Changes and Trends in Canadian Corporate Ethics Programs

Abstract

This article reports and analyzes the findings of comprehensive surveys on ethics programs in Canada's largest corporations in 2002 and 2006. A usable response rate of 25 percent was obtained in the 2002 and 21.8 percent in the 2006 survey of the country's 500 largest corporations as identified by the National Post Business Magazine, which annually ranks Canadian corporations according to revenue. It was found that ethics programs have taken root in Canada's largest organizations and are now of strategic importance to these organizations. In 2006, a statistically significant increase was observed in the proportion of boards of directors involved in the establishment of codes of ethics. In a reflection of technological developments, a significant increase in the use of electronic communication of these codes was also observed in 2006. Almost all (96 percent in 2002 and 98 percent in 2006) of the respondents indicated that there were consequences for breaching their codes. In other aspects of ethics programs, it was found that the proportion of corporations having standing ethics committees rose significantly as did the prevalence of ethics audits and support for whistleblowers and whistleblowing. These measures are having a positive effect as 83.5 percent of respondents in 2006, up from 68 percent in 2002 (P≤ 0.01), saw their firms’ ethics codes improving profit. Overall, 89.7 percent of respondents in 2002 and 91.9 percent in 2006 saw their codes as having a positive impact on organizational policies.