The past few years have highlighted the costs of acting unethically, with a spate of business failures, public distrust and, increasingly, public protest against corporate and government misdemeanours. Businesses that want to succeed in the long term have to reflect both upon ethical challenges in their own operations and take action to avoid integrity risks.

Research and activity in the field of business ethics and sustainability, the growing influence of investors, consumers, employees and wider society, all point to the necessity of embedding ethical considerations into strategy and performance measurements.

Produced by CIMA in association with the Institute of Business Ethics this leaflet outlines the basic elements for embedding ethical values into business behaviour.

• If your organisation already has a code in place, this leaflet can direct you to resources which will help you address what else you can do to embed ethical values and make the code effective.
• If your organisation currently doesn’t have a code, this leaflet will help you find the right resources and support to draw up your own code and how to begin to embed ethical values into your corporate culture.

For information on what business ethics means for small to medium-sized business enterprises take a look at Business ethics for SMEs.