Ethical Climate and Faculty ’ s Trifocal Functions of State Universities and Colleges ( SUCS ) in Region XII , Philippines

This study determined the prevailing ethical climate in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region XII and its relationship to the faculty’s three mandated functions; including instruction, research and extension. The descriptive method of research utilizing the correlation analysis was used in this study. This was conducted in four SUCs in Region XII, namely: Cotabato City State Polytechnic College in Cotabato City, Sultan Kudarat State University (ACCESS) in Tacurong City, University of Southern Mindanao in North Cotabato, and Cotabato Foundation of Science and Technology in North Cotabato. The respondents were the 268 selected faculty members taken through random sampling method. The researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather the data pertaining to the ethical climate and faculty’s trifocal functions. The findings generated: The prevailing ethical climate in professional values has the mean of 4.59 described as ”excellent”, work ethics is “excellent” with the mean of 4.79 and cultural values is also “excellent” with its mean of 4.52; the faculty productivity in instruction is “excellent” with its mean of 4.79, “poor” in research with the mean of 2.23 and “good” in extension with the mean of 3.06; The ethical climate in terms of professional ethics with.942 manifests very high positive relationship, work ethics with.897 denotes high positive relationship, and cultural values with.864 also show high positive relationship with faculty productivity in their trifocal functions. The study concluded that the ethical climate influenced the faculty productivity. The faculty professional ethics, work ethics and cultural values contributed significantly to the faculty productivity in their university


INTRODUCTION
and to inculcate nationalism and patriotism in the heart and minds of the students and graduates. Furthermore, they are mandated to accelerate the development of high-level professionals ready to meet international competition and to serve as Centers for Research and Development (Castano & Cabanda, 2007).
Higher education institutions expertise in teaching and research brings to bear in its extension programs. Extension is a two-way process. As the university shares its expertise with the outside world, a positive feedback is generated from the partner stakeholders and the process of extension itself, leading to more insights and questions on the state of knowledge. As theory meets practice, as formal knowledge meets actual needs, new impetus for knowledge generation and refinement shall ensue. This dynamics shall then enrich instruction and research with the university.
Mindanao where Region XII is located is the home of diverse people, the Muslims, the Christians, and the Lumads (Indigenous People). Having different cultures, beliefs and practices, they may tend to have cultural conflicts. The SUCs in this region as educational institutions are very worthy for research as it is now an important sector playing a key role in improving productivity and occupational skills, thus, this study was conceptualized to find out the prevailing ethical climate among the diverse cultures of the faculty and their productivity. It also find out the relationship between the prevailing ethical climate and faculty productivity in their mandated trifocal functions to shed-light for the sustenance or redirection of the existing ethical climate in relation to faculty trifocal function's productivity.

Statement of the Problem
Many of Philippine State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) have poor performance in board examinations in various professions while some perform high. Many state colleges were converted to SUCs but their passing performance in professional board examinations still rated as poor. These are some concerns in higher education that is being addressed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) through the accreditation program.
Accordingly, Cuenca's (2011) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) conducted on a data set of 78 State Universities and Colleges provides empirical evidence on the inefficiency of the majority of the SUCs in the country. With only few efficient SUCs as indicated by the efficiency scores, it is very alarming to note the declining trend in the number of efficient SUCs between 2007 and 2009. Moreover, the year-on-year average efficiency score of all SUCs is considerably low, which indicates a substantial amount of inputs that could have been saved if only the SUCs had operated efficiently. Furthermore, productivity gains among SUCs are found to be very minimal and they are attributed more with technological change than efficiency change.

