Corporate Ethics Codes: A Practical Application of Liability Prevention

Blodgett, Mark S.; Carlson, Patricia J.

doi:10.1007/978-94-009-1475-9_14

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Sethi (1999) believes this distinction is often made as many of these codes are treated with disdain and are largely dismissed by various stakeholder group leaders, as well as by outside analysts and the wider society. For this reason, he believes they often fail to fulfil even their limited role as a symbolic reassurance mechanism to investors that a company will not face unexpected fines or penalties for breaches of the law, or payouts to employees taking legal action against the company (Blodgett and Carlson, 1997;Trevino and Nelson, 1995).…”

Section: Beyond Symbolism -Implementing/ Enforcing Codes Of Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The study of UK companies by Arthur Andersen and London Business School (1999) discovered that the most common reporting channels employed by companies for the reporting of violations or seeking of advice were through supervisors and departmental managers (67%) or through HR/ Compliance/Legal departments (59%). Blodgett andCarlson (1997, p. 1367) criticise supervisors as the first choice for advice or reporting problems to as they claim that supervisors are ''persons well known to be the source of many ethical dilemmas''. The Arthur Andersen and London Business School research found that helplines for seeking guidance were available in over 45% of respondents' organisations and hotlines for reporting suspected violations in 39%.…”

Section: Procedures For Seeking Advice or Reporting Violationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Ethical Codes of Conduct in Irish Companies: A Survey of Code Content and Enforcement Procedures

O’Dwyer

Madden²

2006

J Bus Ethics

106

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This paper reports on an investigation of issues surrounding the use of ethical codes/codes of conduct in Irish based companies. Using a comprehensive questionnaire survey, the paper examines the incidence, content and enforcement of codes of conduct among a sample of the top 1000 companies based in Ireland. The main findings indicate that the overall usage of codes of conduct amongst indigenous Irish companies has increased significantly from 1995 to 2000. However, in line with prior research, these codes focus primarily on issues surrounding company and employee protection as opposed to society protection. Almost half of all codes are written by company personnel or provided by head office. Revisions of codes are common but formal ongoing methods of instructing new staff about codes are not prevalent. Less than one-third of companies with codes have formal channels for reporting violations but a high percentage have formal disciplinary procedures in place for breaches of codes.

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Section: Beyond Symbolism -Implementing/ Enforcing Codes Of Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Procedures For Seeking Advice or Reporting Violationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Ethical Codes of Conduct in Irish Companies: A Survey of Code Content and Enforcement Procedures

O’Dwyer

Madden²

2006

J Bus Ethics

106

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“…Blodgett and Carlson (1997) study CCEs from a liability prevention perspective. They collected CCEs from a small industry-specific sample (37 corporations, 27 responded) and found that CCEs are vague in motivating actors to act ethically.…”

Section: Content-oriented Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Inquiry into the Study of Corporate Codes of Ethics

2007

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“…In today's litigious environment, management should take active steps to avoid such unethical behavior because legal liability is incurred when a duty is breached (Blodgett and Carlson, 1997). Such liability could be prevented through the application of practical business ethics (Blodgett and Carlson, 1997). This study proposes the use of counterexplanation as a practical mean to encourage more ethical decisions so that the organization can avoid the negative consequences of unethical decisions and reap the positive consequences of ethical ones.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…These include insurance and litigation costs, loss of reputation and customers, and reduction in profits. In today's litigious environment, management should take active steps to avoid such unethical behavior because legal liability is incurred when a duty is breached (Blodgett and Carlson, 1997). Such liability could be prevented through the application of practical business ethics (Blodgett and Carlson, 1997).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploratory Study of Counterexplanation as an Ethical Intervention Strategy

Chung

Monroe

2006

J Bus Ethics

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The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the use of an ethical intervention strategy – counterexplanation – on individuals’ ethical decision-making. As opposed to providing reasons to support a decision in the case of explanation, counterexplanation is the provision of reasons that either speak against or provide evidence against a chosen course of action. The number of explanations and/or counterexplanations provided by the participants is expected to have a significant effect on ethical evaluation and intention. The number of explanations is expected to be negatively related to ethical decision-making while the number of counterexplanations is expected to be positively related to ethical decision-making. The experiment, that made use of five ethical vignettes, manipulated four treatment groups – explanation, counterexplanation, explanation/counterexplanation, and counterexplanation/explanation. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four reatments. They performed the requirements of their treatment before recording their ethical evaluations and intentions. As expected, larger numbers of explanations led to less ethical decision-making and larger numbers of counterexplanations led to more ethical decision-making. However, when both types of explanations are required, the order of counterexplaining before explaining is more desirable as it leads to more ethical decision-making. The study also reports that individuals with high social desirability bias (a tendency to present oneself in a culturally acceptable manner) may generate less counterexplanations. Implications of the findings are explained in the paper. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007explanations, social desirability bias, ethical evaluations, ethical intentions,

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Corporate Ethics Codes: A Practical Application of Liability Prevention

Cited by 13 publications

References 1 publication

Ethical Codes of Conduct in Irish Companies: A Survey of Code Content and Enforcement Procedures

Ethical Codes of Conduct in Irish Companies: A Survey of Code Content and Enforcement Procedures

An Inquiry into the Study of Corporate Codes of Ethics

An Exploratory Study of Counterexplanation as an Ethical Intervention Strategy

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