WORK ETHICS AMONG CHRISTIAN WORKERS IN GCB BANK LIMITED IN THE TEMA MUNICIPALITY

This work sets out to examine Christian work ethics from the perspective of bankers and the banking industry in Ghana, with particular focus on branches of GCB Bank Limited in the Tema Municipality. The research was born out of an observation that in spite of increasingly ubiquitous signs of Christian religiosity all over Ghana, work ethics compliance appears not to be improving in tandem. In using phenomenological approach, this study investigated whether this resurgence of Christianity has any implications for ethical attitude of people in the workplace. The data was collected through the use of questionnaires that were administered to workers of GCB Bank Limited in the Tema Zone. Interviews were also conducted with the operations manager of the GCB bank and some staff, and also an observation made. The framework of Wrzesniewski et al on people’s relations to their work as ‘job-career calling’ construct was used and it was discovered that – 43% of workers at GCB Bank Limited conceive of their work at the bank as a job, 41% perceive it as a calling, and 16% think of their work as career advancement. The extant literature establishes that Christian principles on work may be summed up in the idea that work is a divine injunction rather than a punishment on humanity, and that whether one is engaged in a religion-related, voluntary, or a purely economic vocation, one ought to exhibit utmost dedication and integrity to be able to measure up to the lofty standards of the Christian work ethic. Using corporate code of ethics as a vehicle for institutionalizing morality and ethics into its operations, the GCB Bank’s codes of conduct and ethical values was found to have been built on a corporate values system called STARS, an acronym crafted to represent service, trust, action, relationships, and smiles. One notable ethical challenge found to have been plaguing the GCB Bank is that too many employees are working merely for money and for personal professional progression, instead of seeing their work as a higher calling to serve God and humanity. The result is that there is generally a lack of sense of urgency, leading to poor customer satisfaction.