Management Planning and Ethics Paper
University of Phoenix
Management: Theory, Practice and
Application; MGT/330
Robert Venti M. Ed
July 6, 2005
Management Planning and Ethics Paper
In an article titled Putting Teeth in Corporate Ethics Codes author Amey Stone discusses
valid points on ethics in a financial business environment. Most if not all companys have
an ethics code in place to help enforce corporate governance. This helps to enforce
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Chief Executive Tom Wamberg said “If you dont
have something to stand up to and look to, you could easily give a slap on the wrist and
say, Dont do it again” (2004, businessweek.com) It is not so easy to enforce ethics as
Wamberg is stating. Companies are taking ethics more seriously since big companies like
Enron are taking a fall. At&t Wireless takes measures to ensure that every employee abides
by the companies social responsibility. This paper will discuss in detail the efforts made by
the company.
New regulatory requirements are requiring listed companies to distribute a printed code of
ethics to their employees and to display them publicly to their vendors, upper management
and employees. At At&t Wireless the code of ethics is available through the companies
intranet. The company has the associate review the code of ethics and sign a statement that
indicates the employee has read and will abide by the code as a condition of their
employment. The new regulatory requirements partly came about due to high profile cases
where corporate misconduct and misrepresentation of financial records and ethics where
brought to light. Most companies are re-evaluatingtheir codes to ensure that they are
