The Power of Selling, 2010a

57. [55] John C. Maxwell, There’s No Such Thing as “Business” Ethics (New York: Center Street, 2003).
58. [56] “Ken Lay’s Final Act,” New York Times, July 6,
2006,http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/opinion/06thurs4.html (accessed September 1, 2009).
59. [57] Sir Michael Rake, “Setting the Right Tone at the Top,” Leading by Example (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Business School Press, 2007), 9–11.
60. [58] David Towers, “An Investigation into Whether Organizational Culture Is Directly Linked to Motivation
and Performance through Looking at Google Inc.,” extended essay, The University of Birmingham, The
Birmingham Business School, 2005–
6,http://www.towers.fr/essays/culture%20performance%20and%20motivation
%20review%20and%20the%20google%20case%20study%20success.pdf (accessed September 1, 2009).
4.2 Policies, Practices, and Cultures
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
1. Identify how company policies reflect business ethics.
You might be wondering how a company provides guidance to all employees about what behavior it
expects from them. Imagine a global company like Wal-Mart, which has over two billion employees
worldwide. [1] How do all the employees know what is considered ethical behavior by the company?
Can they take as much time as they want for lunch? Are they able to take off as many days as they
wish? What expenses qualify for reimbursement? All the policies of a company are included in
its employee handbook.
Employee Handbooks: Your Practical, Professional How-To
Every company has a highly specific code of ethics governing the actions of its employees. This manual,
the employee handbook (sometimes called the code of ethics or code of conduct or other similar name),
outlines the company’s policies concerning gift giving, nondisclosure of company information, and other
areas of behavior. Starbucks’ code of ethics, Business Ethics and Compliance: Standards of Business
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