Abstract:

Article deals with the role of codes of ethics in the reduction of negative influence of organizational factors that induce unethical managerial decision-making. It tackles the question of whether the code does imply any systematic difference in this respect and what factors co-create the situation, in which it is not clear in the company, which behaviors are regarded as being ethical and unethical. The research was carried out on a large sample of 733 Slovak managers. It focused on their perceptions of the studied phenomena. Results suggest that codes of ethics help to raise the ethical sensitivity of managers in regard to their superiors’ unethical behavior. Codes increase also managers’ attentiveness to the necessity to set clear behavioral standards in the company. Further, factors that restrain the clarity of ethical standards in the workplace are the bad organization of work, the unethical behavior of superiors, the unethical organizational culture, and when superiors and company owners pay attention only to results and profits and do not consider the means by which the results were achieved.