|
Developing a Code of Ethics |
PDF
|
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
rent apartment in Bucharest Most of the research on ethics has been in large organizations, so we have very little information about small businesses. However, work done by Longenecker and others found that small-business owners have more stringent ethical view~s on such things as favoritism in promotion, acquiescence to a dangerous design flaw, misleading financial reporting, and misleading advertising. But surprisingly, they view with much greater tolerance padded expense accounts, tax evasion, collusion in bidding, insider trading, discrimination against women, and the copying of computer software. Research has also found that the ethical behavior of employees is very much influenced by the code of ethics ofthe company.'-1 When a code of ethics is written, people in the organization take it more seriously. So it would seem to be important for a business owner to develop a formal code of ethics for the business. After all, the best way to handle ethical dilemmas is to have in place a mechanism for avoiding them in the first place. |