This research explores methods to improve code of conduct effectiveness. Misconduct is a common phenomenon in the business environment, even in the face of increased regulation, and the adoption of codes of conduct by organisations. This impacts negatively on organisations’ reputations, results in financial loss, and has a negative impact on the sustainability of businesses. While researchers suggest that codes of conduct should reduce misconduct and improve the ethical culture of organisations, mixed research results suggest codes of conduct are not always effective. While research into code of conduct effectiveness proliferates, seldom does such research take a holistic approach to understanding effectiveness of codes of conduct. Models proposed to better research code of conduct effectiveness, such as Kaptein and Schwartz’ (2008) integrated research model, do not present guidelines for better developing and implementing codes of conduct. Therefore the primary research objective was to develop a benchmarking framework which could provide insight into factors that could influence code of conduct effectiveness, and provide guidelines on how these factors should be influenced and accounted for to improve code of conduct effectiveness. Content of codes of conduct can play an important part in code of conduct effectiveness, yet they vary enormously in terms of provisions, language, tone, style, design. Some are directional or rules based, others aspirational, or values based. Bettcher, Deshpandé, Margolis and Paine (2005) developed the Global Business Standards Codex that depicted the most commonly found provisions in organisations they surveyed. A secondary research objective was therefore to apply this codex to the evaluation of participating organisations codes of conduct, and in so doing, evaluate the suitability of the codex as a benchmarking framework for the content of the code of conduct. Adopting a grounded theory methodological approach and code of conduct content analysis, the researcher investigated nine of South Africa’s largest multinational organisations in order to understand the factors influencing their code of conduct effectiveness better. The research makes a significant contribution to the understanding of codes of conduct, their effectiveness, and provides practical guidelines on improving their effectiveness. This is achieved by 1) presenting nine formulae for an effective code of conduct; 2) detailing a multi-dimensional model that can facilitate the effectiveness of codes of conduct; and 3) improving the codex developed by Bettcher et al. (2005) on the content of codes of conduct with the proposed code of conduct architecture criterion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:21105 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Robinson, Bryan Michael Kenneth |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DBA |
| Format | xii, 273 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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