Suhaiza Ismail and Nursia Yuhanis

International Islamic University Malaysia

This study aimed to examine the ethical work climate types at the National Audit Department (NAD) offices in Malaysia as perceived by public sector auditors. The respondents for this study were public sector auditors in the NAD offices from both federal and state levels. Using a survey questionnaire on ethical climate by Victor and Cullen (1988), a total of 382 responses were received and usable. In order to achieve the research objective, descriptive statistics of the mean score and standard deviation were used. The results reveal that the highest mean score was ‘rules’ climate, indicating that public sector auditors perceived this rules ethical climate to be highly present in their organizations. This was followed by ‘instrumental’ and ‘caring’ ethical climate types. In contrast, law ethical climate type was perceived as almost non-exist in the NAD offices. This study provides useful information on types of ethical climate types that exist in offices of the National Audit Department (NAD) as perceived by public sector auditors which may to some extent help to inculcate the right ethical climate in order to improve the level of ethics among public sector auditors and subsequently enhance the credibility of the NAD and public trust in the government.

KEYWORDS: Ethical climate, public sector auditors, National Audit Department, Malaysia