Communicating the Ethos of Codes of Ethics in Corporate Australia, 1995–2001: Whose Rights, Whose Responsibilities?

Corporate Governance and Codes of Ethics

“…The last category, transformation-oriented studies, focused on the adoption of codes (e.g., Snell and Herndon, 2000;Wood and Callaghan, 2003). These works attempt to analyze the implementation process, associated problems, and transformation mechanisms inside the company.…”

“…Nevertheless, with the exceptions of Snell et al (1999) and Wood and Callaghan (2003), any orientation toward process in research approaches seems to be rare and requires further examination. From these studies, it can be deduced that explicit theoretical discussions are rare and that there is a lack of transparency regarding how the results and recommendations were empirically generated (Helin and Sandström, 2007, p. 261).…”

Ethical Structures and Processes of Corporations Operating in Australia, Canada, and Sweden: A Longitudinal and Cross-Cultural Study

“…Australia as compared to Sweden and Canada did seem to lack support measures in place to assist staff to understand the intent of the codes. This finding was in concert with a parallel longitudinal study to this study conducted by Wood and Callaghan (2003), where they found that in corporate Australia measures in place to support the intent of the code were not only lacking, but there appeared to be no real improvement in these issues since 1995. However, in our 2005-2006 study a different pattern may be distinguished.…”

“…In a situation of revealing unethical behaviors or actions and taking steps to expose them, the dilemma that many employees face is in knowing to whom one can take an issue so as to ensure its integrity; the integrity of the person against whom the complaint is made; and usually, most importantly, for the person making the complaint, the guarantee of their own freedom from reprisals (Gellerman, 1989;Labich, 1992;Stoner, 1989;Wood and Callaghan, 2003). By its very nature, whistle blowing is a dangerous path to take for any employee.…”

“…(e.g., Berenbeim, 2000;Chonko et al, 2003;Cressey and Moore, 1983;Mathews, 1988;Weaver et al, 1999), in the U.K. (e.g., Langlois and Schlegelmilch, 1990;Le Jeune andWebley, 1998), in Ireland (O'Dwyer andMadden, 2006), in Canada (LeFebvre and Singh, 1992;Schwartz, 2002;Singh, 2006), in Sweden (Svensson et al, , 2006, in Australia (Farrell and Cobbin, 1996;Kaye, 1992;Wood, 2000;Wood and Callaghan, 2003) on codes of ethics. Code studies have also been conducted on the largest multinational corporations operating across a range of jurisdictions in the world (Bethoux et al, 2007;Carasco and Singh, 2003;Kaptein, 2004;Singh et al, 2005;Wood et al, 2004).…”