The moral authority of corporate codes of ethics: normative conditions for legitimate organizational norm-setting

Abstract Corporate codes of ethics (CCE) do more than express values and prescribe conduct. Through them, organizations interpret moral expectations, guide decisions, and hold agents answerable. This raises a prior philosophical question: under what conditions can an organization legitimately claim and exercise moral authority through CCE? Through a problem-driven normative reconstruction connecting business ethics with philosophical accounts of practical authority, moral justification, bounded moral pluralism, and moral agency, this article identifies five interdependent conditions: explicit moral justification; a limited and internally ordered moral core; legitimate and contestable contextual interpretation; jurisdictional and moral limits to hierarchical authority; and the orientation, support, and accountability of moral judgment. Together, these conditions form an integrated architecture linking codified moral content with organizational standing, jurisdiction, interpretive governance, and responsible agency. Their joint satisfaction supports a defeasibly legitimate claim to organizational moral authority, while particular exercises of that authority remain subject to moral assessment. By shifting normative analysis from CCE as purported bearers of authority to the organizational claim advanced and the authority exercised through them, the framework distinguishes the moral validity of prescriptions from the moral legitimacy of organizational authority and integrates moral content, organizational power, contextual interpretation, and moral agency. The article contributes to business ethics and the philosophy of management by explaining how organizational norm-setting can guide action and support accountability while remaining answerable to defensible moral reasons and responsible moral judgment.