Abstract
This paper assesses the potential of organisational culture as a means for improving ethics in organisations. Organisational culture is recognised as one determinant of how people behave, more or less ethically, in organisations. It is also incresingly understood as an attribute that management can and should influence to improve organisational performance. When things go wrong in organisations, managers look to the culture as both the source of problems and the basis for solutions. Two models of organisational culture and ethical behaviour are evaluated. They rest on different understandings of organisational culture and the processes by which ethics are enhanced. Firstly, the prevailing approach holds that creating a unitary cohesive culture around core moral values is the solution to enhancing ethical behaviour. Both the feasibility and desirability of this approach, in terms of ethical outcomes, is questioned. The second model queries the existence of organisational culture at all, arguing that organisations are nothing more than shifting coalitions of subcultures. In this second model, the very porousness of the subcultures provides a catalyst for the scrutiny and critique of norms and practices. Such diversity and debate is construed as potentially a better safeguard for ethical behaviour than the uniformity promised by the unitary, strong culture model.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackroyd, S. and Crowdy, P.: 1990, ‘Can Culture be Managed? Working with “Raw” Material: The Case of English Slaughtermen’,Personnel Review 19(5), pp. 3–13.
Adelman, H.: 1991, ‘Morality and Ethics in Organizational Administration’,Journal of Business Ethics 10(9), pp. 665–678.
Adler, N.: 1985, ‘Introduction’ in Adler, N and Izraeli, D. (eds.),Women in Management Worldwide (M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York).
Akers, J.: 1989 (Winter), ‘Ethics and Competitiveness — Putting First things First’,Sloan Management Review 30(2), pp. 69–71.
Anthony, P.: 1990, ‘The Paradox of the Management of Culture, or “He who leads is lost”,Personnel Review 19(4).
Arogyaswamy, B. & Byles, C.: 1987, ‘Organisational Culture: Internal and External Fits’,Journal of Management Studies 13(4), pp. 647–659.
Belbin, M.: 1981,Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail (Heinemann, London).
Baum, H.: 1987,The Invisible Bureaucracy: The Unconscious in Organizational Problem Solving (Oxford Uni. Press, New York).
Bennis, W. & Nanus, B.: 1985,Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge (Harper & Row, New York).
Berg, P. O.: 1986, ‘Symbolic Management of Human Resources’,Human Resource Management 25(4), pp. 557–579.
Bourgeois, L.: 1984, ‘Strategic Management and Determinism’,Academy of Management Review 9(4).
Bower, J.: 1974, ‘On the Amoral Organization’, in R. Marris (ed.),The Corporate Society (MacMillan, London) pp. 178–213.
Bridges, W.: 1986, ‘Managing Organizational Transitions’,Organizational Dynamics 15(1), pp. 24–33.
Burrell, G. & Morgan, G.: 1979,Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis (Heinemann, London).
Calori, R. & Sarnin, P.: 1991, ‘Corporate Culture and Economic Performance: A French Study’,Organizational Dynamics 12(1), pp. 49–74.
Coleman, J.: 1985,The Criminal Elite (St. Martin's Press, New York).
Clinard, M.: 1983,Corporate Ethics and Crime (Sage, Beverly Hills, California).
Clinard, M.: 1988, ‘Foreword’ of Cash Mathews, M.,Strategic Interventions in Organizations: Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (Sage, Beverly Hills).
Crozier, M.: 1964,The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (Tavistock, London).
Deal, T. and Kennedy, A.: 1882,Corporate Cultures (Reading, Mass., Addison Wesley).
Denhardt, K.: 1988,The Ethics of Public Service: Resolving Moral Dilemmas in Public Organizations (Greenwood Press, New York).
Denison, D.: 1984 (Autumn), ‘Bringing Corporate Culture to the Bottom Line’,Organizational Dynamics, pp. 5–22.
Denison, D.: 1990,Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness (Wiley, New York).
Drake, B. & Drake, E.: 1988 (Winter), ‘Ethical and Legal Aspects of Managing Corporate Cultures’,California Management Review, pp. 107–123.
Drucker, P.: 1981, ‘What is “Business Ethics”?’,The Public Interest 63, pp. 18–36.
Drucker, P.: 1991, ‘Don't Change Corporate Culture — Use It!’,Wall Street Journal, April 17.
Ewin, R.: 1991, ‘Moral Status of the Corporation’,Journal of Business Ethics,10(10), pp. 749–756.
Fisse, B. & Braithwaite, J.: 1983,The Impact of Publicity on Corporate Offenders (State University of New York Press, Albany).
Fitzgerald, T.: ‘Can change in organizational culture really be managed?’,Organizational Dynamics 17(2).
French, P.: 1984,Collective and Social Responsibility (Colombia University Press, New York).
