Attempting to institutionalize ethics: Case studies from Japan

A series of survey studies on corporations' institutionalization of ethics has been done in the U.S. and Japan. Among them, one Japanese study suggest s that company policy is the most influential factor in managers' ethical d ecision-making and behavior. This empirical evidence suggests that, in japa n, company efforts to institutionalize ethics are effective in improving bu siness behavior. The author examines this by describing three case studies of Japanese managers' ethical decision-making.