NCJ Number
160670
Date Published
1995
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Interviews with 71 managers at all levels in two companies, one in banking and one in high technology, formed the basis of an analysis of managers' perceptions of morality in their day-to-day responsibilities and the implications of those perceptions for societal control over corporate crime or unethical behavior.
Abstract
Each interview required an average of 3.5 hours and was conducted in two parts. The analysis revealed that managers experience personal conflicts relating to contradictory goals such as the corporate goal of maximizing profit, as transmitted by management in policy directives, and the directives of common morality to be honest and straightforward with customers and other employees and respect their best interests. Because personal ethical issues are publicly and privately inadmissible in corporate culture, these conflicts are translated into tensions between professional ethics and values and organizational requirements. Findings indicated a moral division of labor, with conflicts between different levels in the organization. Results suggested the need for ethical consideratinos to be the focus of a routine process of inquiry in which managers discuss alternative choices with each other. Law can assist this process when it incorporates professional standards into its rules, licenses specialists, and requires dissemination of certain forms of information. However, legal constraint will be counterproductive if it is either fanciful or loaded in favor of more organized and resource-rich interests. Instead, it must be clear, consistent, and competent in establishing social constraints. Notes