Codes of conduct in Hong Kong organisations

Abstract

This paper first reviews the literature on the role of codes of conduct for organisations in Hong Kong in their attempts to manage increasingly complex ethical problems and issues. It shows that, although valuable foundations exist upon which to build, research and understanding of the subject is at it's embryonic stage. Social Psychology literature is examined to investigate what lessons those concerned with the study of ethics may learn and the work of Hofstede, as seminal in the area of work-related values, is emphasised in this context. Following Hofstede's proposals for strategies for operationalizing1 constructs about human values, a content analysis2 was conducted on a pilot sample of codes provided by Hong Kong organisations. The results show three clearly identified clusters of organisations with common formats. The first group, described as ‘Foreign Legal’, emphasises legal compliance, has criteria for invoking penalties and consists of foreign-owned, large multinational organisations. Companies in the second cluster have codes which, except in the case of a couple of larger organisations, mainly follow the Independent Commission Against Corruption's (ICAC) standard format. The third cluster, described as the ‘Bank Network’, also appear to largely conform to a format: the Hong Kong Banking Association's guidelines. Further analysis conducted here of the Hong Kong codes indicates the important role of ‘emic’ teleological values3, such as ‘trust’ and ‘reputation’, amongst indigenous organisations, rather than the ‘amorality’ suggested by an earlier study (Dolecheck and Bethke, 1990). These results support the proposition that Hong Kong ethical perspectives are ‘culture bound’4, as there appear to be different emphases than revealed in an American study (Stevens, 1994), which identified an emphasis in the US ‘codes’ upon introverted organisational issues and a failure to espouse deontological values5. The conclusion is that designing a research programme on business values in Hong Kong requires reference to studies of values in cross-cultural psychology generally and to Hofstede's work in particular. It also supports the need for indigenous research and models in this field which avoid the ethnocentrism inherent in much Western theory and research.