Code Of Conduct Research Articles

Culture matters: Cultural variability in corporate codes of conduct as a means to foster organizational legitimacy

AbstractIn recent decades, implementing a code of conduct (CoC) as part of an organization's CSR infrastructure has become a sine qua non for gaining trust and fostering credibility. Despite numerous studies aimed at identifying cultural differences in the content of CoCs, little is known about what causes those differences and how they relate to an organization's communicative endeavor to gain trust and strengthen its legitimacy. In response, this article examines potential cultural differences in the public availability, design, and content of CoCs of corporations headquartered in countries in the Confucian Asian versus Anglo cultural clusters from the perspective of strategic communication. Drawing on the concepts of individualist versus collectivist culture and low‐ versus high‐context communication, the findings reveal significant differences, including that Anglo‐based companies more often make their CoCs publicly available and, in turn, significantly more comprehensive than Confucian Asian codes. Furthermore, compared with Anglo CoCs, significantly fewer CoCs of companies headquartered in Confucian Asia address the importance of moral values in daily business practices and sensitive issues such as prohibited behavior, whistleblowing, and sanctions following code violations. Those findings indicate significant institutional and cultural differences in companies' communication about ethical principles and corresponding conduct and suggest that, across cultures, CoCs differ in their content and are not accorded equal relevance as a means to foster legitimacy via CSR communication.

Impact of Social Compliance on Conflict Management in the Readymade Garment Industry

In the global ready-made garment (RMG) market, there is intense competition. To combat ethical issues in the supply chain, vendors have created compliance regulatory standards. Suppliers must also monitor, enforce, and disclose compliance. Therefore, the global garment industry exerted pressure on suppliers from developing countries to implement a code of conduct (CoC) that emphasized social responsibility. The apparel industry has discovered that this Code of Conduct is a valuable instrument for monitoring the compliance activities of its suppliers. Compliance is essential to the prosperity of any RMG organization, according to studies. Studies indicate, however, that it fails in the apparel industry because purchasers may exert pressure on suppliers to prioritize cost savings over non-compliance. Also, demand places suppliers under unnecessary pressure. It cannot, therefore, be used in the fashion industry. Consequently, both positive and negative compliance studies inspired this study. This research is based on contingency theory. The findings of this study illuminate the significance of the connection between social compliance and labor instability in Bangladesh's RMG industry. This study also proposes that Bangladeshi textile companies should have normally utilized lean manufacturing techniques to increase output in accordance with new regulations, despite social compliance challenges. The data in this quantitative investigation were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Simple random sampling was used to acquire data from 384 employees using survey techniques.

Facing South China Sea Dispute: Where Is Asean Single Voice?

South China Sea disputes has become intense in challenging regional stability in Southeast Asia. The strategic location of rich natural resources, for instance, oil and gas has triggered China and other Claimant States in Southeast Asia in exercising their capability mainly in military power to secure their claimed area. China stretched its “Nine-Dash Line” and created an artificial island namely Spartly Island. To date, this unresolved disputed questioning the role of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the leader of regional organisation in dealing with this conflict. The disputes mechanisms have been exercised by ASEAN, for instance, Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) through ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as well as produced guidance in facing China through Declaration of Conduct (DOC) and Code of Conduct (COC). However, the progress apparently remain insignificant in achieving agreement. This paper examines ASEAN’s leadership in bridging the dispute through assessing the effectiveness of its dispute mechanisms through Confident Building Measures (CBM) as a diplomatic strategy in reaching one single voice in facing China.

