Códigos de ética corporativa e a tomada de decisão ética: instrumentos de gestão e orientação de valores organizacionais?

The Corporate Code of Ethics, its format and ethical orientation, implementation framework and supporting tools included in the ethics management program, have a strong influence in the internal stakeholder ethical behavior, and, consequently, it reflects on the Ethical Decision Making Process in organizational daily activities. This study evaluates whether the values expressed in the ethics document, in fact, conduct the real practice in generating ethical decisions in the relationship organization-consumers. The analysis is done crossing three perspectives: from the ethics manager, the code content, values and supporting tools; from the lawyer advisor, the perception about the code of ethics, as the area which mediates the conflicts with consumers; and the practiced reality extracted from the public prosecuting processes opened by consumers. This analysis was carried out in four large companies pertaining to the Sector of Private Health Care System, which concentrates a large number of consumers' complaints. This study concludes that the values expressed in the document of ethics guide the ethical decision-making in those organizations that built the values along with the employees and/or disseminated them through consistent Ethical Programs, and that adopted ethics management tools which support open dilemma discussion.