Background: Ethics is the required subject in all professions and organizations and its existence provides an effective role in professional excellence and promotion of values of organizations. Intellectual capital is also the main factor for value creation in companies. Hence, an empirical study of the relationship between these variables is important.
Method: This study is an applied research based on the descriptive-correlational analysis. The investigation was conducted by standard questionnaire and a simple random sampling of 94 managers and employees of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange in 2016. For analyzing results of the 2 main hypotheses and 7 subsidiary hypotheses, Smart PLS software was used.
Results: The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship between professional ethics and intellectual capital. The most significant variables in this regard are human capital, social capital and structural capital, respectively. In addition, the findings related to interactive effects of work experience, academic degree, gender, and age indicate that these variables adjust the relationship between professional ethics and intellectual capital. In this context, results show that the most effective factors in the relationship between professional ethics and intellectual capital are respectively related to the variables of age, experience, education, and gender.
Conclusion: According to the findings of the research, it can be claimed that there is a positive relationship between professional ethics and intellectual capital, therefore, it is suggested that professional ethics pay special attention to increasing the level of intellectual capital that is a valuable subject in the organization.