Cracking the code: the effects of codes of conduct and decision frames on supplier selection in financially distressed firms

PurposeFirms are increasingly required to make ethical choices when selecting suppliers for their supply chains, and the decisions often rest on individual purchasing managers within the firm. This study builds on the literature on ethical decision-making and the concept of decision frames to investigate the decision-making process of purchasing managers in financially distressed firms. Codes of Conduct (CoC) and how they are enforced (financial rewards and codified procedures for oversight) are studied in terms of their effectiveness in informing and guiding purchasing managers in their supplier selection decisions.Design/methodology/approachFour sequential experiments were conducted with a total of 648 purchasing managers from manufacturing firms.FindingsThe results indicate that purchasing managers in firms facing financial distress are more than four times more likely than purchasing managers in the control groups to select the less ethical supplier in favor of better operational performance. As a potential remedy, it is found that enforcing the firm's CoC help to counteract this tendency and increase ethical supplier selection decisions by 2.1- to 2.6-fold. However, CoC enforcement that invokes multiple conflicting decision frames simultaneously is more likely to impair than promote ethical supplier selection decisions, compared to situations where only one enforcement method is present.Originality/valueThese findings develop an improved understanding of purchasers' decision-making processes and shed light on how to effectively use CoCs to guide these decisions.

Tips and Pitfalls in Using Social Media Platforms for Survey Dissemination

IntroductionSocial media has become a prevalent platform for survey dissemination, despite the paucity of literature on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to outline the benefits and drawbacks of and best practices for social media-based surveys.MethodsWe performed a scoping review of this topic and explored different strategies commonly employed for conducting efficient health care surveys via social media platforms.ResultsThe main advantages of social media-based surveys are the convenience and flexibility of survey design, their relatively low cost, the anonymity of responders, and the ability to reach a broader population of responders across geographical boundaries. Several measures can be adopted to avoid issues inherent in this approach, such as data disruption and response duplication, as well as to enhance ethical behaviors and consent compliance. We discuss limitations associated with unclear distribution of survey respondents and outline survey fraud as a major impediment to the online propagation of surveys on various social media platforms.DiscussionThe use of social media to disseminate surveys on various medical specialty topics has garnered global participation, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ethical codes of conduct emphasize the need for professionalism and truthfulness, and disclosure of potential conflicts of interest on the part of respondents, and high-quality survey research on the part of researchers.ConclusionWe advocate for the novel use of social media to promote large and diverse health care surveys. Additional studies should further explore the use of emerging social media platforms for survey dissemination and their impact on health care research.

Do Wealth Managers Understand Codes of Conduct and Their Ethical Dilemmas? Lessons from an Online Survey

How do wealth managers understand and comply with the social norms embedded in banks’ codes of conduct (CoC), and how do they cope with ethical dilemmas? Do they have a tendency after the global financial crisis to prioritize banks’ financial security over clients’ interests? To answer these and related questions, we conduct a nonincentivized online survey with wealth management employees of the Swiss legal entity of a large multinational bank. We propose a method to estimate the comprehension and the level of expected adherence to the CoC principles that we test with our sample. We further show that framing questions under the label of “Financial Security” increased response accuracy and that employees’ honesty helped guide their decision-making toward integrity in ethical dilemmas. Thus, in addition to validating a method for testing the level of CoC comprehension and the expected adherence to its principles, our study is among the first to show that in the wealth management business, honesty and social injunctive norms defined in the bank’s CoC reinforce one another.

Risk guidance and anti-corruption language: evidence from corporate codes of conduct

Multinational firms often face challenges doing business in countries where corruption is common practice in the business environment. This study examines anticorruption guidance provided in the corporate Codes of Conduct (CoC). We evaluate if this guidance is consistent with the firm-specific idiosyncratic exposure to corruption, or if corporate ‘tone from the top’ (TTT) uses only broad brush general language ‘impression management’ in an attempt to appear compliant. We also explore the interaction between anti-corruption guidance and audit oversight. Using quantitative textual analysis on a sample of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 firms’ CoC, we develop a measure of anti-corruption language based on the most prevalent topics covered in these documents. We find the positive association between the anti-corruption topics and the firm-adjusted level of corruption risk. That is, the language used varies depending upon idiosyncratic firm risk, suggesting CoC is not simply used for impression management. We also identify a non-linear relationship in which audit oversight is observed as increasingly important in the most severe corrupt settings. Our results could be useful to practitioners and policymakers who may care about the information content of CoC when evaluating a firm’s risk management practices. We also show that when the corruption risk is sufficiently high, the anti-corruption TTT needs to be supplemented by other control activities such as audit oversight.