Gagliardi, P.: 1990, ‘Culture and Management Training: Closed Minds and Change in Managers Belonging to Organizational and Occupational Communities’, in B. Turner (ed.),Organizational Symbolism (De Gruyter, Berlin) pp. 159–171.
Georgiou, P.: 1973, ‘The Goal Paradigm and Notes Toward a Counter Paradigm’,Administrative Science Quarterly 18, pp. 291–310.
Goldring, J. & Thynne, I.: 1990, Administrative Review, Public Morality and the Integration of Administration and Legal Cultures’, in A. Kouzmin & N. Scott (eds.),Dynamics in Australian Public Management: Selected Essays (Macmillan, South Melbourne), pp. 146–160.
Goodpaster, K. & Matthews, J.: 1982, ‘Can a Corporation Have a Conscience?’,Harvard Business Review 60(1), pp. 132.
Gowler, D. and Legge, K.: 1983, ‘The Meaning of Management and the Management of Meaning: A View from Social Anthropology’, in M. Earl (ed.),Perspectives on Management: A Multidisciplinary Analysis (Oxford University Press, Oxford), pp. 197–233.
Gregory, K.: 1983, ‘Native-View Paradigms: Multiple Cultures and Culture Conflicts in Organizations’,Administrative Science Quarterly 28(3).
Harvard Business School: 1983, ‘Johnson & Johnson (A)’ (HBS Case Services, Boston, M.A.).
Hirschman, A.: 1970,Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Mass. Harvard University Press, Cambridge).
Hofstede, G., Neuijen, B., Ohayv, D. and Sanders, G.: 1990, ‘Measuring Organizational Cultures: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study Across Twenty Cases’,Administrative Science Quarterly 35.
Hummel, R.: 1982,The Bureaucratic Experience, 2nd ed. (St. Martin's Press, New York).
Jackall, R.: 1988,Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
Jackson, M.: 1991 (May), ‘Ethics in Corporate Decision-Making and Disasters’,Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration 64, pp. 38–45.
Janis, I. & Mann, L.: 1977,Decision-Making: A Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice and Commitment (The Free Press, New York).
Kilmann, R., Saxton, M. & Serpa, R.: 1985,Gaining Control of the Corporate Culture (Jossey Bass, San Francisco).
Laczniak, G. & Murphy, P.: 1991, ‘Fostering Ethical Marketing Decisions’,Journal of Business Ethics 10(4), pp. 259–271.
Lorsch, J.: 1985, ‘Strategic Myopia: Culture as an invisible barrier to change’, in R. Kilmann, Saxton & Serpa (eds.),Gaining Control of the Corporate Culture (Jossey Bass, San Francisco).
Lundberg, C.: 1985, ‘On the Feasibility of Cultural Intervention in Organizations’, in P. Frost, L. Moore, M. Louis, C. Lundberg & J. Martin (eds.),Organizational Culture (Sage, Beverly Hills, California), pp. 169–186.
Martin, J. & Powers, M.: 1983, ‘Truth or Corporate Propaganda: the value of a good war story’, in L. Pondy, P. Frost, G. Morgan, & T. Dandridge (eds.),Organizational Symbolism, Connecticut (JAI Press).
Martin, J. & Siehl, C.: 1983, ‘Organisational Culture and Counter Culture: An Uneasy Symbiosis’,Organizational Dynamics 12(2), pp. 52–64.
Masel, L.: ‘Regulatory Commissions and the Courts’,Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration 58, pp. 166–170.
Mathews, M. Cash.: 1988,Strategic Intervention in Organizations: Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (Sage, California).
Merton, R.: 1940, ‘Bureaucratic Structure and Personality’,Social Forces 18, pp. 560–568.
Metcalfe, L. and Richards, S.: 1987, ‘Evolving Management Cultures’, in J. Kooiman and K. Eliassen (eds.),Managing Public Organizations: Lessons from Contemporary European Experience (Sage, London), pp. 75–86.
Murphy, P.: 1989, ‘Creating Ethical Corporate Structures’,Sloan Management Review 30(2), pp. 81–87.
Nicholson, N.: 1984, ‘Organisational Culture, Ideology and Management’, in J. Hunt, D. Hosking, C. Schriesheim and R. Stewart (eds.),Leaders and Managers (Pergamon Press).
Norton, T.: 1991, ‘Moral Responsibilities of Professionals’,Journal of Business Ethics 10(8), pp. 621–623.
Pascale, R.: 1985, ‘The Paradox of Corporate Culture: Reconciling Ourselves to Socialization’,Californian Management Review 27(2), pp. 26–41.
Peters, T. & Waterman, R.:In Search of Excellence: Lessons from American's Best-Run Companies (Harper & Row, New York).
Pettigrew, A.: 1979, ‘On Studying Organisational Cultures’,Administrative Science Quarterly 24(4), pp. 570–581.
Pondy, L. & Mitroff, I.: 1979, ‘Beyond Open Systems Models of Organization’, in B. Staw (ed.),Research in Organizational Behavior 1 (JAI Press, Greenwich, Connecticut).
