PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Compliance with ethical guidelines is strongly pursued in many organisations, be they public or private, profitable or charitable. The role of ethics is visibly significant when it comes to the standardisation of acts, professionalism and organisational interests, especially in Islamic institutions. Here, ethical concerns are determined by religious principles where the rules of ethical conduct are strongly emphasised. In this pursuit, organisations have established their own ethical codes; yet, inappropriate work conduct recurs. In the light of the issue, this paper identified the importance of the enforcement of codes of ethics and awareness and understanding of employees towards the codes as the catalyst towards the implementation of ethical codes at the workplace. To test the reliability of these factors, the study measured to what extent enforcement and employees' awareness and understanding influence their compliance with ethical practices and the depth of ethical practices among employees. One hundred and fifty respondents were selected from several Islamic institutions in Malaysia, including professionals and support staff, to be involved in this survey. The findings from this research indicate that understanding of employees obtained a higher average mean score compared to the other two factors (enforcement and awareness of employees). The findings also reveal that two demographic factors had a significant relationship with the implementation level of the ethical code i.e. age and category of designation factors. Hopefully, the findings of the study can be used by managers in their effort to enhance the level of ethical practice among their employees, besides ensuring the practical implementation of ethical codes beyond merely following theoretical guidelines. Ethical practice must be promoted and implemented in order to contribute to the improvement of Islamic institutions.