Work ethics for health care administration

Work ethics has been recognized both practically and in research, as desirable attributes for which effective employees are accountable. These affective skills apply horizontally across all jobs from entry level to chief administrative officer. These “ethics” of work are non-technical work skills considered by administrators to be very important for success of the organization. Research indicates that almost 90% of job terminations or failure to promote is due to a lack of desirable work attitudes and habits in employees. Consequently, some PH agency administrators not only ask for technical skills in the new workers they recruit, they also expect them to have a good work ethic. Unfortunately, there has been little research in this critical component of workforce development and no studies in public health. This evidence based study outlines the development of a reliable and valid 50 item instrument utilized to measure and identify the occupational work ethics from public health employees. Using a factor analysis along with a comparison by occupational and demographic categories this presentation will reveal how four salient work ethic constructs: actively caring; work resilience; organizational commitment; and work resistance, differ among workers in a regional public health agency.