Using the Competing Values Framework to Assess Corporate Ethical Codes

Ethical codes are written documents which presume to state the major philo sophical principles of an organization and to express its values and beliefs. The present study uses a competing values framework to describe the dimensions of ethical codes, telling us how change-oriented and transformational, instruc tional, informational, and relational they are in their communication and as representative of the organizational culture. Present results suggest that ethical codes are relationally and informationally dynamic, but exhibit transforma tional and instructional characteristics to a lesser degree. Findings suggest that ethical codes are generally framed from a defensive position designed to protect the organization from the employee and are not written, for the most part, using guiding or visionary language.