IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v146y2017i4d10.1007_s10551-016-3217-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond Scandal: Creating a Culture of Accountability in the Catholic Church

Author

Listed:
  • Angela Senander

    (University of St. Thomas)

Abstract

Like many corporations, the Catholic Church in the United States and Ireland has tried to move beyond scandal. In this case, the scandal was the failure of church leaders to protect minors from clergy sexual abuse, particularly in Boston and Dublin. Like corporate leaders, church leaders have faced the challenge of restoring trust after scandal. Influenced by corporate trends toward codes of conduct, the archdioceses of both Boston and Dublin provide codes of conduct, but the differences between them are worth noting. In 2015, the Catholic Church in both the United States and Ireland highlighted the need for a culture of accountability that does not succumb to complacency, and in the United States the bishops have once again been encouraged to learn from business. This paper will demonstrate that the Catholic Church is in dialogue with and learns from codes of conduct and cultural practices in business. At the same time, it will highlight that the Catholic Church must also be attentive to its own mission since a simple adoption of other corporations’ practices can be detrimental to sharing the Gospel. The appropriation of codes of conduct and cultural practices from business reflects the church’s attentiveness to the signs of the times, and this appropriation needs to be evaluated in the light of the church’s mission to share the Gospel with the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Angela Senander, 2017. "Beyond Scandal: Creating a Culture of Accountability in the Catholic Church," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(4), pages 859-867, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:146:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3217-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3217-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-016-3217-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-016-3217-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Margaret Forster & Tim Loughran & Bill McDonald, 2009. "Commonality in Codes of Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 129-139, November.
    2. Patrick Erwin, 2011. "Corporate Codes of Conduct: The Effects of Code Content and Quality on Ethical Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(4), pages 535-548, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anupama Mahajan & Anukrit Mahajan, 2016. "Code of Ethics Among Indian Business Firms," Paradigm, , vol. 20(1), pages 14-35, June.
    2. Maira Babri & Bruce Davidson & Sven Helin, 2021. "An Updated Inquiry into the Study of Corporate Codes of Ethics: 2005–2016," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 71-108, January.
    3. Virginia Bodolica & Martin Spraggon, 2015. "An Examination into the Disclosure, Structure, and Contents of Ethical Codes in Publicly Listed Acquiring Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 459-472, February.
    4. Lauren Kleynjans & Marek Hudon, 2016. "A Study of Codes of Ethics for Mexican Microfinance Institutions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 397-412, March.
    5. Jana Kozáková & Mária Urbánová & Radovan Savov, 2021. "Factors Influencing the Extent of the Ethical Codes: Evidence from Slovakia," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Irlenbusch, Bernd & Mussweiler, Thomas & Saxler, David J. & Shalvi, Shaul & Weiss, Alexa, 2020. "Similarity increases collaborative cheating," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 148-173.
    7. Brooke Fisher Liu & Duli Shi & JungKyu Rhys Lim & Khairul Islam & America L. Edwards & Matthew Seeger, 2022. "When Crises Hit Home: How U.S. Higher Education Leaders Navigate Values During Uncertain Times," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 353-368, August.
    8. José María Agudo-Valiente & Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe & Manuel Salvador-Figueras, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility Drivers and Barriers According to Managers’ Perception; Evidence from Spanish Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-24, October.
    9. Wæraas, Arild, 2015. "Putting on the velvet glove: The paradox of "soft" core values in "hard" organizations," Working Paper Series 09-2015, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business.
    10. James Weber & David Wasieleski, 2013. "Corporate Ethics and Compliance Programs: A Report, Analysis and Critique," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(4), pages 609-626, February.
    11. Zixin Zhang & Teck Lee Yap & Jiyoung Park, 2021. "Does voluntary CSR disclosure and CSR performance influence earnings management? Empirical evidence from China," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(2), pages 161-178, June.
    12. Natalia N. Yashalova & Dmitry A. Ruban & Natalia A. Latushko, 2021. "Cultivating Patriotism—A Pioneering Note on a Russian Dimension of Corporate Ethics Management," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-9, July.
    13. Radka MacGregor Pelikánová & Robert Kenyon MacGregor & Martin Èernek, 2021. "New trends in codes of ethics: Czech business ethics preferences by the dawn of COVID-19," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 12(4), pages 973-1009, December.
    14. Zdeněk Caha & Jan Urban & Tomáš Mrhálek, 2022. "Codes of ethics in Czech companies: prevalence and differences in creation, evaluation and amendment," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 10(2), pages 362-374, December.
    15. Robert Audi & Tim Loughran & Bill McDonald, 2016. "Trust, but Verify: MD&A Language and the Role of Trust in Corporate Culture," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 551-561, December.
    16. William D. Brink & Tim V. Eaton & Jonathan H. Grenier & Andrew Reffett, 2019. "Deterring Unethical Behavior in Online Labor Markets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 71-88, April.
    17. Chassagnon, Virgile & Dubrion, Benjamin, 2015. "Responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise et manipulation des salariés au travail : un éclairage institutionnaliste à partir d’une analyse de la littérature sur les codes de conduite," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 17.
    18. Ronald J. Balvers & John F. Gaski & Bill McDonald, 2016. "Financial Disclosure and Customer Satisfaction: Do Companies Talking the Talk Actually Walk the Walk?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 29-45, November.
    19. Mahour Mellat Parast & Arsalan Safari, 2023. "Do quality and business excellence models improve quality and operational results in educational organizations? A repeated cross-sectional analysis," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 868-886, June.
    20. Kristine Hoover & Molly Pepper, 2015. "How did They Say That? Ethics Statements and Normative Frameworks at Best Companies to Work For," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 605-617, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:146:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3217-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.