Ethics must be communicated from the top down!

Most organizations today want to portray an image of integrity and ethical behaviour. To accomplish this, many organizations develop social responsibility programmes and codes of ethics. Such programmes and codes let employees in the organization know that company leadership is committed to ethical behaviours, and these programmes and codes define what behaviours are considered ethical and unethical. The code of ethics, as well as upper‐level management’s support of the code, must be communicated clearly to all persons in the organization. The role of each person in implementing and following the code must be communicated as well. The code also must be communicated in ways that will elicit the support of everyone in the organization.