Enabling or restricting ethical conduct? A Foucauldian perspective on values-based ethics programs

Whereas compliance-based ethics programs have been extensively criticized for being insufficient and morally problematic management instruments as they undermine instead of enhance individuals’ moral autonomy, values-based programs are often regarded as effective and morally unproblematic means of control. They are said to support employees’ moral development and stimulate exemplary ethical conduct. This paper, however, problematizes this understanding. From a Foucauldian perspective, we argue that values-based ethics programs work as a form of control that both enables and restricts individuals’ ethical conduct and moral agency and thereby possibly involve morally problematic relations of power. The paper contributes primarily to the literature on ethics programs as tools for management control by proposing an analytical framework for exploring and discussing the multifaceted and possibly insidious forms and relations of power that values-based ethics programs involve. We develop and illustrate this framework by means of an empirical case study that focuses on the Amway Corporation. Based on our findings we conclude that for designing ethics programs that are not only effective means of control but are also ethical in how employees are treated, less instrumental and more reflective approaches to corporate ethics are needed.