Level of Coherence Among Ethics Program Components and Its Impact on Ethical Intent

The Effectiveness of Ethics Programs: The Role of Scope, Composition, and Sequence

“…Training is also more effective when it is related to the code of ethics because a code provides a framework and content for the training. The study of Ruiz et al (2014) found that the ethical intent of employees was significantly higher in relation to the three components combined than in relation to any of the three components individually.…”

“…However, in a study of 82 professionals in the pharmaceutical and financial services industries, MacLean et al (2014) could not establish a link between the legitimacy of ethics programs and observed unethical behavior. Using a sample of 525 employees in the Spanish financial services industry, Ruiz et al (2014) found that all three components of an ethics program they examined-a code of ethics, ethics training, and ethics-oriented performance appraisalscontributed to the prediction of employee intentions to behave ethically.…”

“…For example, if the adoption of a code is coupled with employee training, it is more likely to be effective. As Ruiz et al (2014) explain, ''…training is especially relevant in helping to overcome the commonly abstract and vague character of codes of ethics. …well-designed and implemented training can build awareness and understanding of the rationale for the code, fostering its ongoing appropriate application.''…”

“…Next to studies on the effectiveness of ethics programs in public organizations, such as universities (Weber 2006), hospitals (Tobin et al 2005), and government institutions (Beeri et al 2013;Park and Blenkinsopp 2013), research focusing on private organizations has either included only one or a small sample of organizations (Barker 1993;MacLean and Behman 2010;Paine 1994;Pelletier andBligh 2006: Treviño andWeaver 2001;Weaver and Treviño 1999), one type of unethical behavior, such as deception (Smith-Crowe et al 2014), illegality (McKendall et al 2002, conflicts of interests (Felo 2001), and value inconsistency (Majluf and Navarrete 2011), or one component of ethics programs, such as ethics training (Delaney and Sockell 1992;Warren et al 2014) and business codes of ethics (Kaptein 2011a). Other research on the effectiveness of ethics programs has focused only on precursors to unethical behavior, such as ethical culture (Kaptein 2011b) or the ethical intent of employees (Ruiz et al 2014). Studies have also been conducted on the effect of ethical programs not on unethical behavior as such, but for example, on job satisfaction (Valentine and Fleischman 2008), attention to corporate social responsibility (Valentine and Fleischman 2008), and external disclosure (Felo 2007).…”

Spiritual Quotient and Ethical Values towards Organizational Sustainability

“…During the last two decades, USbased organizations have articulated codes of ethics and developed ethics training programs for their employees but they could not bring to end unethical practices (Jondle, Ardichvili & Mitchell, 2014). Moreover employees are continuously involved in unethical misconduct (Ruiz, Martinez, Rodrigo & Diaz, 2014).In addition, Evidence of new ethical lapses involving, international bribery and employee unethical behavior is serious issue for the organizations (Ruiz et al 2014). According to the Ethics Resource Center (2013), in their National Business Ethics Survey (NBES), they have found that 41 percent of employees were involved in the activities that were against the law or unethical misconduct in the past year.…”