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Influence of Formal Ethics Program Components on Managerial Ethical Behavior

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Abstract

The article deals with the influence of organizational ethics program (EP) components on managerial ethical behavior. The main aim was to establish which EP components are perceived as valuable and useful to foster the ethical behavior of managers. Moreover, we also aimed to investigate the role of ethics training in this context and to explore whether it can potentially increase managers’ trust in EP components as effective tools for the promotion of ethical behavior. The article advances the EP theory in several ways. It offers novel insights into both business ethics and EP development in the specific cultural and social circumstances of a former socialist country in the Central and Eastern European region, Slovakia. It shows that codes of ethics and related reporting and control mechanisms are perceived as the most effective EP components to shape managerial ethical behavior. Furthermore, based on empirical evidence, and to some extent contrary to prior theory, the article unveils three EP functions, namely the ‘compliance with group norms,’ the ‘ethics education through collective discussion,’ and the ‘counselling and resolving of ethical issues’ at workplace. In addition, the article shows that ethics trainings can help to boost the trust of managers toward EP components and might be conceptualized as a precursor for an effectively functioning EP.

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Abbreviations

CEE:

Central and Eastern Europe

EP:

Ethics program

HRM:

Human resource management

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 820 05, Bratislava 25, Slovakia

    Anna Remišová, Anna Lašáková & Zuzana Kirchmayer

Authors
  1. Anna Remišová
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  2. Anna Lašáková
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  3. Zuzana Kirchmayer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Lašáková.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Appendix

Appendix

Description of the researched EP components

Questionnaire item

Description

Code of ethics

An important internal document. Represents a set of main ethical norms and principles, which are obligatory for all employees and agents in the organization. A tool for self-regulation of individual behavior in concordance with ethical requirements that are accepted in the organization. It specifies and refines key organizational values. The ultimate aim of a code is to support ethical behavior and prevent the unethical behavior of employees. A code of ethics does not provide employees with a detailed behavioral prescription for every situation in work life, but it sets an ethical framework for employee conduct. The organization clarifies by the means of a code of ethics that all its representatives have to take into account an ethical standpoint in their decisions and actions. A code of ethics entails an ethical commitment of the organization toward all societal stakeholders and the environment

System of reporting

Communication channels for reporting unethical conduct and violation of a code of ethics, usually through ethics hot lines (email or telephone channels). They can be managed internally or externally by the organization. Via these channels, employees can contact (even anonymously) an ethics commission or an ethics consultant to report the fact, which is, according to their moral persuasions, illegal or unethical, or alternatively, in case they want to know how to behave if someone induces them to an unethical conduct

System of regular control

Ethics monitoring, ethics audit, and partially also personal discussion on ethics (between superior and subordinate), belong to this category. The results of such a monitoring can be a part of comprehensive ethics review. The aim is primarily to gain knowledge on what ethics issues employees face as well as to assess the efficiency of implemented measures and their appropriateness in respect to particular organizational conditions

Ethics case study

This represents a certain ethical issue, which might happen or really have happened in the organization. It describes a dilemmatic situation that the employees have to solve. By solving the case study, employees learn how to deal with morally problematic situations and acquire moral awareness and sensitivity to moral issues at their workplace. Ethics case studies formally belong to the category of ethics educational activities and ethics-related documents

Ethics lecture

A conventional educational method, which is focused on broadening participants’ awareness and understanding of business ethics. Its role is to teach employees to understand the moral aspects of human actions and the process of ethical decision-making; to explain the content of ethical responsibility; to eliminate uncertainty in who is responsible and for what and what would be a morally proper attitude in ethically dilemmatic situations; to provide knowledge and methods enabling to identify and resolve ethical mistakes and how to overcome their negative consequences

Ethics workshop

A work meeting, which is organized with the aim to discuss throughout an actual ethical issue, or new project related to ethics in the organization. Particular ethical issues are being collectively discussed and analyzed in a creative and open atmosphere. Usually, those who have some knowledge or experiences in the respective field are invited to take part in this event to provide others with relevant information and knowledge on the discussed issues

Ethics roundtable

A thematically flexible space or a platform to open up ethical issues in the organization. Roundtables are the base for discursive solution of ethical problems and free communication on various issues that employees regard as important or they are interested in and would like to get more information. Roundtables should take place in a democratic and tolerant atmosphere, and all employees should be invited to take part on a regular basis

External expert on ethics

An expert educated in ethics, business ethics, and managerial ethics, who is not an internal employee of the organization. External expert can fulfill the role of an ethics ombudsman or ethics advisor. Any employee can contact an external expert with ethics-related queries, to report on violations of a code of ethics or with suspicion on code violations. Although mostly the external experts on ethics are competent to help in solving ethical issues, they are not in charge of making final decisions over stakeholders involved in the ethical issue. Their opinions and proposals are just recommendatory. An external expert fulfills the function of a mediator between an employee with a real moral problem and an employer competent to deal with the problem. The primary role of an advisor is to set a contact with all people in an organization who are directly involved in the particular ethical problem and to help them to solve the issue in ethical manner

Ethics commission

A qualified and respected collective body approved by the top management of the organization. Its role is to monitor how a code of ethics is followed, to solve conflicts, to propose measures on ethics development and to revise a code of ethics and the ethics program and to update them in regular intervals. Ethics commission is responsible for systematic and long-term business ethics development in the organization. Members of an ethics commission are usually internal employees together with external participants like experts on ethics, respected personalities from the business or public life

Ethics director

An internal employee of the organization responsible for the overall strategy of ethics development in the organization. Director for ethics coordinates ethics development, administers the system of long-term ethics education, and is responsible for mechanisms, through which employees report the breach of a code of ethics. Director for ethics guarantees the monitoring of employee (un)ethical conduct

Ethics officer

An internal employee of the organization responsible for the implementation of the ethics program in an organization, in particular the ethics officer guarantees the application of mechanisms, which employees use to report violation of a code of ethics. Further, ethics officer usually arranges ethics trainings, manages monitoring and supervision activities, regularly informs employees on ethics development, and proposes measures and other monitoring processes in relation to employee (un)ethical conduct

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Remišová, A., Lašáková, A. & Kirchmayer, Z. Influence of Formal Ethics Program Components on Managerial Ethical Behavior. J Bus Ethics 160, 151–166 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3832-3

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