Following Schneider's (1983) definition, the existence of an
ethical work climate requires that normative systems in the
organization be institutionalized. That is, organizational
members must perceive the existence of normative patterns
in the organization with a measurable degree of consensus.
Organizational members are asked to report not on their own
behavior and values but, rather, on the practices and procedures
that they perceive to exist in their organizations. Thus,
we consider respondents to climate questionnaires as a type
of observer. However, these observers differ from anthropological
informants, members of the culture who provide insider
views of culture, often have intensive relationships with
the researcher, and provide extreme depth and breadth of information.
These observers use a conceptual scheme defined
a priori by the researchers and are asked to observe only limited
aspects of the practices and procedures on an organization.
The strengths of the approach are the large number of
observers and the necessity that some consensus exist before
aggregated climate perceptions can be said to represent
a group or organizational climate