Factors influencing success of the cocoa (Theobroma cacao) product certification program in tropical areas

Cocoa is one of the leading national commodities after rubber, palm oil, coffee, and tea. Cocoa has a significant impact on the economy in Central Sulawesi, especially in terms of creating new jobs and sources of income for farmers. The decline in cocoa productivity and quality will affect farmers' income in rural areas. In recent years, several cocoa industry and cocoa trading companies such as Mars Inc., Mondelez International, Cargill, Barry Callebout, and JB Cocoa have begun to focus on developing product certification programs for selling by allocating several CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds to conduct training and technical assistance in cultivation (pruning, fertilizing, frequent harvesting and sanitation) for cocoa. Therefore, several socializing requirements or compliance standards must be met by farmers who are members of the certification program, namely the CoC (Code of Conduct) established by certification bodies such as UTZ. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that influence the success of the cocoa certification program in Central Sulawesi. 80 families were chosen as number of samples. A logistic regression model was used to answer the research objectives. The results showed that the land area, farmer's age, level/year of farmer's education had very small influence on the success of the certification program in Central Sulawesi. The linkage of debt with traders considerably influences the success of product certification programs. Cocoa production, income factors, traders' domicile, and merchant service patterns have a significant influence on the success of the certification program

ASEAN, China and South China Sea: Alternative approach for security cooperation

This article analyzes the status quo and cooperation mechanism between ASEAN and China, mainly, the non-traditional security issues in the South China Sea space (SCS). The non-traditional security threats confronting the SCS are complex, diverse and enormous. Amongst those are transnational maritime crimes, marine disaster threat, marine ecological environmental threat, and resource scarcity. Recent trends have demonstrated that the established regimes between ASEAN and China, for non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS, are fragmented mainly due to the absence of integrated and long-term mechanisms. Three reasons hinder the acceleration of the cooperation process: interference from outside powers, insufficient mutual political trust between China and ASEAN members, claimants and divergence of interests in advancing the Code of Conduct (COC) in the SCS. This article aims to analyze the problems and the causes existing between China and ASEAN in dealing with non-traditional security cooperation. It also examines the effectiveness of the rules-based cooperation mechanisms and offers a few recommendations. It is argued that ASEAN and China should take advantage of the low sensitivity of non-traditional security issues and high-quality development of the One Belt and One Road Initiative, to construct an integrated framework based on rules jointly and order for multilateral non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS. Three possible and workable measures are recommended to facilitate non-traditional security cooperation between ASEAN and China in the SCS. Both sides, primarily ASEAN member claimants, pursue an excellent willingness to cooperate and could promote functional cooperation, promote successful maritime cooperation modes as long-term cooperation mechanisms in the SCS, focus on strengthening the capacity-building of marine governance, and comprehensively establish a multilateral cooperation mechanism in marine environmental protection and fishery resources management.

Exploring Codes of Conduct in the Supplier Selection Decision at Financially Distressed Firms

Building on the ethical decision-making literature and the concept of decision frames, this study provides an exploration of the decision-making process of purchasing managers at financially distressed firms. Codes of Conduct (CoC) and the way they are enforced are explored in terms of their ability to inform and guide purchasing managers in their decisions. Four experiments involving a total of 648 purchasing managers at manufacturing firms were conducted. The results indicate that purchasing managers at firms in financial distress were 2.67 times more likely to select unethical suppliers. As a potential remedy, it is found that the enforcement of the firm’s CoC can decrease this tendency by between 64 and 79 percent. However, enforcing CoCs is not straightforward and the simultaneous presence of enforcement methods that induce opposing decision frames was found to harm, rather than support, ethical supplier choices vis-á-vis situations where only one enforcement method is present. These findings develop an improved understanding of purchasers’ decision-making processes and offer insights on how to effectively guide these decisions.

China's Peaceful Development: A Responsible Great Power or a Good Neighbour?

