Readability of Corporate Codes of Conduct (AKA Codes of Ethics)

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  • on 01.07.09
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  • Most large organizations post their code of conduct on their website. If one were to download a sample (or even a complete census of all 1000)...and subject these codes to some sort of readability test...what would be the average score? Who would shine? Who would be shamed? I'm not sure what the best tool would be for analyzing the text. MS Word has a built-in tool. There is a pretty cool utility here: http://www.fightthebull.com/ that finds "BS" in documents. At any rate, this would be a fun project.


  • Hello Hogayoga, This sure seems an interesting question, but I'm not sure to understand it completely. Would you please precise what the outcome you expect would be? Thank you in advance. Guillermo


  • For example, if you go to http://www22.verizon.com/about/careers/pdfs/CodeOfConduct.pdf you can get a copy of Verizon's code of conduct. When I convert the document into MS Word, open the document, and check spelling and grammar with "readability statistics" I find that the document has: - a Flesch Reading Ease score of 23.0 (which is bad) - a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 14.9 (meaning one needs a 15th grade reading level...most of America has an 8th grade reading level) As such, itmay be possible that Veriaon, a company that employs a fairly representative sample of Ameerica, is not effectively communicating with its employee re: its expectations of conduct.


  • Hello again, I'm willing to work on this question. Now, censing 1000 cases, or even 100 would not be feasible within this framework, because of the time it would demand -- each company's website is organized differently, so a variable browsing time will be required to find the searched text. Also, text analysis will require copying and pasting it, so those blocked to copy will have to be excluded. That said, I would suggest you told me what organizations you'd like to see included in a sample. Thank you. Guillermo


  • I'd like the survey to be random. As such, I will run a randomization algorithm on a spreadsheet of the Fortune 1000 and select 50 organizations. Would that work? I can upload the spreadsheet to a publicly available and free webspace. Will that work?


  • It sounds fine. Please post the URL to the spreadsheet once you've got it. Thanks. Guillermo


  • OK. I randomized the list on just the Fortune 500 and got this list of companies. This list includes the company name and their "ticker" so that you can more easily find their web address, etc. I will upload a spreadsheet to a public space shortly. Edison International EIX International Paper IP Valero Energy VLO Office Depot ODP Winn-Dixie Stores WIN OM Group OMG Amazon.Com AMZN Universal Health Svcs. UHS Hilton Hotels HLT Lear LEA Target TGT Anheuser-Busch BUD Prudential Financial PRU Avaya AV Dillard's DDS Armstrong Holdings ACKH Q Pfizer PFE Goldman Sachs Group GS Edison International EIX Allied Waste Industries AW KB Home KBH Farmland Industries Levi Strauss Rite Aid RAD Genuine Parts GPC American Express AXP Kerr-McGee KMG Amazon.Com AMZN Sealed Air SEE SouthTrust Corp. SOTR Ace Hardware Pathmark Stores PTMK Sierra Pacific Resources SRP May Dept. Stores MAY Altria Group MO Pepsi Bottling PBG Unisys UIS Xcel Energy XEL Federal-Mogul FDML Q Comcast CMCS K Kroger KR DuPont DD Exxon Mobil XOM PepsiAmericas PAS Tyson Foods TSN FPL Group FPL McGraw-Hill MHP Verizon Communications VZ Lear LEA


  • Great! I'm into it. Thanks.


  • OK. The file is uploaded to: http://h1.ripway.com/hogayoga/ It is called CodesofConduct.xls. This is the random list (using a software-based pseudorandom number generator) of Fortune 500 companies that I would like to analyze. In column "N" I have included the website address for most of the companies. I would propose that we add 2 more columns to the spreadsheet that include: - Flesch Reading Ease score - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score These scores will come from a MS Word analysis of their code of conduct. If possible, it would be great if you could download all of these codes of conduct and include them in your result. That way, we can have a record of what was actually analyzed. thanks!


  • OK. There'll be no problem but for the downloading of the codes of ethics themselves, if for that you mean reproducing their texts. I would willingly do so, but I believe we would be infringing laws. Instead, I could add another column for the URL's of the specific pages where the codes of ethics are. Is that OK? G.


  • URL would be ideal. Thanks!


  • Just an update: I've accomplished about the third part of the task. I came across an unexpected difficulty that slowed it down. When codes of ethics are on HTML documents, doing the checking is relatively fast -- copy, paste, almost no editing, and it's done. Now, many are in PDF (Adobe) documents. In these cases, the process "copy-paste-check" does not suffice, and a lot of editing is needed before checking because, when pasting into a Word document the text copied from Adobe, Word assumes each row as a paragraph, splitting many sentences, which are then interpreted as incomplete (senseless) by the grammar checker -- thus impacting on the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores. I did a try with and without previous editing and the difference proved significant. Hence, a "copy-paste-edit-check" process will be necessary, being the "edit" step the most time consuming. Thanks for your patience. Guillermo


  • Understood. Thanks for your diligence.