Objective Research Questions
The study aimed to determine the prevailing ethical climate among the diverse culture of the faculty and their efficiency measured by the productivity in their trifocal functions in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in Region XII. Further, the influence of the ethical climate to the faculty productivity in the three trifocal functions will be determined.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Ethics is defined as the inquiry into the nature and ground of morality, in which the morality is defined in the context of moral judgement, standards, and rule of conduct (Mason et al, 1990). Bullock and Panicker (2003), mentioned that the presence of ethical code provides a set of rules or principles that must be followed, and non-compliance can result in, among other actions, expulsion from the association. Parallel to the concept of ethics, Gbadamosi (2004), stated that business ethics is described as a set of rules that stipulates how businesses and their employees ought to behave. And for that, the perception of business ethics in a company or institutions and the implementation intended to this perception generates ethical climate. The ethical climate in most organizations is set by how a company makes decisions. Business ethics is concerned with truth and justice and has a variety of aspects such as the expectations of society, fair competition, advertising, public relations, social responsibilities, consumer autonomy, and corporate behaviour. Victor and Cullen (1988 as cited in Cohen, Pant & Sharp, 1993) defined ethical climate as the persistent moral atmosphere of a social system, characterized by mutual perceptions of right and wrong, as well as common assumptions about how moral concerns should be addressed. Ethical climate in organization refers to the way in which an organization typically handles issues such as responsibility, accountability, communication, regulations, equity, trust, and the welfare of stakeholders. Hence, ethical climate is usually about standards of behaviour in the workplace as well as with customers and partners. Companies known for high ethical standards usually have an ethical code stating that they treat with dignity, do not present misleading information, and strictly follow rules and regulations.
Ethical Climate and Faculty's Trifocal Functions of State Universities and Colleges (SUCS) in Region XII, Philippines 137

Faculty Productivity in Trifocal Functions
Faculty productivity is essential for academic institutions striving for excellence in their trifocal function with national and international recognition. According to Saatchi (2003 as cited in Amadie, Sori, & Imam, 2017), the main aim of each organization is access to optional productivity. It means pay attention to the management of an organization as well as employees' mental and physical health for providing a situation for each employee to try with satisfaction and interest without any force and fear of punishment for the best level of productivity and use all of his potential cognitive, emotional and behavioural power.
Productivity of a faculty can be defined as a measurable output of a faculty member related to instruction, research, and extension services. Productivity assessment helps in identifying highly productive faculty members, determining areas for faculty and departmental improvement, and applying promotion and tenure processes. Academic institutions also use productivity assessment strategies along with the reward schemes or incentivize targeted activities aligned with the institution's vision, mission and goals to increase efficiency. These strategies typically cover instructional, research, and extension services.
Teaching effectiveness is one of the major factors that determine students' continuation in college and graduation. Duties of a teacher were traditionally imparting knowledge, maintaining classroom discipline and judging performance of students. Teaching and research constitute a continuum of academic activity. The academic obligation to undertake research is based on the premise that our teaching is enhanced by our research. Research plays an important role in promoting the prosperity of a nation and the well-being of its citizens. Universities, through research, make important contributions to the growth and development of industries and government businesses, thereby promoting national and global development. Indeed research production has become essential for the success of universities and the prospects of promotion for academics (Aneidi & Effiom, 2011;Bako, 2005). Results of research are brought to rural people to help them solve their problems through well-defined extension programs. The extension program of the universities continuously figures as the university's main link to farm families and various communities. Extension programs are focused on promotion and commercialization of technologies for self-sufficiency and development. The university production thrust keeps on developing collaborative projects and prospective income generating enterprises to complement academic, research and extension, and other university concerns.
A substantial amount of research on organizational ethical climate has been conducted primarily driven by Victor and Cullen (1987 as cited in Fritzsche, 2000) pioneering work. They conceptualized ethical climate in terms of employee perceptions of organizational norms regarding work behaviours and decisions with ethical content. Ethical climate is a reflection of ethical elements in the work environment as perceived by its individual members. It serves a perceptual lens through which employees assess situations that help them identify ethical issues and solve ethical problems.
Similarly, Rosenblatt and Peled (2002) investigated the ethical climate in Israeli schools. The results showed that caring ethical climate and formal ethical climate are powerful and valid predictors of school outcomes. In addition, ethical climate is positively related o a variety of positive work outcomes such as performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and lower absenteeism.
Another related study by Thompson (2007) showed connection between lawful, ethical conduct and productivity in the workplace. It claimed that ethical lapses and questionable behaviour in the workplace distracts employee from their work; thus, it decreases their productivity. This study concludes that a company's ethical environment affects the ability of its workers to work free from distraction with the greatest productivity for distractions breed more distractions and loss of productivity.
Furthermore, the result of the study of Amadie et al. (2017) revealed a significant relation between professional ethics and productivity. More professional ethics was observed among personnel with more productivity. It further certifies that there is a significant and positive relation between professional ethics and organizational productivity. They also found work ethics to be positively and significantly related to employees' productivity.