The rise of China has become a catchword to define China’s current position in the international system. China’s increasing power comes with responsibility. Continuing Hu Jintao’s peaceful development, Xi Jinping is committed to realising China’s responsibility as a great power. Concurrently, Xi sets out a neighbourhood diplomacy that underlines the importance of bringing development and prosperity to neighbouring states. This paper aims to investigate the way China realise the twin goals of peaceful development. The South China Sea (SCS) disputes involving China and four neighbouring Southeast Asian states serves as a case study. It is found that China's assertiveness, manifested in continued escalations and dragged-on negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC), does not bode well for China’s peaceful development. In other words, China is hardly a responsible great power or a good neighbour in its handling of the SCS issue.

How export-oriented SMEs from emerging markets respond to the CSR-related code of conduct: a content analysis of auditing reports

PurposeThis study aims to explore how emerging SMEs respond to the multifaceted contents of CSR-related code of conduct (COC) from external stakeholders and the underlying constraining forces and mechanisms shaping such responses.Design/methodology/approachThis study opted for a qualitative methodology using the content analysis, and the data were collected from the auditing reports on Chinese export-oriented SMEs carried out by a public and independent third-party agency.FindingsThe findings showed that SMEs from emerging markets present a short-termism orientation in the response to external CSR-related COC, and the study developed a threefold response typology implemented by SMEs, capturing economic interest and moral rightness as two dimensions shaping such responsive patterns. The study furthermore showed that whether SMEs' responses are more symbolic or substantive depends on managers' beliefs regarding the economic-moral conflict tension involved in the implementation of CSR-related COC.Originality/valueThis paper explores emerging SMEs' response strategy to CSR-related issues formulated by external stakeholders and clarifies the underlying decision-making road map to alleviate the tension involved in corporate social responsibility implementation.

Data Protection Compliance Organizations (DPCO) Under the NDPR, and Monitoring Bodies Under the GDPR: Two Sides of the Same Compliance Coin?

The European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive (DPD) was repealed for its failure to achieve the anticipated level of regulatory compliance thereby paving the way for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came with a number of novelties including the introduction of monitoring bodies (MBs) as another layer of compliance enforcement with provisions of the GDPR through sector-specific codes of conduct (CoC). While the DPD also had a provision on CoC, it was bereft of its enforcement mechanism, success indicators and workability, hence the introduction of MBs as an additional player in the GDPR-enforcement ecosystem to ensure compliance with the CoC on the one hand and sanction violations on the other. Conversely, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, Nigeria issued its own version of the GDPR as ‘Nigeria Data Protection Regulation’ (NDPR) and introduced its own peculiar MB styled ‘Data Protection Compliance Organization’ (DPCO) to, interestingly, on behalf of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) ensure and monitor compliance with the NDPR and at the same time forge a fiduciary relationship with the controllers as their paid auditors. This article places the European concept of MBs and Nigerian novelty of DPCOs side by side while examining the relationship between the two similar yet asymmetric concepts. The article analyses the varying issues surrounding the nature, appointment or creation, powers, and functionalities of MBs and DPCOs under the European and Nigerian regulations. Nigeria, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, NDPR, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Data Protection Compliance Organization, DPCO

Looking for Sustainability Scoring in Apparel: A Review on Environmental Footprint, Social Impacts and Transparency

