Corporate ethical virtues model

The ethics and integrity of an organization can be determined by the extent to which the organizational promotes ethical behavior and discourages unethical behavior. To define these virtues, I conducted as part of my PhD-thesis (1998) a qualitative analysis of 150 cases of unethical behavior by managers and employees that could (partly) be related to the organization in which they worked. The resulting list of items was subjected to statistical analyses showing eight factors. In brief, the virtues are as follows.

Eight important organizational virtues

Eight important organizational virtues:

The first virtue is clarity, i.e. the extent to which ethical expectations, such as values, norms and rules are concrete, comprehensive and understandable to managers and employees.

The second virtue is congruency of management, defined as the extent to which the board and middle management act in accordance with ethical expectations.

The third virtue is congruency of supervisors, defined as the extent to which local management act in accordance with ethical expectations.

The fourth virtue is feasibility, defined as the extent to which the organization makes available sufficient time, budgets, equipment, information and authority to management and employees to fulfill their responsibilities.

The fifth virtue is supportability, defined as the extent to which the organization stimulates identification with, involvement in and commitment to ethical expectations among management and employees.

The sixth virtue is transparency, defined as the extent to which ethical and unethical behavior and its consequences are visible to those managers and employees who can act upon it.

The seventh virtue is discussability, defined as the extent to which managers and employees have the opportunity to raise and discuss ethical issues, such as ethical dilemmas and alleged unethical behavior.

The eighth virtue is sanctionability, defined as the extent to which managers and employees believe that unethical behavior will be punished and ethical behavior will be rewarded, as well as the extent to which the organization learns from unethical behavior.

The eight corporate ethical virtues are not just relevant because they influence the behavior of managers and employees, but also because they can be changed by organizations. By adopting an ethics program, organizations can improve these virtues.