Straddling Individual Ethics and Organisational Policies in Decision-Making

The aim of this paper is to explore the alignment between individual ethical values and organizational
policies and value systems that are embedded within decision-making processes in the financial
services industry. This paper seeks to develop a process for decision-making underpinned by
structuration theory. In most organizations and in particular, the financial service industry, there is a
wide gap between what policies and values hope to achieve and what employees do. The problem
that organizations are faced with is to find congruence between organizational codes of ethics,
policies, individual ethics, and decision-making. The study offers a theoretical framework that provides
new insights into how organizational policies and individual ethics impact on decision-making within
the financial services industry.