THE ROLE, TOOLS AND EFFICACY OF ETHICS PROGRAMMES IN CZECH COMPANIES.

Organizations facing the question of whether to adopt an ethical management programme not only face this question, but also that of which tools to apply to achieve this. Although having a code of ethics is usually the main tool through which an organisation accomplishes this, it is not the only tool available. For an organisation's ethical management programme to be effective, the tools applied must form an interconnected whole, which is often referred to as a company’s “ethical infrastructure”. This infrastructure usually includes, among other things, ethical leadership, ethics training and communication for management and employees alike, an internal ethics committee, an ethics officer, etc. The aim of this paper is to describe, analyse and evaluate the main tools organisations use to implement ethical management programmes in addition to a code of ethics. Within this context, the research sought to determine how widespread certain ethical management tools are among Czech companies, what the main factors are that influence their prevalence and structure, and to evaluate how effective these tools are. The results presented in the article are based on an extensive quantitative, as well as qualitative analysis, of a sample of Czech companies of various types and sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]