Sustainability has been recognized as a major concern globally since the Brudtland Report, in 1987, and further reinforced in 2015 by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) 2030. This paper reviews the methodologies and criteria of sustainability applied to fashion products, regarding products’ environmental footprint (environmental life cycle assessment/analysis; e-LCA), the social issues (including the social life cycle assessment/analysis; s-LCA) and the transparency in reporting sustainability. In our review we seek KPIs (key performance indicators) that allow classification of a pair of shoes or a piece of cloth on a scale from A to E, i.e., products can be compared with a benchmark and classified accordingly with a simple labelling scheme, which is easily understandable by the consumers. This approach is similar to those used to classify electrical appliances, housing energy consumption for thermal comfort, food Nutri-Scores, CO2 levels of road vehicles, and tire performance. In this review we aim to identify the initiatives and measures being put into practice by the top global fashion brands. We found that, despite the existence of GRI (global sustainability reporting initiative) standard reporting, most companies follow their own methods or others created within the industry rather than those created in the scientific community. Examples include the Higg index, the Transparency Index, and the Social Codes of Conduct (CoC). In this study, we conducted an extensive review of certification schemes and labels already applied to fashion products, and identified a multitude of labels and lack of harmonization in communicating sustainability. As result, we compiled a summary table of all criteria, methodologies, and possible KPIs that can be considered the basis for a benchmark and score of a fashion product. This topic is crucial to avoid “green washing” and a lack of transparency for the buyer’s community, i.e., business to consumer (B2C), and for the business community, i.e., business to business (B2B) relationships, which comprise a complex multi-layer supply chain of suppliers and sub-suppliers. The UNSDG 2030 “Responsible Consumption and Production” frames these efforts to facilitate standardization of KPIs in terms of structure, criteria, and their measurement. The most common KPI is environmental global warming impact (expressed as CO2eq) based on life cycle assessment/analysis (LCA) principles (established in 2000), which provide an appropriate base to monitor and benchmark products. However, in our innovative review of t-shirt e-LCA, we identified a wide range of e-LCA assumptions, relating to different boundaries, allocations, functional units, and impact categories, which represent a major challenge in benchmarking.

Codes of conduct in Open Source Software—for warm and fuzzy feelings or equality in community?

This paper focuses on codes of conduct (CoC) of Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) and their role in improving women’s participation in online communities of OSS. We investigated 355 F/OSS software package websites for the presence of codes of conduct and then analyzed these for diversity elements. Qualitative content analysis of the websites shows that less than 10% (28) of the analyzed websites had some type of community rules such as CoC. In-depth analysis of the CoCs demonstrated many discrepancies in the terminology, length, enforcement, and adoption of codes of conduct. To investigate the usage of these CoCs, we investigate five women-focused OSS discussion forums. This analysis shows the value of creating/adopting a CoC and the impact CoC can have on the participation of women. We also present the challenges in the usage and enforcement of CoCs as discussed by women of these forums. We conclude with recommendations for better enforcement of CoC and reflection on the ethical underpinnings of CoC as a tool to improve diversity and inclusion in OSS.

Corporate Culture and Employee Generation Gap in the Era of Disruption: A Case Study at PT. PLN Bali Distribution

In facing the era of disruption, change management is not enough, but presenting sustaining innovation has become a major obligation for the company. Disruption has penetrated all sides of world life, especially in corporate culture. On the other hand, the era of disruption also greatly impacts every employee, especially with the presence of intergenerational gaps in company employees. This study aims to determine the extent to which corporate culture and the role of the company face the generation gap in the era of disruption. The research method used is a qualitative research method with data collection techniques done by triangulation using observation, interviews and documentation. Through the technical analysis of Miles and Huberman, it was found that there were a number of challenges faced in the era of disruption and corporate culture in synergy with strategies to face challenges with several key steps, namely: promoting the culture of SIPP (mutual trust, integrity, caring, and learning), code of conduct (COC) the company PT PLN Distribution Bali, and the COC in the field to minimize employee gaps. It can be concluded that organizational culture plays an important role in achieving company targets so that by upholding the concept of corporate culture it can minimize the gaps that exist in the company in the world of the era of disruption.

OBLIGATORY CSR VIA SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CORPORATE BUSINESS ENTITIES

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is primarily a philanthropic concept. The underlying principle that CSR is merely a business voluntary endeavor has become the main problem in the implementation of CSR. One of the developments of CSR enforcement is through the Corporate Code of Conduct (CoC) which is a standard procedure in a company conducting its business activities on the basis of economic, legal and ethical factors. Recently, there are a new business entities known as Low Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C), Benefit Corporation (B Corps), and Community Interest Company (CIC) introduced in the UK as a new vehicle to promote social well-being through business activities, which is believed to be more effective than corporate social responsibility, whereby these new business entities enforce CSR as an obligatory obligation rather than a voluntary act. Main purpose of this article is to examine legal jurisprudence behind establishment of these business entities. This research adopted the doctrinal legal research which focus on review of the regulation and policy contained in primary sources such as, case law, and statutory provisions. Reference will also be made to secondary sources such as textbook, journal articles, report, seminar papers, as well as data from official website.

