ACCT 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Critical Thinking, Business Ethics

• School: College of The Sequoias
• Department: Accounting (ACCT)
• Course: ACCT 001
• Professor: Cooper

Document Summary

Organizational factors: although people can and do make individual ethical choices in business situations, no one operates alone. Research has shown that in the workplace, an organization"s values often have greater influence on decisions than a person"s own values. An important component of corporate or organizational conduct is the company"s ethical culture. Whereas corporate culture involves values and rules that prescribe a wide range of behavior for organizational members, the ethical culture reflects whether the firm also has an ethical conscience. Corporate cultures can support and reward unethical behavior as well as ethical behavior: the ethical climate includes the character or decision processes used to determine whether actions are ethical or unethical. The ethical climate also consists of corporate codes of ethics, top management actions, ethical policies, coworker influence, and the opportunity for unethical behavior. They help on a daily basis with unfamiliar tasks and provide advice and information formally and informally.