Research Design
This study employed the descriptive-correlation design. This design described, analyzed, and interpreted the ethical climate components such as professional ethics, work ethics, and cultural practices. This research design also described the productivity of the faculty in their trifocal functions such as instruction, research, and extension services. Furthermore, the design described the relationship of ethical climate components to the faculty productivity. Generally, this design is appropriate Finally, multiple regression analysis was used in determining the ethical climate component as predictors of faculty productivity in instruction, research, and extension services.

Population and Sampling Design
The respondents of the study were the faculty members of the four public SUCs in Region XII who are holding permanent position purposively to ensure that they are in service of at least three years of teaching in the public SUCs. The total The sample size was determined using the Slovin's equation of n=N/1+N(e 2 ), where n stands for sample size, N stands for population, and e stands for margin of error. To obtain the number of respondents per SUC, non-probability sampling technique through accidental or incidental sampling technique and purposive sampling technique (Subong & Beldia, 2005) were used in order to obtain the number of respondents. The researcher asked the potential faculty respondents of their tenure purposively to ensure that the faculty to be taken as respondents are permanent faculty members before giving the research questionnaire until the desired sample size has met. In Table 1, the respondents are presented in detail. Desired sample size in three SUCs such as USM, SKSU, and CCSPS was met while the desired sample size fin CFCST Was not met because three out of thirty-one questionnaires were not received due to their absences during the retrieval of questionnaires.

Research Instrument
The research instrument used was a researcher-made questionnaire to determine the faculty socio0demographic profile, ethical climate, and faculty productivity. It was divided into three parts. The first part asked for faculty socio-demographic profile which includes the age, sex, ethnic affiliation, marital status, educational attainment, length of services in teaching, and teaching units. The second part was designed to elicit faculty perception of the ethical climate in terms of professional ethics, work ethics, and cultural values.
This used the following scale: 5 -excellent (when the condition prevails all the time) 4 -very good ( when the condition prevails most of the time) 3 -good (when the condition prevails sometimes) 2 -poor (when the condition prevails rarely) 1 -very poor (when the condition does not prevail) Moreover, the third part was developed to draw information from the respondents relative to the extent of faculty productivity in the mandated trifocal function in SUCs such as instruction, research and extension.
It used this scale: 5 -Excellent Performance represents an extraordinary level of achievement and commitment in terms of quality time, technical skills and knowledge, ingenuity, creativity and initiative. Employees at this performance level should have demonstrated exceptional job mastery in all major areas of responsibility. Employee achievement and contributions to the organization are of marked excellence. 4 -Very Good Performance exceeded expectations.
All goals, objectives and targets were achieved above the established standards.

-Good
Performance met expectations in terms of quality of work, efficiency and timeless. The most critical annual goals were met.

-Poor
Performance failed to meet expectations, and/or one more of the most critical goals were not met. 1 -Very Poor Performance was consistently below expectations, and/or reasonable progress toward critical goals was not made. Significant improvement is needed in one or more important areas.

The Validation of the Instrument
The content validity of the self-made questionnaire was done through the scrutiny and check by the experts who are all holding Ph. D. degrees and serving as mentors, research advisers and panel members of dissertation panel for several years. Each item was analysed through the item-total correlation analysis to determine which of the items of the questionnaire were retained, improved, or discarded. The questionnaire was administered to twenty faculty members of the Mindanao State University-Maguindanao who are not included in the study as real respondents to check its reliability. It was then submitted to the statistician for a statistical process in obtaining the reliability. Reliability index of 93.9% which is more than 70% which means very reliable was found out through Cronbach's alpha coefficient utilizing split-half method.

