WHY ARE CODES OF ETHICS IMPORTANT IN THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT?

The aim of this paper is to explore the roles of ethics codes in the business environment. We will survey three types of ethics codes: those developed in business organizations, those developed at the professional level, and the voluntary industry codes. It is argued that at each of the three levels codes of ethics have three very important roles to play: moral guidance, providing support for those who are under pressure to act in an unethical manner and compliance with moral norms. While these three functions will be found at each of the three levels, we show that significant differences appear.