code. “What a code tends to do for an organization is establish a set of expectations, an understanding, a common language.”
The program includes a safe system for reporting unethical behavior, even a safe channel for questioning the CEO’s actions.
Employees and their bosses are faced with ethical choices daily, from e-mail privacy, to inflating promises to customers, to a boss taking credit for a subordinate’s ideas. So the program has to be continuous, like strategic planning, and the more employee involvement the better. Daigneault recommends even bringing customers and vendors in on the formulation of the code.
Relationships in the system – Many factors in business relationships contribute to the possibility of “bad apples” emerging - or not. Most important is the strength of the relationship - measured by frequency, reciprocity, emotional intensity and intimacy. Strong trusting relationships build slowly over time. Here small organizations have an advantage, as there is usually more contact among all employees. Close, empathic relationships forestall conspiracies.
As an organization grows, fragmentation of employees into cliques decreases the shared attitudes about ethical behavior.
Communication needs more attention. In Jeffrey L. Seglin’s book, The Good, the Bad and Your Business, he cites the case of a
Malcolm Baldrige Award-Winning company that was sued because employees misunderstood the company’s concept “stealing ideas shamelessly”. The firm meant that employees should emulate other companies’ good practices. Some employees thought it meant to gain information unethically from a competitor.
In spite of Charlie Chaplin’s words, most employees want to do the right thing. Research shows us that most American adults engage in a level of moral reasoning which makes them want to comply with the roles and expectations of others. And as