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Making People Behave: The Code of Conduct Solution
Celeste M. Brotheridge
published: 2006 | Case Study | Communications
Subject Area: Organizational Behaviour; Communications
Key Issues: Ethics; Code of conduct
Case Description: The City Council of a medium-sized city
adopted a Code of Conduct for its members as a reaction to
inappropriate behaviour by several of its members. Although eight
months have passed since the introduction of the Code of Conduct,
Raymonde, the City Manager's special advisor, doubts that it has taken
hold and is concerned that the code was pulled together at the last
minute and introduced without appropriate reflection and consultation.
She was unsure that the new code was of sufficient breadth and depth to
provide guidance to Council members or that enough attention was paid
to the development of mechanisms to enforce the Code of Conduct. In
their weekly meeting last Monday, Raymonde asked the City Manager, if
she could meet with him to discuss her evaluation of the Code of
Conduct and her recommendations for ensuring the Code of Conduct
was put into practice as a means of renewing citizens' faith in their
Council Members. Their meeting was scheduled to take place in an hour.
Students of business ethics and/or organizational behaviour learn that
codes of ethics or conduct are potentially important tools for ensuring
ethical behaviour in organizations. However, more often than not,
organizations introduce codes of conduct without much effort to making
the code a practical reality in the organization. The objectives of
this case study are to provide students with a realistic and
straight-forward example of: (a) the use of codes of conduct or ethics
in an organization; and (b) the need to put policy into
practice.
# Case Pages: 9
Case Number: 030092-W
Teaching Note: Yes
revised Aug 6/06
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