughout the community by following their professors as role models.  
 
Conclusion
This study was done aimed at identifying factors influencing professional ethics in faculty members at Farhangian University. The results showed that professional ethics in university faculty members could be influenced by different components. Therefore, paying more attention to the importance of ethical components in faculty members at Farhangian University is a must. In addition, the impact of educational and interventional methods for the enhancement of occupational ethics is required to be studied in faculty members at Farhangian University.
 
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to all people who participated in this study.
 
Conflict of interest: None declared.