Developing an Ethical Organization: Exploring the Role of Ethical Intelligence

Abstract

Ethics has emerged as one of the most important organization management principles of the last 30 years. Despite the empirical relationship between high standards of ethical decision-making and organizational performance, the literature abounds with extraordinary examples of corporate irresponsibility which raises the question of ‘why this continues to be the case?’ This paper introduces the concept of ‘ethical intelligence’, and the role that ethical organizational infrastructure might play in establishing and maintaining effective ethical decision-making processes and behaviors.