Codes of ethics as signals for ethical behavior

2003

In today's society, ethics and corporate social responsibility are again rated high on the corporate agenda of many firms. Ethical codes, based on corporate values, are used to guide the behaviour of employees. However, research results related to the effectiveness of these codes are scarce and inconsistent. Moreover, research is mostly US-based. This study examines the effectiveness of both ethical and professional codes in the Dutch management consulting industry. The results reveal that the presence of an ethical code has a negative effect on individual ethical decision-making. The enforcement of compliance with professional codes is-in an indirect way-positively associated with the organisation's ethical climate. 

Journal of Business Ethics, 2001

Codes of ethics exist in many, if not the majority, of all large U.S. companies today. But how the impact of these written codes affect managerial attitudes and behavior is still not clearly documented or explained. This study takes a step in that direction by proposing that attention should shift from the codes themselves as the sources of ethical behavior to the persons whose behavior is the focus of these codes. In particular, this study investigates the role of code familiarity as a factor impacting the influence of an ethics code on manager behavior. Data collected from 286 executives from companies in the direct selling industry are used to test hypotheses (1) that the perceived usefulness of ethics codes is positively related to the degree of familiarity with the code, and (2) that ethical climate as assessed by managers is positively related to the code's perceived usefulness. Both hypotheses are supported, and their implications and further research directions are discussed.

2007

Academic research into codes of ethics has given us valuable information on the subject but has failed to provide an all-encompassing understanding of the contents of actual codes. This paper looks at what is presently known about this subject, presents a conceptual model that integrates the different elements that go into a code of ethics, describes the dynamics that explains why each company's code of ethics has a distinct content, and presents preliminary results obtained after having analyzed a cross-section of the code of ethics of member companies of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association

2010

As a result of numerous, highly publicized, ethical breaches, firms and their agents are under ongoing scrutiny. In an attempt to improve both their image and their ethical performance, some firms have adopted ethical codes of conduct. Past research investigating the effects of ethical codes of conduct on behavior and ethical attitudes has yielded mixed results. In this study, we again take up the question of the effect of ethical codes on ethical attitudes and find strong evidence to suggest that business professionals employed at firms with ethical codes of conduct are significantly less accepting of ethically questionable behavior toward most stakeholders. One notable exception relates to ethical actions toward customers.

Journal of Business Ethics, 2007

This paper takes its point of departure in an article by Stevens [Stevens, B.: 1994, Journal of Business Ethics 54, 163-171], in which she identified a lack of knowledge regarding how corporate codes of ethics are communicated and affect behavior in organizations. Taking heed of this suggested gap, we review studies on corporate codes of ethics with an empirical content, published since 1994. The conclusion of the review is that we still lack knowledge on how codes work, how they are communicated and how they are transformed inside organizations. Stevens' plea could even be extended, arguing that the knowledge gap might be of even more significance than in the mid-1990s. Some directions for how this situation can be approached in future studies are outlined in the paper.

The Leadership Quarterly, 2001

In this article, we argue that the organizational climate regarding ethics Ð the shared perception of what is ethically correct behavior and how ethical issues should be handled within an organization Ð is an outgrowth of the personal values and motives of organizational founders and other early organizational leaders. We begin by arguing that one common label for the climate regarding ethics construct Ð``ethical climate'' Ð is inappropriate. We also argue that climate regarding ethics has an impact on organizational outcomes, including organizational outcomes that do not have explicit ethical components. We propose that this impact largely occurs through the mediating mechanisms of organizational cohesion and morale. We conclude by discussing the variety of antecedents and outcomes related to climate regarding ethics. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Despite millions of dollars being deployed to few studies have been able to effectively address and measure the effectiveness of codes of ethics in reducing misbehavior. In this article, we propose to evaluate what information codes can highlight in terms of deeper ethical structures of organizations. We suggest that codes of ethics can be separated into two different contents: a legal approach, based on rational decision-making and mainly focused on the institutional legal framework, and a behavioral approach takes onboard insights from the behavioral ethics literature. To evaluate both the codes' structure and development empirically, we decided to use Fortune 500's public companies dataset. Our results show that, via cluster analysis, three main code categories emerged: legalistic codes, behavioral codes, and paper codes -which have low proportions of both legal and behavioral content, . Also, by evaluating the relationship between code effectiveness and content, we found that companies with higher behavioral content had a better compliance effectiveness system when measured as risk behavior. However, behavioral content fared worse when measured against the risk of class action litigations. We believe that our results may shed light on how to improve compliance policies better and how to build guidelines that effectively consider how key stakeholders effectively make ethical decisions. By structuring compliance guidelines that take into consideration the particularities of each organization, we will be one step closer to foster and create truly ethical organizations.

Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 2015

An investigative study was performed to better understand the practical influence of the American Library Association's Code of Ethics on the workplace behaviors and decisions of academic librarians. Participants in this investigative study were credentialed academic librarians working in North American college and university libraries, and this chapter focuses on academic librarians who hold leadership positions in management and administration. Study results show no significant results between COE familiarity and effects on ethical behaviors in the workplace; however, these results have implications for the debate surrounding enforcement of the COE and offer some insight into the links between the challenges of succession planning, leadership, and ethical behaviors in academic library environments.

Business Ethics: A European Review, 2008

While most large companies around the world now have a code of ethics, reported ethical malpractice among some of these does not appear to be abating. The reasons for this are explored, using academic studies, survey reports as well as insights gained from the Institute of Business Ethics' work with large corporations. These indicate that there is a gap between the existence of explicit ethical values and principles, often expressed in the form of a code, and the attitudes and behaviour of the organisation. The paper suggests that two basic reasons appear to be at the heart of the problem: ineffective ethics programmes and deficiencies in corporate culture. The paper concludes that successfully embedded corporate ethical values requires well-designed ethics policies, sustained ethical leadership and incorporation of ethics in organisational processes and strategy as part of an ethical culture at all levels of the organisation. It makes some practical suggestions on how this can be achieved.

Management:Journal of Sustainable Business and Management Solutions in Emerging Economies, 2021

Research Question: The research is oriented towards determining implementation of the ethical code in hotels, located within the National Park of Serbia, Kopaonik, and its effects on perception of organisational social responsibility dimensions among the hotel employees. Motivation: Application of the ethical code is the first step towards clarifying the standards of acceptable business practices to various stakeholders of the organization, including the employees (Supanti, Butcher, & Fredline, 2015). In this regard, this research is focused on identifying the manners in which the application and content of the ethical code can affect the perception of social responsibility. Idea: The ethical code and public discussion with employees on topics in the field of ethics might affect the perception of employees regarding the organisational social responsibility. In this way, it could contribute to development and strengthening of employees' awareness of the problems of the wider comm...