In the wake of Enron, it may not seem so, but when corporations are
socially responsible, they are often also financial sound as well,
according to Sorensen, who noted in Administrative Science Quarterly that
"the performance benefits of a strong corporate culture are thought to
derive from three consequences of having widely shared and strongly held
norms and values" and that "quantitative analyses show that firms with
strong cultures outperform" weak ones (2002). A strong culture does not
have to be one that includes corporate responsibility, of course.
However, one could marry this idea to one proposed by Carpenter et al
in the Journal of Accountancy. They wrote that, especially in the wake of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires corporations to be more fiscally
reliable than before Enron, Companies that promote ethics are likely to be
more profitable. They noted that the CEO of one company even "traveled
worldwide to meet with department heads to emphasize that they must uphold
the highest standards of corporate responsibility" (2004). Again, no
definitive connection was drawn between business ethics and continued
healthy financial performance, but in the article in its entirety, it was
As long ago as 1999, President Clinton urged corporations to adopt
and promote corporate responsibility as part of their culture and mission.
Burke, writing in Public Personnel Management, noted that there are five
guidelines that, if followed, would put a company well on its way toward
practicing corporate social responsibility. They are to:
• Provide a safe and healthy workplace,
• Use fair employment practices,
• Be responsible for environmental protection,
• Comply with federal, state and local laws, and
• Maintain a corporate culture ... where ethical conduct is
...