Codes of Ethics, Ethical Behavior, and Organizational Culture from the Managerial Approach: A Case Study in the Colombian Banking Industry

This qualitative case study explored managerial perceptions regarding codes of ethics, ethical behavior, and the relationship of these concepts to organizational culture in a Colombian bank ZOX (pseudonym), in a South-American environment. The data-collection phase contained a purposive sample of ten ZOX senior managers, by including four one-on-one interviews, a focus-group interview, and company documents. The findings include the facts that codes of ethics are mandatory and they demand that the individual has his/her own values; ethical behavior follows general principles and values as ethical guides of duty regardless of the consequences; and the organizational culture is influenced by the leaders' ethical behavior. The findings also serve to trace and describe empirically and theoretically the components of a multi-dimensional approach of an ethical organizational culture. A suggestion for further research might be the testing of this multi-dimensional approach in other settings and going deeper into the relationship among its components.