Ethical climate is a critical determinant of employee behavior in higher education institutions (HEIs), yet existing research has largely relied on quantitative models and Western organizational contexts, offering limited insight into how ethical climate is experienced and enacted in developing-country HEIs. This study explores how employees in a non-sectarian higher education institution in Northern Mindanao, Philippines, perceive and negotiate ethical climate and how these perceptions shape workplace deviance. Guided by Ethical Climate Theory and grounded theory methodology, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with academic and non-academic employees and analyzed using constant comparative techniques. Findings reveal that ethical climate operates as a dynamic, lived organizational process shaped by value-driven culture, ethical leadership, institutional control, policy–practice misalignment, professional accountability, and mission-driven service. While internalized values and ethical leadership constrain deviant behavior, inconsistent policy enforcement and centralized authority generate adaptive and covert forms of workplace deviance as coping responses to ethical ambiguity. This study advances ethical climate theory by reconceptualizing workplace deviance not solely as rule violation but as a negotiated response to structural and ethical contradictions, offering context-sensitive insights for ethical governance and human resource management in higher education.
Dave C Caspe (Fri,) studied this question.