The History of
Business Ethics
Figure 2.3 documents a brief history of business ethics.
It illustrates several dramatic changes that have
taken place in the business environment over the last
four decades:
• Th e increased presence of an employee voice has
made individual employees feel more comfortable
speaking out against actions of their employers
that they feel to be irresponsible or unethical.
They are also more willing to seek legal resolution
for such issues as unsafe working conditions, harassment,
discrimination, and invasion of privacy.
• The issue of corporate social responsibility has
advanced from an abstract debate to a core
performance-assessment issue with clearly established
legal liabilities.
• Corporate ethics has moved from the domain of
legal and human resource departments into the
organizational mainstream with the appointment
of corporate ethics officers with clear mandates.
• Codes of ethics have matured from cosmetic
public relations documents into performance measurement
documents that an increasing
number of organizations are now committing to
share with all their stakeholders.
• Th e 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act has introduced
greater accountability for chief executive officers
and boards of directors in signing off on the financial
performance records of the organizations they
represent.