The core theme in the article by Schwartz emphasizes on the need and importance for organizations to

develop and sustain ethical corporate culture. As noted in the article, a key issue that most managers,
executives and board of directors contend with on a regular basis entails unethical and illegal corporate
activities. Such unethical activities have been linked to adverse effects on the reputation of many
organizations and if this goes an unaddressed, it could eventually affect the overall success of an
organization. To address this issue, the article delves into elaborating the need to have can ethical
corporate culture that would help to shape the behaviors and conduct of the employees. As such core
elements of an ethical corporate culture are discussed including the need for organization to have core
ethical values, formal ethical programs as well as ethical leadership.

As mentioned, the major challenge that has been addressed in this article relates to unethical and illegal
activities in many organizational settings. Some of these illegal and unethical activities include kickbacks,
giving and receiving gifts and entertainment, bribery, corruption, money laundering, favoritism,
nepotism, fraud, improper use of insider information, sexual harassment, discrimination among others.
Organizations are also faced by unethical practices that may not be necessarily illegal including promise
breaking, acts of disrespect, disloyalty and dishonesty.

Th proposed solution to this problem as suggested in this article is for organization leaders to establish
and cultivate ethical cultures in their organizations. Corporate culture encompasses the believes,
attitudes and values that are commonly shared in an organization. As such, an ethical corporate culture
is a subset of corporate culture that dictates the manner in which employees are expected to conduct
themselves. However, while an ethical corporate culture is recommended, the article points outs that
this does not necessarily eliminate all unethical and illegal activities among the employees. Nonetheless,
this is an effective approach of minimizing or reducing instances of such unethical behaviors. As such,
Schwartz (2012) goes ahead to explain the critical elements required in developing and sustaining an
ethical culture.

One of the core elements recommended is setting of core ethical values. In particular, ethical values
have been established to shape the overall culture of organization by highlighting what an organization
stand for. For all business firms, some of the suggested universal moral values include respect,
trustworthiness, responsibility, citizenship, caring and fairness.