Managing the risk of ethical misconduct disasters as a business continuity strategy

Abstract

Ethics scandals and employee misconduct disasters can be devastating. Such scandals can disrupt or destroy even the largest companies. It is important to manage the risks for corporate integrity as a business continuity threat. Lapses in business and organisational ethics, scandals and changes in legal requirements create an opportunity for organisational communication scholars to utilise their skills and tools to ascertain the underlying organisational integrity and the nature of communication ethics in organisations. This paper advances a new interdisciplinary model for the assessment of indicators of organisational integrity in both public and internal organisational communication. The Communication Indicators of Organisational Integrity Model is proposed as a conceptual framework for the investigation of ethical organisational communication and communication as an indicator of the ethics of organisations. The model is a research approach that provides description, analysis, illumination and critiques of communication to reveal integrity and ethics in the organisation. When combined with other valid and reliable measures, these indicators should provide a key insight into an organisation’s ethical nature and integrity characteristics.