| Abstract: | Many companies, big and small ones, national and international ones,
have their own codes of ethics. They are treated as a symptom of
nobleness and symbol of ethical acting both by the management of
these companies, as well as by the surrounding. Anyway, acting more
ethically than companies which do not have such document. I have
decided to check if it is true and if companies’ codes of ethics are ethical
and if they meet essential ethical standards. To accomplish this I have
analyzed the contents of 49 codes concerning the attitude towards
employees as a specially interested party. I have assumed, using the
knowledge of the ethics of business and specially postulates concerning
the contents of codes of ethics, that these documents meet required
expectations.
The analysis revealed the fact that some kinds of companies’ codes
of ethics can be distinguished. First of all, they are authoritarian, to a lesser
of higher degree, (it means that they reject partnership relations
with employees). Most part is restrictive towards employees (it means
that they require more than it is possible and accepted), and some are
paternalistic (which means that they are authoritarian but not restrictive).
In spite of expectations of employees and ethicists constructing
expectations towards the codes, I have not found partnership codes in
the analyzed codes, that is the ones which declare cooperation with
employees and do not have any authoritarian or restrictive features.
Therefore, I can say that companies’ codes of ethics analyzed by me
are not ethical. Many ethicists treat companies’ codes of ethics as one
of the tools to solve the problem of ethical deficit in running a business,
while these documents reveal considerable deficiency. |