There are certain myths about corporate business ethics. One myth is that corporate business ethics is more about religion than management. Corporate business ethics is an intangible and is something that cannot possibly be managed. It is true that changing people's values or souls is not the goal of a company's ethics program. The goal should be to manage values and conflicts among staff.

Another corporate business ethics myth is that a company does not need to worry about ethics when their workers are working ethically anyway. The problem is that ethical problems can be highly complicated. There can be conflict when there are many important value conflicts among various interests. There are other alternatives to the problem that are just as attractive and justifiable. There are serious effects on the shareholders of the company. When it comes to corporate business ethics, most people think that you should simply be honest and courteous. When faced with more complex problems, they realize that it is not so easy being ethical.

Another myth about corporate business ethics is that ethics is a matter left to deep philosophical thinkers, academics and theologians. Some people think that corporate business ethics is just a phase that will go away and has nothing to do with what happens in reality at a company. Ethics is just a debate or a religion. Corporate business ethics does have practical tools that can be used by managers. Ethics codes and programs can help in other areas of management.

One corporate business ethics myth is that it is superfluous. Everybody already knows what is good. They don't need an ethics code or program how to do things ethically. They already know it. What an ethics code can do is focus the people in the company on what is important to the company. They know what the company is about by looking at the ethics code. They know what they can or cannot do and they know what their company is about. The employees should realize also that an ethics code can change due to the needs of the company and to what is happening in society.

Another corporate business ethics myth is that corporate business ethics is about the good guys lecturing the bad guys about proper ethical behavior. Some people do get on their high horse and bemoan the behavior of their business leaders. They should be more understandable about the behavior of business leaders and that sometimes, good people do end up doing unethical behavior when stressed or confused. Good corporate business ethics comes out of people working out together, not lecturing them when they do something wrong. If somebody does something wrong, they should help them, not lecture them.

Other corporate business ethics myths are:

• Corporate business ethics is like a police officer patrolling the block.
• Corporate business ethics cannot be controlled.
• Corporate business ethics and social responsibility is really the same thing.
• A company is okay as long as it follows corporate business ethics and is not having legal problems.
• Controlling corporate business ethics has nothing to do with practical reality.