Twenty-first International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

As organizations have a growing influence on most human activities, an increasing number of researchers and managers are concerned about how to incorporate an ethical approach in them, especially in business companies. The literature on the topic identifies six groups of ethical practices: the design of codes of conduct, the adoption of external standards, the constitution of internal offices, the implementation of training programs, the elaboration of reports, and the application of control mechanisms. In the last decade many firms in Latin America, and specifically in Peru, have begun to adopt a more comprehensive approach to business ethics. Unfortunately, there are no systematic studies about this process in the country. The purpose of this research was to fill this gap through a systematic study of business ethics practices in the country. The data was collected through structured observations of web pages of 365 companies randomly selected out of the top 10,000 ones. The analysis revealed that although companies apply a variety of ethical practices, few of them do so in a comprehensive way. This study has valuable implications for scholars and managers. It provides the first systematic approach to the topic in the country, including a new index of ethical practices constructed following the suggestions of a panel of experts. It also elucidates what types of practices deserve further attention from practitioners interested in promoting an ethical climate in business organizations.