Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
One of the important issues that has caused several problems for organizations is corruption or unethical activities in various societies. Ethics is necessary for the survival of a healthy society and has long been the focus of thinkers, educators and managers of organizations and they have tried to preserve or survive it. It is important to pay attention to a person’s ethics and incentives, because they affect their success and performance. Non-observance of some ethical standards has caused many concerns in the governmental and non-governmental sectors of Iran. Studies have shown that Iran’s work culture is at a lower level compared to industrialized countries, such that the average work culture of Japan is 3.32, Malaysia is 3.26, Turkey is 3.19, China is 3.02, and Iran is 2.86. Variables affecting work ethics can be divided into two general categories: 1) Macro level: structural or non-organizational factors such as social/economic status and non-structural or organizational factors such as work experience, occupational group, type of employment relationship, income level, number of times receiving incentives or rewards, organizational level; 2) Micro level: Individual characteristics such as marital status and educational level. This study aims to investigate the work ethic status and factors affecting it in Farabi Hospital in Tehran, Iran.

Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted in Farabi Hospital in Tehran, Iran in 2020. Using the census method, all the personnel working in the hospital (n= 616) were selected as the study samples. The Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI) was used to measure the work ethic. It measures four dimensions of being dependable (16 items), being persistent (12 items), interpersonal skills (14 items), and being cooperative (8 items). Data analysis was done in SPSS software, version 20.

Results
Most of the participants had 26-35 years (43.7%); 61.7% are female and 38.3% were male. The mean score of OWEI and its subscale scores were significantly different based on the type of employment, the number of times receiving incentives or rewards, work experience, education level, and socio-economic status of the employees. However, no significant difference was reported in terms of sex, marital status, and income level.

Conclusion
Shortening the long periods of time for changing the employment status of employees, modifying the reward system, identifying the reasons for the decline in work ethics among employees with long service years, modifying the payment system, providing individual or group counseling to employees, if necessary, to prevent the impact of employee problems on the performance in the organization, and training of social workers in hospitals for improving work ethics in hospitals are recommended.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
All the participants participated signed an infromed consent form and were fully informed about the study process and the confidentiality of their personal information. This study was approved by the ethics committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences on 26/8/2013.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Authors' contributions
Design and data interpretation: Roghayeh Khosravi and Shuresh Lotfi; data collection, data analysis, draft preparation: Shuresh Lotfi and Nahid Ramezanghorbani; final approval: All authors.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the staff of Farabi Hospital for their cooperation.

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