Codes of conduct: Managing the contradictions between local and corporate norms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find out whether, which and how international corporations use their codes of conduct to guide employees double-bound by contradicting cultural norms. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on integrative social contracts theory to content-analyse the codes of conduct of the “Fortune Global 500” and the “UNCTAD 100”. Findings – The vast majority of international corporations' codes either does not acknowledge contradictions between equally binding norms, or lacks priority rules for employees to resolve them. Nonetheless, several codes of conduct describe how norms might contradict, give clear priority to one set of norms (local or corporate) and provide specific examples to employees of when and how to apply a priority rule. Practical implications – The paper identifies the 33 codes of conduct which can serve as best practices for international corporations' employee and corporate communication. Originality/value – Contradictions between cultural norms are unacknowledged or unresolved in communication practice and little explored in corporate communication research. This paper assesses the scope of this caveat in communication practice and offers solutions in the form of an existing normative theory and of newly identified best practices. © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited