Government's Sentencing Guidelines

In the book “Managing Business Ethics” the authors mention the positive impact that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines have had on the preventing unethical behavior. These guidelines sentence corporations more than individuals. A corporation can be severely punished even if only one employee breaks the law. Organizations are very concerned about offenses because this could mean closure of the company.

To provide an example of this impact, in Guatemala a new law was signed in 2009 called “Ley de Creación de Ambientes Libres de Humo de Tabaco” (Law for Creation of Smoke-free Environments). The law prevents people to smoke around non-smokers in closed environments. They do this in two ways:

1.       Penalize smokers that break the law

2.       Penalize institutions if smokers break the law in their premises

Of course, the second option was more feasible because it is easier to control and more effective because institutions have more power and resources to prevent these actions than does the government. The severe penalties made institutions openly and explicitly communicate against breaking this law and establish policies and monitoring. Before the law was signed, the rules in my University prohibited smoking on campus but nobody followed them. It wasn’t until after the law was signed that the University impeccably complied with its rules.