Creating a Global Business Code

 In the wake of corporate scandals, many companies are looking more closely at how to manage business conduct worldwide. Realizing the complexity of this issue, Harvard Business School professors Rohit Deshpandé, Lynn S. Paine, and Joshua D. Margolis decided to evaluate standards of corporate conduct around the world—one of the most daunting research projects the three faculty have undertaken. Key concepts include:

• The researchers found broad consensus among employees at four multinational corporations regarding the actions that constitute appropriate corporate behavior. 
• However, the researchers discovered a wide divergence in opinions between how employees thought a company should behave and how their company actually behaved.
• People at the top of the organizational hierarchy generally have a more positive view of a company's ethics than those on the front lines.