Introduction
The term “ethics”, as it is applied to business and organizations, is difficult to precisely define. The International Business Ethics Institute defines business ethics as “a form of applied ethics” that “aims at inculcating a sense within a company’s employee population of how to conduct business responsibly” (Business ethics primer, 2004). The Institute notes that the term business ethics does not translate well into other (non-English) languages and that it can be hard, even within American culture, to come to a common understanding of the term. As a result, “some organizations choose to recast the concept of business ethics through such other terms as integrity...or responsible business conduct” (Business ethics primer, 2004). Roy & Roy (2004) agree that “ethics is hard to define and includes the overlapping agendas of caring for the environment, corporate governance, sustainability, and personal probity” (p. 22).
However it is defined, in recent years the topic of ethics in organizations has received considerable attention in the business, scholarly and popular media. Huge scandals at giant corporations such as Adelphia Communications Corp., Tyco International Ltd., Global Crossing, WorldCom Inc., HealthSouth Corp, FINOVA Group, Inc. and most especially, Enron Corp. have all illustrated the importance of organizational ethics (Jennings, 2003; Sims & Brinkmann, 2003). This paper provides a summary, synthesis and commentary on the topic of ethics in organizations. Based on a review of research in current professional journals, a summary of different authors’ views on organizational ethics. Following this, a synthesis and commentary on th ...