Ethics

Abstract

A pilot study of 101 employees in two midwestern hotels found that the employees saw training programs as the most common channel for the hotels' managers to transmit information about the hotels' ethical standards. That channel was closely followed by coaching, printed matter, and watching managers' actions. Meetings and memos were dead last. However, when it came to citing the chief sources of ethics-related information, the employees said the chief source of their ethical standards was family and friends-rather than the workplace. Thus, managers need to pay careful attention to how they communicate the organization's ethical standards by making sure that ethical codes are printed in employee manuals, conducting training programs, coaching employees, and modeling desired behavior.