Document Type:Magazine/Journal Library Links: Gale powersearch The number of American companies implementing ethics programs is growing as ethical pressures on business also increase. A survey of the Fortune 1,000 companies revealed that 90% of them had written codes of ethics in 1990, as compared to just 75% in 1985. While many business-ethics programs have increased in sophistication over the years, there are still those that wrongly assume that complying with the law or adopting an ethics code ensures good ethics. Other programs fail because they are too dependent on outside consultants and/or lack the support of upper management. An effective ethics program avoids these shortcomings. Although ethics training cannot guarantee increased profitability, companies can still benefit from it because such training can encourage ethical thinking within the organization and can help keep trouble away. Full Text :COPYRIGHT 1993 VNU Business Media Your company's sales depend heavily on a product that's suddenly banned in the United States because it violates environmental standards. The product is still legal in the. Third World, and a customer there wants to buy up your remaining inventory. Do you sell it to him? A remote plant is a money-loser, but closing it will put 1,000 employees out of work and may be a death sentence for the town itself, the place where your company was founded. Not closing the plant, however, will erode per-share earnings. Which option do you choose? Don't expect quick answers. "We used to know what was right, or at least we thought we did. Nowadays, things are moving so fast we often don't know what is right and we know it That's why we have to keep talking about business ethics," says Lisa Newton, director of the Applied Ethics Center a ...