Ethical practices and employee performance of federal inland revenue service

Abstract

Ethics and employee performance are closely linked in many organizational contexts, including the public sector. In Nigerian public organizations like the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), ethical practices have been a concern due to alleged widespread corruption and other unethical behaviours prevalent in the organisations. However, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has always recognized the place of quality service delivery to all Nigerians, especially to taxpayers and other stakeholders. The current state of ethical practice in FIRS has been a concern for many years. Despite codes of conduct and anti-corruption laws, reports of corruption, unethical practices, and abuse of power by public officials are still prevalent in the organisation. Furthermore, there is a lack of training and capacity building for public officials on ethical conduct and anti-corruption measures. This lack of knowledge and skills often leads to unethical behaviour and corrupt practices. Thus, the study aimed at examining the effect of ethical practices on employee performance of the Federal lnland Revenue Services (2015-2021). Four hypotheses were formulated and tested, while the institutional theory by John Meyer and Brain Rowan was adopted as a theoretical framework of analysis. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study and the study population comprised the staff of the Federal lnland Revenue Services, MSTO Onitsha. Descriptive analysis was used due to numerical data gathered and the t-test was used to test the hypotheses, and in working out the t-test statistics, the value obtained was compared with the critical value. Among the findings of the study is that ethical practices are important for improving employee performance in Nigerian public organizations. Among others, the study recommended that there is a need for the government to actively enforce ethical practices in the Federal lnland Revenue Service.