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The Institutionalisation of Business Ethics: Are New Zealand Organisations Doing Enough?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Karl Pajo  and
Peter McGhee
Karl Pajo
Affiliation:
Department of Human Resource Management, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North, New ZealandPhone: +64 6 350 5799, Email: [email protected]
Peter McGhee
Affiliation:
Department of Human Resource Management, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North, New ZealandPhone: +64 6 350 5799, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper reports the results of a survey investigating the institutionalisation of business ethics among New Zealand's top 200 organisations. A majority of the respondents indicated that steps were being taken by their organisation to incorporate ethical values into daily operations. However, fewer than a quarter of those surveyed indicated that resources were being set aside to accomplish the objective. The most popular tech-nique for institutionalising ethics was the development of a code of ethics. Training in ethics, ethics officers, and ethics committees were not in common use amongst the companies surveyed. Furthermore, very few organisations indicated that ethical behaviour was specifically rewarded. In contrast, a clear majority indicated that they punished unethical actions and made use of disciplinary processes to regulate employee behaviour. Follow-up interviews with a sample of managers from the organisations surveyed high-lighted a preference for the use of informal processes for the institutionalisation of business ethics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 52 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2003 

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