Data Gathering Procedures
This study made use of the triangulation method in collecting data. It involved the researcher-made questionnaire, and printed documentations.
After the reliability text and validation of the instrument, the researcher secured permission from the dean of the CCSPC graduate school to conduct the study, specifically the gathering of data through the administration of questionnaires to the respondents. Permission from the university and college presidents was also secured. Upon the approval, the researcher then coordinated with the middle administrators for the distribution of the instrument to the faculty members.
The researcher conducted informal interview to some of the faculty respondents and observed the ethical climate through how the faculty interact with each other in order to validate the gathered data. After the retrieval of the instruments, data were tallied and submitted to the research statistician for tabulation. The data were then analyzed, interpreted and resented through tables with textual interpretations.

Statistical Treatment
The descriptive analysis was done utilizing the mean as descriptive analysis while inferential analysis used the multiple regression to determine independent variable component such professional ethics, work ethics and cultural values that has the greatest influence on the faculty productivity in instruction, research, and extensions services.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The findings of this study are presented in this section. Table 2 presents the results of the ethical climate of the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) The prevailing professional ethics is excellent with the mean of 4.59, the work ethics has the mean of 4.79 described as excellent and the cultural values obtained the mean of 4.52 described as excellent. Totally, the prevailing ethical climate in the SUCs obtained the mean of 4.63 with "excellent" description. This means that the leaders and employees have routinely demonstrated highly ethical behaviour. The faculty exuded working methods of a systematic creation and application of special expertise. They have exhibited hard work and great deal of pride in their teaching profession in a culturally diverse workplace. Despite the differences in culture, religion and practices among the faculty, they still create an excellent ethical climate in their workplace.
This implies that the faculty adhered to the Professional Ethics for Teachers thus possessing good qualities of a good teacher. They have also shown respect to the diverse cultures of both the students and the employees. This result is in line with the concept lifted from http://www.ehow.com/ info_7752853_ethical-climates.html stating that "ethical climates evolve over time in organizations and are often a reflection of current leadership, and the ethical nature of leaders. It also concurs to the idea of Victor and Cullen (1988, as cited in Cohen et al., 1993) claiming that the organizational norms and values are means to show how ethical problems are addressed, thus, creating an ethical climate which has a powerful impact on employees capacity to do the right things. Employees have shared ethically correct behaviour and institutional issues are handled ethically. Table 3 presents the results of the faculty productivity in the mandated trifocal functions of the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
The extent of faculty productivity in instruction is "Excellent" for having the mean of 4.78, while their productivity in research is "Poor" for obtaining the mean of 2.33, and the productivity in extension is described as "Good" for gaining the mean of 3.06. Generally, the faculty productivity in their trifocal functions is "good" for gaining 3.36 mean. This means that the SUCs faculty members are very productive in delivering services in terms of their mandated function in instruction; however, they have poor performance in research and a good performance in delivering services to the community. Differences in culture, religion and practise did not hinder the faculty in delivering their mandated trifocal functions in the SUCs. This result perfectly applies to the line "there is unity in diversity".
The faculty of SUCs have rendered their duties productively by adapting to students individual differences, motivating students, promoting active student learning, maintaining classroom discipline, delivery of well-organized lectures and judging performance of students. They have showed thorough mastery over specific subjects they teach, sound pedagogical knowledge about context under which learning takes place, ample knowledge about the learners and knowledge of educational goals. Similarly, they have showed fair performance in the assisting the community in times of manmade and natural calamities by providing psycho social services, feeding programs, trainings and basics needs.
However, they have showed low productivity in conducting, presenting and publishing research papers, monograph, occasional papers, journal articles, technical reports and scientific peer-reviewed bulletins, book chapters, and textbooks. Table 4 presents the results of the correlation between ethical climate and faculty productivity of the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
The data shows that there is a significant relationship between the prevailing ethical climate and the faculty productivity of the SUCs in Region XII manifested by their respective p-values which are all not more than 0.01 level of significance. This means that ethical climate can significantly affect the efficiency of the faculty in delivering their services as measured by their productivity in their mandated trifocal functions. The persistent moral character characterized by mutual perceptions and the way the SUCs handle issues such as responsibility, accountability, communication, integrity, social responsibility and the welfare of the stakeholders positively influenced the quality of the outcomes of the faculty.
