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Difficulties in Overseeing Ethical Policy
Andrews, Kenneth R.
26/4  (Summer 1984): 133-137 *

This article focuses on the significance of ethical policy in business management. It is in the realm of values and social responsibility that ethical issues appear. A board and a management confront a hopeless profusion of possibilities that have to be prioritized in some way. It is the function of a unique strategy (which the board should be willing to lend its support to and, along with the management, to bet the future of the company on) to identify those profit-detracting and responsibility-enhancing activities that a company should engage in, namely those most closely related to its mission. It is not possible in large organizations to announce an ethical policy, to insist that it is going to be obeyed and then, even when you get annual signed statements that the policy has been conscientiously complied with, to be sure that the policy is in effect. The leadership of the chief executive officer in this regard cannot be preempted by a board. Ultimately, an organization becomes amoral. Through no one's intention, the control processes that are established in an organization large enough to be deployed beyond the personal reach and influence of an individual leader often make the principal mission of a manager in the field the achievement of profit.

 

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