Integration of Ethical Values into Activity-Based Budgeting

Despite appeals from public opinion all over the world for the development of ethics in business and the widespread adoption of a Code of ethics by many firms, the integration of ethical values into the corporate planning process has received little attention either in real life or in research literature. In order to overcome the gap between ethical principles and practice, this study underlines some key points which could help the integration of values into Activity-Based Budgeting: identifying ethical values, creating an Ethical framework, examining the distinctive parts of actions, choosing a preference order for values, incorporating the values into each single element of every activity. The approach based on activities allows managers to give visibility to those objectives with an ethical dimension and incorporates them analytically into the budgeting system.