Background: Many organisations develop codes of ethics to help guide business conduct. However, not much is known about the contents of codes of ethics. Objectives: This article aims at investigating the code of ethics content construct and its measurement properties using a sample of firms from South Africa. Method: The study followed a quantitative research approach. The sampling frame consisted of the top 500 companies in South Africa. A structured questionnaire was administered using the telephone survey method. The respondents consisted of company secretaries and heads or managers responsible for ethics in the respective companies. At the end of the data collection period, a total of 222 usable responses were obtained. Results: The findings show that South African top companies have comprehensive codes of ethics as evidenced by the high mean values obtained from all of the content items under investigation. The findings also support the notion that the code of ethics content construct is multidimensional. Seven different dimensions were confirmed in the analysis. The measurement model of the ethics content construct was found to be valid as evidenced by the goodness-of-fit measure and measures of validity. Conclusion: The study shows that the code of ethics construct is multi-dimensional in nature. The framework provided in this study can also be used in developing, evaluating and strengthening existing codes where such need arises. This study contributes to theory on business ethics and presents the first tested measurement model of the code of ethics construct in South Africa.

中文翻译：

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道德规范内容构建的度量属性：南非经验

背景：许多组织制定了道德准则以帮助指导业务行为。但是，关于道德规范的内容知之甚少。目标：本文旨在通过使用来自南非的公司样本研究道德规范内容构造的代码及其度量属性。方法：本研究遵循定量研究方法。抽样框架由南非的前500强公司组成。使用电话调查方法进行结构化问卷调查。受访者包括公司秘书以及负责各自公司道德的负责人。数据收集期结束时，总共获得222个可用响应。结果：调查结果表明，南非顶级公司具有全面的道德规范，这从调查的所有内容项获得的高均值证明了这一点。这些发现还支持道德规范内容构建的代码是多维的。分析中确认了七个不同的维度。契合度测度和效度测度证明，道德内容建构的测度模型是有效的。结论：研究表明，道德规范的构建本质上是多维的。本研究中提供的框架还可用于在需要时开发，评估和加强现有法规。