From responsible management to responsible organizations; the democratic principle for managing organizational ethics

An increasing number of organizations have adopted formal ethics programs. Almost all of these programs are institutionalized at a corporate level and based on communication with representatives and on hierarchical regulations. Sociotechnical theory suggests the use of a participative approach for managing ethics in an organization. In this approach, employees and other stakeholders are directly involved in setting the norms, or specifying the corporate norms in their own area of responsibility (the democratic principle). In this way, the internalization of organizational values is included in the process of organizing ethics.