Do Wealth Managers understand Codes of Conduct and their ethical dilemmas? Lessons from an online survey

How do wealth managers understand and comply with the social norms embedded in banks’ codes of conduct (CoC) and how do they cope with ethical dilemmas? Do they have a tendency post Global Financial Crisis to prioritize banks’ financial security over clients’ interests? To answer these and related questions, we conduct a non- incentivized online survey with wealth management employees of the Swiss legal entity of a large multinational bank. We propose a method to estimate the comprehension and the level of expected adherence to the CoC principles that we test with our sample. We further show that framing questions under the label “Financial Security” increased response accuracy and that employees’ intrinsic moral values helped guide their decision-making towards integrity in ethical dilemmas. Thus, besides validating a method for testing the level of CoC comprehension and the expected adherence to its principles, our study is among the first to show that in the wealth management business, moral values and social injunctive norms defined in the bank’s CoC reinforce each other

The ASEAN’s Attitude to the South China Sea Dispute after the Verdict of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague

The South China Sea is the most inflammable area in the region of Southeast Asia due to its natural resources, commercial and political importance. The ASEAN countries directly involved in the dispute have conflicting interests, mainly related to their relationship with China, a pretender for the whole area. Therefore, attemps to settle the dispute are not successful. On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued a verdict taking into account the Law of the Sea, in which it accepted the Philippines’s arguments and rejected China’s claims based on historical arguments against the islands in the South China Sea. China did not take part in the trial and found its sentences non-binding but at the same time it has entered into a dialogue with ASEAN on the code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea. The purpose of the article is to discuss how the parties are involved in the conflict, progress towards signing the Code of Conduct for the Parties in the South China Sea and the attitude of ASEAN countries to this conflict. Due to the degree of dependence of economies on Chinese influence, and relations with other powers, mainly the US, the behavior of individual countries is different. Hence the problem with the organization’s cohesion and attempts to break the deadlock, which have been unsuccessful so far. The basic research hypothesis that will be verified is to maintain the status quo in the South China Sea in the long run. At the same time, it was noted that Vietnam is prepared for long-term actions, based on diplomatic tools combined with a tough attitude, to solve problems related to the sovereignty of disputed areas. ASEAN will have to face up with the issues more consistently, by making greater use of quiet diplomacy. The theoretical basis of the article is Hurrell’s theory of neorealism, which analyzes, among other things, the principles and objectives of regional organizations in the international environment. Hurrell assumes that all regional organizations cannot be understood differently from their regional balance of power and regional dominant forces policy and ASEAN’s attitude proves this point of view.

From appeasement to soft balancing: the duterte administration’s shifting policy on the South China Sea imbroglio

ARTICLE This article examines the shift in Philippine policy on China under the Duterte Administration from appeasement to soft balancing. After his election in mid-2016, President Rodrigo Duterte adopted an appeasement policy vis-à-vis China’s expansive territorial claim in the South China Sea. However, China has not fulfilled its end of the bargain. It failed to inject public investment into the Philippines’ massive infrastructure-building program, and to moderate the behavior of its military units operating in the South China Sea. This has prompted the Duterte Administration to adopt a policy of soft balancing. It pursues this policy by (a) hedging on its alliance with the U.S.; (b) fostering a security partnership with Japan; and (c) pushing for the immediate passage of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-China Code of Conduct (CoC) of the Parties in the South China Sea. In conclusion, this paper argues that the Duterte Administration’s current objective is to restrain Chinese aggressive behavior in the South China Sea by maintaining its alliance with the U.S., fostering a security partnership with Japan, and playing a more active role in the ASEAN.