Investigating the Relationship between Job Characteristics and the Growth of Professional Ethics among Employees of the East Azerbaijan Gas Company
Keywords:
Job Characteristics, Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Autonomy and Freedom, Job Feedback, Professional EthicsAbstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between job characteristics and the growth of professional ethics among employees of the East Azerbaijan Gas Company. For this purpose, job characteristics were defined based on the theory of Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham across five dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and freedom, and job feedback. Professional ethics were defined based on the code of ethics of the East Azerbaijan Gas Company. Accordingly, one main hypothesis and five sub-hypotheses were formulated. The statistical population of this study consists of all employees of the East Azerbaijan Gas Company, totaling 380 individuals. The statistical sample size was estimated to be 192 individuals based on the Cochran formula, and participants were selected using stratified random sampling. Data collection tools included two questionnaires: the Hackman and Oldham Job Characteristics Questionnaire and a Professional Ethics Questionnaire based on the code of ethics of the East Azerbaijan Gas Company. After assessing and confirming their validity and reliability, the questionnaires were distributed to the statistical sample. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Specifically, descriptive statistics were employed for classification, summarization, and interpretation of the data, while the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Spearman's correlation test were used at the inferential level to test the research hypotheses. The results of hypothesis testing confirmed all hypotheses, indicating that there is a significant relationship between job characteristics and the growth of professional ethics among employees of the East Azerbaijan Gas Company.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ali Reza Abbasian (Author); Jafar Beikzad

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