Reed, M. & Anthony, P.: 1990 ‘Professionalizing management and managing professionalization: British management in the 1980s’, Paper presented to the Employment in the Enterprise Culture Conference, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff.
Reidenbach, R. & Robin, D.: 1991, ‘A Conceptual Model of Corporate Moral Development’,Journal of Business Ethics 10(4), pp. 273–284.
Sathe, V.: 1983 (Autumn), ‘Implications of Corporate Culture: A Manager's Guide to Action’,Organizational Dynamics, pp. 5–23.
Schein, E.: 1983 (Summer), ‘The Role of the Founder in Creating Organizational Culture’,Organizational Dynamics, pp. 13–28.
Schein, E.: 1984, ‘Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture’,Sloan Management Review 25(2), pp. 3–16.
Schein, E.: 1985,Organizational Culture and Leadership, (Jossey Bass, San Francisco).
Schein, E.: 1988, ‘Organizational Socialization and the Profession of Management’,Sloan Management Review 30(1), pp. 53–65.
Schwartz, H. and Davis, S.: 1981 (Summer), ‘Matching Corporate Culture and Business Strategy’,Organizational Dynamics, pp. 31–48.
Schwartz, H.: 1987, ‘Anti-Social Actions of Committed Organizational Participants: An Existential, Psychoanalytic Perspective’,Organization Studies 8(4).
Silk, L. and Vogel, D.: 1976,Ethics and Profits: The Crisis of Confidence in America (Simon & Schuster, New York).
Sinclair, A.: 1991, ‘After Excellence: Models of Organisational Culture for the Public Sector’,Australian Journal of Public Administration 50(3), pp. 321–332.
Smircich, L.: 1983, ‘Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis’,Administrative Science Quarterly 28.
Staw, B., Sandelands, L. & Dutton, J.: 1981, ‘Threat-Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis’,Administrative Science Quarterly 26, pp. 501–524.
Stone, C.: 1975,Where the Law Ends: The Social Control of Corporate Behaviour (Harper & Row, New York).
Shapiro, I.: 1984,America's Third Revolution: Public Interest and the Private Role (Harper & Row, New York).
Sutherland, E.: ‘A Theory of White Collar Crime’, in M. Ermann & R. Lundman,Corporate and Governmental Deviance (3rd ed.). (Oxford University Press, New York).
Toffler, B. L.: 1986,Tough Choices: Managers Talk Ethics (Wiley, New York).
Turner, B.: 1971,Exploring the Industrial Subculture (Macmillan, London).
Turner, B.: 1976, ‘The Organizational and Interorganizational Development of Disasters’,Administrative Science Quarterly 21, pp. 387–397.
Uttal, B.: 1983 (October), ‘The Corporate Culture Vultures’,Fortune 17, pp. 66–72.
Van Maanen, J. & Barley, S.: 1984, ‘Occupational communities: Culture Control in Organizations’ in B. Staw (ed.),Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol 6 (JAI Press Greenwich).
Van Maanen, J. & Barley, S.: 1985, ‘Cultural Organization: Fragments of a Theory’, in P. Frost, L. Moore, M. Louis, C. Lundberg & J. Martin (eds.),Organizational Culture (Sage, Beverly Hills, California), pp. 31–54.
Velasquez, S.: 1983, ‘Why Corporations are Not Morally Responsible for Anything They Do’,Business and Professional Ethics Journal 2, Spring, pp. 1–18.
Waters, J.: 1978 (Spring), ‘Catch 20.5: Corporate Morality as an Organizational Phenomenon’,Organizational Dynamics, pp. 3–19.
Weiss, R. M.: 1986,Managerial Ideology and the Social Control of Deviance (Praeger, New York).
Werhane, P.: 1991, ‘Engineers and Management: The Challenge of the Challenger Incident’,Journal of Business Ethics 10(8), pp. 605–618.
Whyte, W.: 1956,The Organization Man (Simon & Schuster, New York).
Wilkins, A. and Ouchi, W.: 1983, ‘Efficient Cultures: Exploring the Relationship between Culture and Organizational Performance’,Administrative Science Quarterly 28, pp. 468–481.
Zaleznik, A.: 1989a, ‘The Mythological Structure of Organizations and its Impact’,Human Resource Management 28(2).
Zaleznik, A.: 1989b,The Managerial Mystique: Restoring Leadership in Business (Harper & Row, New York).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Dr. Amanda Sinclair is a Senior Lecturer in the Graduate School of Management. As a teacher on the MBA program of courses, including Ethics, she has a particular interest in the development and professionalisation of managers. Her current research focuses on organisational diversity, change and culture and administrative leadership and accountability.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sinclair, A. Approaches to organisational culture and ethics. J Bus Ethics 12, 63–73 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01845788
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01845788