Policy statements on ethical issues abound. If all organisations which
produce mission statements, codes of practice or ethical codes were,
therefore, ethical in conduct and performance, business ethics would b
e non-problematic. However, the effectiveness of corporate codes of et
hics is dependent, inter alia, on the day-to-day behaviour of managers
. Interest in the impact of ethical codes and mission statements on ma
nagerial behaviour has grown in recent years. The assumption underlyin
g this paper is that one way of enriching our understanding of the eth
ical behaviour of managers is to focus on actual behaviour in real org
anisations. This paper reports the findings of a research project aime
d at discovering the extent to which the British Cooperative Bank's Et
hical Policy influences the behaviour of those managers at the Bank wh
o are responsible for achieving the Bank's objectives in acquiring new
business in the corporate market. It seeks to explore the impact of t
he Bank's Ethical Policy on the day-to-day behaviour of a significant
group of the Bank's managers.