Implementing business ethics in large British organisations

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to ethics in the realm of business where i't is believed that a company should focus not only on the development of ethical business policies, but the implementation thereof as well. While ethical behaviour in business has been accepted, the implementation of ethical policies is proving to be difficult. In this article we firstly review the business ethics implementation literature with a particular focus on codes of conduct. We then present results from a study of British companies, commenting on methods of fostering ethical behaviour, the use of formal codes of ethics, management's involvement in implementation, and the effectiveness of codes of business practice. The results show that large British organisations are becoming more ethically aware, but still have some way to go in implementing ethical policies.