Między paternalizmem a restrykcyjnością. Prawa pracownicze w kodeksach etycznych firm

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.