Open AccessUnderstanding The Factors Underlying Ethical Organizations: Enabling Continuous Ethical Improvement
Author(s) -
Vicky Arnold,
James C. Lampe,
Steve G. Sutton
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of applied business research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2157-8834
pISSN - 0892-7626
DOI - 10.19030/jabr.v15i3.5667
Subject(s) - ethical decision , business ethics , ethical leadership , ethical issues , engineering ethics , public relations , focus (optics) , curriculum , political science , sociology , business , management , psychology , law , economics , engineering , physics , optics
Over the past decade, issues surrounding corporate ethics and the ethical decision making of individuals in business have been a major focus in the popular press, academic research and curriculum revision efforts in business schools. One of the quandaries faced throughout these efforts is how to enable an individual to make ethical decisions In this paper, a model is proposed that focuses on organizational culture as the means by which to provide an environment that fosters ethical decision making by the organizations members. A four-stage model for understanding the current ethical state of organizations is formulated. Subsequently, the focus shifts to the underlying factors and situations that may intentionally or unintentionally exist and that may cause an organization to progress to a higher stage or regress to a lower stage.