Effects of software engineers' work ethics on their work performance and job satisfaction : role of emotional intelligence

Abstract

In the present Information and Communication Technology (JCT) based society, software engineers hold significant roles. Every sector of society uses software, be it education, healthcare, security, transportation, and so on. As software engineers arc affecting society greatly, if they do not behave ethically in their work, it could cause widespread damage. This has occurred in numerous incidents in the past such as the Volkswagen emissions scandal in 2017 and Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. And although calls for reform arc made repeatedly after these scandals, there is still a lack of effort to improve the situation in education, software industries and research. So, investigating the ethics of software engineers and the relationships it has with other variables is important for understanding what could be done to improve the situation. Software engineers work in rapidly-changing business environments that cause intense social interactions which results in them facing a lot of pressure which leads to stress. Their emotions are important for dealing with this, and can impact their ethical decision-making. Previous studies have shown that employees with higher Emotional Intelligence (EQ) were able to manage their emotions better leading to less stress and performed better at work. Also, job satisfaction has been found to he important for better work performance, better organizations, lower workplace deviant behavior etc. Therefore, in this quantitative study, the researcher aims to investigate the moderation effect of EQ between work ethics of software engineers and their work performance, and job satisfaction. Also, the correlation between work ethics, and work performance and job satisfaction will he investigated. 170 software engineers responded to the questionnaires measuring the four variables: work ethics. EQ work performance and job satisfaction, which were sent to them via LinkedIn. Data collection was carried out over 4 months. Data analysis was run in SPSS version 22. For the moderation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression was used~ for the correlation analysis, Pearson's product-moment correlation (r) was used. The results for the moderation analysis arc as follows: EQ significantly moderates the relationship between work ethics and work performance ; EQ docs not significantly moderate the relationship between work ethics and job satisfaction. The results for the correlation analysis arc as follows: there is a strong significant positive correlation between work ethics and work performance , there is a moderate significant positive correlation between work ethics and job satisfaction. These findings have important implications for education. software industries and research. More effort needs to be done to teach and train both work ethics and EQ in education and software industries since work ethics positively correlates with both work performance and job satisfaction. and EQ strengthens the relationship between work ethics and work performance of software engineers. Also. further research should he done on the work ethics of software engineers and its relationships with other variables such as team climate, team flexibility and so on. All of this will help in improving the ethical behavior software engineers in the future whid1 will then reduce unethical incidents, and instead. increase beneficial contributions to society.