Organizational Integrity — Understanding the Dimensions of Ethical and Unethical Behavior in Corporations

Guido Palazzo
Additional contact information
Guido Palazzo: University of Lausanne

A chapter in Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, 2007, pp 113-128 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Organizational integrity refers to the ethical integrity of the individual actors, the ethical quality of their interaction as well as that of the dominating norms, activities, decision making procedures and results within a given organization. This article discusses these manifold aspects of organizational integrity and outlines the main driving forces and dimensions of ethical and unethical behavior in corporations. Reflections on ethics in general start with the assumption that it has to do with human actors who do or omit something. It has to do with their motives and the product of their interrelated activities. Thus, the individual might be regarded as the main point of reference for analyzing organizational integrity. However, the ongoing formalization and institutionalization of the ethical dimension of management is based on a simple observation: Organizational integrity goes beyond managerial integrity and is more than the presence of individuals with good characters within the organization. Having “good” managers is certainly a precondition for organizational integrity, but it does not prevent organizations from obtaining bad ethical results. It is possible to take the bad apples out of the barrel but the risk of deviant organizational behavior will not be reduced to zero. The good apples might develop a bad taste and sometimes it might be a problem of the barrel itself.

Keywords: Business Ethic; Moral Reasoning; Unethical Behavior; Moral Development; Ethical Climate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-540-70818-6_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783540708186

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-70818-6_9

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().