Ethical codes of conduct and organizational context: A study of the relationship between codes of conduct, employee behavior and organizational values

Codes of ethics are bring increasingly adopted ill organizations worldwide, yet their effects on employee perceptions and behavior have not been thoro ughly addressed. This study used a sample of 613 management accountants dra wn from the United States to study the relationship between corporate and p rofessional codes of ethics and employee attitudes and behaviors. The prese nce of corporate codes of ethics was associated with less perceived wrongdo ing in organizations, but not with an increased propensity to report observ ed unethical behavior. Further, organizations that adopted formal codes of ethics exhibited value orientations that went beyond financial performance to include responsibility to the commonweal. in contrast to corporate codes of ethics, professional codes of ethical conduct had no influence on perce ived wrongdoing in organization nor these codes affect the propensity to re port observed unethical activities.