Skip to main content
  • 820 Accesses

Synonyms

Chief compliance officers; Chief ethics and compliance officers; Chief ethics officers; Compliance and ethics officers; Compliance officers; Ethics and compliance officers; Integrity officers

Definition

Ethics officers are employees of organizations responsible for managing ethics issues facing the organization both internally and externally.

Introduction

Ethics officers are a relatively recent phenomenon in organizations. Research suggests the title that first appeared in the United States in the 1970s, when Cummins, Inc., created a position that shares much in common with current ethics officer job descriptions. Also, in 1978, the US Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act, which created the concept of an ethics official within each executive branch agency (ECOA Foundation 2013). In government, the role began only in a limited, technical capacity, but recent advances in the private sector have extended into the public sector, such that “best practices” among ethics...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adobor H (2006) Exploring the role performance of corporate ethics officers. J Bus Ethics 69(1):57–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DiPiazza SA Jr (2001) The value of the corporate ethics officer: musings from the “other” CEO. Vital Speeches Day 67(23):712

    Google Scholar 

  • ECOA Foundation (2008) Ethics and compliance handbook: a practical guide from leading organizations. p 9–10

    Google Scholar 

  • ECOA Foundation (2013) A beacon of integrity. p 6–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman WM, Rowe M (2007) The ethics officer as agent of the board: leveraging ethical governance capability in the post-Enron Corporation. Bus Soc Rev 112(4):553–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman WM, Neill JD, Stovall OS (2008) An investigation of ethics officer independence. J Bus Ethics 78(1-2):87–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paine LS (1994) Managing for organizational integrity. Harv Bus Rev 72(2):106–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Rasberry RW (2000) The conscience of an organization: the ethics office. Strateg Leadersh 28(3):17–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swartz N (2003) Rise of the corporate ethics officer. (Up front: news, trends & analysis). Inf Manag J 37(1):9–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Treviño LK, den Nieuwenboer NA, Kreiner GE, Bishop DG (2014) Legitimating the legitimate: a grounded theory study of legitimacy work among ethics and compliance officers. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 123(2):186–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber J, Fortun D (2005) Ethics and compliance officer profile: survey, comparison, and recommendations. Bus Soc Rev 110(2):97–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tim C. Mazur .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Mazur, T.C. (2017). Ethics Officers. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2378-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2378-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics