Ethical Organizational Culture and Service Design: Pathways to Decent Work and Human Thriving

This study outlines a research design considered to examine the impact of Ethical Organizational Culture and Service Design on Human Thriving, with decent work serving as a mediator, ultimately supporting human thriving. Although previous research highlights the significance of decent work and psychological well-being (e.g., Duffy et al., 2016; Pandey et al., 2024; Ragadu and Rothmann, 2023), few studies have combined these concepts within a service-oriented framework (Anderson et al., 2013) that considers organizational factors and contextual differences. This study is currently under development and employs a cross-sectional design to investigate the proposed relationships between EOC, Service Design, Decent Work, and Human Thriving, drawing on survey data from employees in various European service industries. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to test the proposed relationships and use multi-group analysis to examine how service context influences these relationships. Our research suggests that organizations that prioritize ethical organizational culture and service design are more likely to create work environments that respect dignity, autonomy, fairness, and inclusion, essential elements of decent work. These conditions boost employees' vitality and learning, which are key to human thriving. The strength of these relationships may differ across service sectors due to specific constraints or enablers, such as institutional norms, client interaction intensity, and resource availability. Ultimately, the research endeavours to offer a theoretically sound and empirically testable model that aids scholars and practitioners in understanding how values-based organizational strategies can lead to sustainable and thriving workplaces within service sectors.