The ethical climate in terms of professional ethics with the r-value of.942 manifests very high positive relationship with the faculty productivity in their mandated trifocal functions. This means that the more the employees show high professionalism, through accountability, altruism, compassion, excellence, integrity, professional duty and social responsibility, the more they become productive. The work ethics with the r-value of.897 denotes high positive relationship with the faculty productivity which means that when they exude ethical work attitudes in terms appearance, character, communication skills, dependability, organizational skills, sensitivity and teamwork resulted to high faculty productivity.
Cultural values with the r-value of.864 also shows high positive relationship with faculty productivity which means that when the faculty shows ethical personal values and professional values the more productive they become.
These data means that the higher the ethical climate in terms professional ethics, work ethics and cultural values, the more productive they become in terms of delivering their mandated functions in instruction, research and extension.
To sum up, the findings generated from the statistical analysis of the data gathered from the respondents were summarized as follows: The prevailing ethical condition of climate in professional ethics is excellent with the overall mean of 4,59 which emanated from accountability with 4.38 mean described as "Very Good", altruism with 4.47 mean described as "Excellent", compassion with 4.67 mean described as "Excellent", excellence with the mean of 4.73 described as "Excellent", integrity with the mean of 4.60 also described as "Excellent", professional duty with the mean of 4.72 described as "Excellent", and social responsibility with 4.34 mean described as "Very Good".
The prevailing condition of ethical climate in work ethics in the SUCs is excellent with 4.79 mean as an offshoot of faculty appearance which obtained the mean of 4.86, character with the mean of 4.79, communication having 4.59 mean, dependability with 4.77 mean, organizational skills with 4.60 mean, sensitivity with the mean of 4.66, and teamwork with 4.79 mean which are all interpreted as "Excellent".
The prevailing condition of ethical climate of SUCs in the area of cultural values is excellent with 4.52 mean as an offshoot of faculty personal values is "Very Good" with the mean of 4.34 and "Excellent" in professional values by obtaining the mean of 4.69.
The extent of faculty productivity in instruction is "Excellent" for having the mean of 4.78, while their productivity in research is "Poor" for obtaining the mean of 2.33, and the productivity in extension is described as "Good" for gaining the mean of 3.06.
The ethical climate in terms of professional ethics with.942 manifests very high positive relationship, work ethics with.897 denotes high positive relationship, and cultural values with.864 also shows high positive relationship with faculty productivity.
The full regression model analysis identified faculty accountability, altruism, integrity, and professional duty as predictors of faculty productivity. The accountability totaled -.507 with -4.590 t-value, altruism totaled 1.222 with 1.282 t-value, integrity totaled -.704 with 6.036 t-value, and professional duty totalled -.529 with -7.883 t-value while both personal and professional values as sub-variate of cultural values are predictors of faculty productivity. On the other hand, it was found out that none of the sub-variate under work ethics is a predictor of faculty productivity.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that faculty have created an excellent ethical climate despite their cultural differences. Further, the ethical climate influenced the faculty productivity. The faculty professional ethics, work ethics and cultural values contributed significantly to the faculty productivity in their university trifocal functions. This means that faculty members of the SUCs in Region XII have strong adherence to Professional Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers for they have exuded excellent professional ethics, work ethics, and cultural values and they are also productive in their university functions. Further, this implies that the more the faculty performs their duties and responsibilities ethically, the more they become productive.
The implications of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. The results on prevailing ethical climate in professional ethics imply that the faculty of the SUCs are very professional in dealing with their chosen profession. They are well guided by the professional ethics for teachers. They exemplify their profession in a noble way. 2. The results on the prevailing ethical climate of SUCs in Region XII in terms of work ethics imply that the faculty possessed an exemplary working attitude in the practice of their profession. 3. The results on the prevailing ethical climate in the SUCs in terms of cultural values imply that the faculty members have a high awareness on different culture. This awareness is also coupled with a high respect on the diverse cultures whether in their personal or professional practice. 4. The results on the extent of faculty productivity in instruction, research and extension imply that the faculty members of the SUCs in Region XII are spending much of the time and effort on their mandated function in instruction, less time and effort on extension services and least concern on research. 5. The results on the correlation between SUCs ethical climate and faculty productivity imply that the ethical climate is not the only thing that is being considered by the