  • Hello Hogayoga, We're finally there :) Of the 50 cases of the sample, I could review 44. All the 50 are listed below. For each, the first line is the company name, the second the company website's URL, the third one the code of ethics' URL, the fourth is the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score, and the fifth corresponds to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) -- except for those that I couldn't find, which instead have the respective explanation. Also, you can retrieve the original Excel file with the result of this search added at http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/3ccd1ef5/bc/Code_of_Ethics/973a.xls?bfJp5_DBpHoxkJ2r Interestingly, for all cases the FKGL is 12. As I told you in a previous post, to avoid testing distortions due to formatting alteration when changing from Adobe to Word, in most cases I had to do some editing -- such as removing paragraph marks from the middle of the sentences or others of the kind; nothing that would modify the comprehensibility of the original test -- but time consuming for documents ranging from 20 to 80 pages. Well, only when I performed the test before editing the FKGL scored over 12. As to FRE, the average was 22.68, very close to the median -- 22.60. The highest score was 36, achieved by Edison International, while the lowest is hold by Universal Health Services, with 7.8 -- in an abrupt fall, the next value is 14.70 (Hilton Hotels). There are three values repeating two occurrences each: 22.50 (Goldman Sachs Group / McGraw-Hill), 23.60 (Kroger / Office Depot), and 27.80 (Lockheed / SWA). According to these results, 41 out of 44 (93.18%) have scored below 30 -- the three above 30 are Starbucks Corporation, YUM! and Edison International; American Express was very close with 29.90 and next Genuine Pars with 29.20. Below 30 is considered "best understood by college graduates" in the corresponding article at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch-Kincaid_Readability_Test ). So, I would interpret these results as expressing that a 12th grader could read these texts but not necessarily understand them -- unless maybe with an important effort. The stats are calculated in the spreadsheet at http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/3ccd1ef5/bc/Code_of_Ethics/Stats.xls?bfn25_DBelv3OBs7 By the way, this text is FRE 45.3 and FKGL 9.5. But, if not considering the list below, it changes to FRE 35.1 and FKLG 12. I hope this answer has met your expectations. However, please do not hesitate to ask for clarification if needed. Regards, Guillermo The results: Ace Hardware http://www.acehardware.com CODE OF ETHICS NOT FOUND Allied Waste Industries, Inc. http://www.alliedwaste.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/74/74587/corpgov/CodeofEthics0304.pdf 24,1 12 Altria Group, Inc. http://www.altria.com http://www.altria.com/download/pdf/about_altria_BOD_codeethics.pdf 20,3 12 Amazon.com, Inc. http://www.amazon.com http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-govConductPrint 23,1 12 American Express Company http://www.americanexpress.com http://ir.americanexpress.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=64467&p=irol-govConduct 29,9 12 Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. http://www.anheuser-busch.com http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=BUD&script=2250 18,4 12 Armstrong Holdings http://www.armstrong.com/ http://www.armstrong.com/common/uscorp/content/files/5608.pdf 24 12 Avaya Inc. http://www.avaya.com http://investors.avaya.com/governance/conduct.shtml 17 12 Comcast Corporation http://www.comcast.com http://www.cmcsk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118591&p=irol-govConduct 15,4 12 Dillard's, Inc. http://www.dillards.com http://www.shareholder.com/dillards/conduct.cfm 15,1 12 E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company http://www.dupont.com http://www2.dupont.com/Social_Commitment/en_US/assets/downloads/conductguide/Business_Ethics_Policy_and_Procedures.pdf 21,2 12 Edison International http://www.edison.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/85/85474/reports/200509_ethics_code.pdf 36 12 Exxon Mobil Corporation http://www.exxon.mobil.com http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/corporate/Code_ethics.pdf FILE PROTECTED -- UNABLE TO COPY Farmland Industries http://www.farmland.com/ I FOUND THE CORPORATE URL BUT IT GRANTS NO ACCESS, SHOWING MESSAGE: "You are not authorized to view this page" Federal-Mogul Corporation http://www.Federal-Mogul.com http://www.federal-mogul.com/vgn/images/portal/cit_776/15974723Integrity%20Program%20.pdf 22,7 12 FPL Group, Inc. http://www.fplgroup.com http://www.fplgroup.com/governance/contents/code_of_conduct.shtml 19,2 12 Genuine Parts Company http://www.genpt.com http://www.genpt.com/corporate/GPC_New_Code_of_Conduct_(Summer_2003_Version).pdf 29,2 12 Goldman Sachs Group http://www.goldmansachs.com http://www.goldmansachs.com/our_firm/investor_relations/corporate_governance/articles/corporate_governance_030224195742.html 22,5 12 Hilton Hotels http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/index.jhtml http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/88/88577/corpgov/codeofethics_013004.pdf 14,7 12 International Paper Company http://www.ipaper.com http://www.ipaper.com/Our%20Company/Ethics%20and%20Business%20Practice/Code%20of%20Business%20Ethics.html 26,6 12 KB Home http://www.kbhome.