International Bribery: Does a Written Code of Ethics Make a Difference in Perceptions of Business Professionals

Abstract

corruption, international bribery, ethical attitudes, code of ethics, international operations, vignettes in ethical research,

Constructing a Code of Ethics: An Experiential Case of a National Professional Organization

“…There is broad consensus that the existence of a code does not reveal anything about why it was developed or whether it is effective, and empirical findings on effectiveness are mixed (Farrell et al, 2002b;Kaptein and Schwartz 2008;Schwartz, 2005). In their early study, Cressey and Moore (1983) pointed out that there is no practical way to assess effectiveness, and 25 years later, there has been little progress (e.g., McKinney and Moore, 2008;Valentine and Barnett, 2002). Much of the research on this topic fails to control for characteristics of the code itself, e.g., content or the larger culture in which the code is embedded (Joseph, 2003).…”

The Effects of Ethical Codes on Ethical Perceptions of Actions Toward Stakeholders

“…Some of the studies address differences in codes across countries (Farrell and Cobbin, 1996;Lefebvre and Singh, 1996;Wood, 2000). Others address codes of ethics as they relate to specific issues, such as bribery (Gordon and Miyake, 2001;McKinney and Moore, 2008), child labor (Kolk and van Tulder, 2002), or liability prevention (Blodgett and Carlson, 1997). Still others examine the characteristics of codes in specific industries, such as publishing (Borkowski and Welsh, 2000), education (Sirgy et al, 2006) and banking (Cowton and Thompson, 2000).…”

Furthering Organizational Priorities with Less Than Truthful Behavior: A Call for Additional Tools

“…A code of ethics can represent a significant step in formalizing the ethical criteria for decision making within businesses, articulating the organization's culture, and communicating and reinforcing organizational values (Boo and Koh, 2001;Helin and Sandström, 2007;McKinney and Moore, 2008). Alternatively, codes of ethics can be developed in pursuit of social legitimacy with little thought given to compliance (Long and Driscoll, 2008).…”

“…Such a reduction serves two purposes: it furthers the trustbuilding goals of the organization and reduces selfserving acts. For example, research shows that as firms gain international experience they are more likely to have formal codes of ethics and in firms with codes of ethics employees are more likely to label bribery as unacceptable (McKinney and Moore, 2008). The literature on the impact of codes of ethics, however, shows mixed results with researchers highlighting both the need for consistency between the code and the organizational ethical climate, and the need for additional research (Helin and Sandström, 2007;Lere and Gaumnitz, 2003;Wotruba et al, 2001).…”