Code of Conduct as a Tool for Managing the Relations with Employees

Abstract

The negative image of business in the public opinion has drawn its attention, firstly in USA,and after that in Europe, to the ethical issues in business activity.The ethical behaviors of the companies have mostly the external importance they are thetools to build positive image of the company and trustworthy among its stakeholders: shareholders, customers, public opinion; and therefore they contribute to the economic growth of thecompany.Nevertheless, the ethical issues are important also inside the company, in the relations withthe employees. Codes of conducts are one of the instruments that besides building the positiverelations with the external environment may also strengthen the ties in organization. The way ofenacting the code and the employees identification with the values and rules it contains areimportant.The aim of this paper is to answer the questions: May the code of conduct be a tool ofmanaging the relations with employees, and under what conditions may it be a valuable tool, notonly another unimportant document? The first part of the paper focuses on the issue of ethics in business and genesis of this topic.After that, the deliberations focus on codes of conducts and their role in relations with environ-ment. The last part shows the evidences of the efficiency the codes of conducts in managingrelations with employees.Paper is prepared on basis of literature and researches, as well as on the authors surveys inbig international companies in some Polish cities (Kraków, Wroc³aw, Poznañ, and Warszawa).