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/11/111266/Ethics.pdf 15,3 12 Kerr-McGee Corporation http://www.kerr-mcgee.com http://www.kerr-mcgee.com/SiteObjects/files/code0703.pdf 17,1 12 Kroger http://www.kroger.com http://www.thekrogerco.com/documents/EthicsPolicy.pdf 23,6 12 Lear Corporation http://www.lear.com http://ir.lear.com/downloads/ir_cg_conduct.pdf 20,2 12 Levi Strauss & Co. http://www.levistrauss.com CODE OF ETHICS NOT FOUND Lockheed Martin Corporation http://www.lockheedmartin.com http://www.lockheedmartin.com/data/assets/7856.pdf 27,8 12 May Department Stores http://www2.mayco.com/common/index.jsp I FOUND THE CORPORATE URL BUT NOT THE CODE OF ETHICS IN THE WEBSITE McGraw-Hill http://www.mcgraw-hill.com http://investor.mcgraw-hill.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96562&p=irol-govcobe 22,5 12 Office Depot, Inc. http://www.officedepot.com http://www.officedepot.com/companyinfo/companyfacts/ethics.pdf 23,6 12 Omnicom Group Inc. http://www.omnicomgroup.com http://www.omnicomgroup.com/governance/codeofconduct 19,1 12 Pathmark Stores, Inc. http://www.pathmark.com http://www.pathmark.com/cminc/pdf/investor-sec/CodeofConduct.pdf 26,1 12 PepsiCo, Inc. http://www.pepsico.com http://www.pepsico.com/PEP_Investors/CorporateGovernance/CodeofConduct/english/images/Code_of_Conduct.pdf 25,9 12 Pfizer Inc http://www.pfizer.com http://www.pfizer.com/pfizer/download/investors/corporate/business_conduct_policies_summary_2003.pdf 26,2 12 Prudential Financial, Inc. http://www.prudential.com http://www.investor.prudential.com/downloads/MakingTheRightChoices2.pdf 16,7 12 RadioShack Corporation http://www.radioshack.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NYS/RSH/gov/RSH_CodeOfEthics.pdf 20,8 12 Rite Aid Corporation http://www.riteaid.com http://www.riteaid.com/company_info/images/code_of_ethics.pdf 19,3 12 Sealed Air Corporation http://www.sealedaircorp.com http://www.sealedair.com/corp/conduct.html#conduct 24,9 12 Southwest Airlines Co. http://www.southwest.com http://www.southwest.com/investor_relations/fs_corporate_governance.html 27,8 12 Starbucks Corporation http://www.starbucks.com http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/US_English_full_kit.pdf 32,5 12 Target Corporation http://www.target.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/65/65828/corpgov/business_conduct_guide.pdf 21,7 12 Tyson Foods, Inc. http://www.tysonfoodsinc.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/65/65476/govDocs/codeofconduct.pdf 28,7 12 Unisys Corporation http://www.unisys.com http://www.unisys.com/common/investors/other/Code_of_Ethics.pdf 25,6 12 Universal Health Services, Inc. http://www.uhsinc.com http://www.uhsinc.com/ir_governance1.php 7,8 12 Valero Energy Corporation http://www.valero.com http://www.valero.com/NR/rdonlyres/25F13BDB-3B40-4A82-A62C-CF3B4246E687/0/03CodeofBusinessConductandEthics08062004.pdf 19,7 12 Verizon Communications Inc. http://www.verizon.com http://www22.verizon.com/about/careers/pdfs/CodeOfConduct.pdf 20,4 12 Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. http://www.winn-dixie.com http://www.winn-dixie.com/company/governance/Code_of_Conduct_040104.pdf 28,3 12 Wisconsin Energy Corporation http://www.wisconsinenergy.com THE CORPORATE URL WOULDN'T WORK Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company http://www.wrigley.com http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NYS/WWY/conduct2.pdf 27,7 12 Xcel Energy Inc. http://www.xcelenergy.com http://www.xcelenergy.com/XLWEB/CDA/0,3080,1-1-1_18554_24076-2217-0_0_0-0,00.html 16,6 12 YUM! Brands, Inc. http://www.yum.com http://www.yum.com/governance/media/gov_conduct092404.doc 32,6 12


  • Sorry for the glitch with the URL. This one should work: http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/3ccd1ef5/bc/Code_of_Ethics/973a.xls?bfnD6_DBMXwzkJ2r If not, please let me know and we'll figure out an alternative. Thanks. Guillermo


  • Evidently, these URLs I've been using are not stable any more. I'll look for an alternative and let you know. Just in case, if you think of posting your email in order to help, please DO NOT, because it's against Google Answers rules. Sorry for the inconvenience. Guillermo


  • Hi again, Please try these ones now: http://h1.ripway.com/mirarki/CodesOfConduct.xls http://h1.ripway.com/mirarki/Stats.xls


  • great job. can you clarify the stats spreadsheet?


  • Thank you. Sorry for the confusing stats spreadsheet. I edited it -- apparently uploading it with the same URL didn't work. Please give it a look at http://h1.ripway.com/mirarki/Stats2.xls and let me know whether now is clear enough or you expect something else. Thanks. Guillermo







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