Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation, communication and benefits of codes of ethics in the public sector of Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on a longitudinal approach. It examines the ethos of codes of ethics in the largest public sector organizations of Sweden in 2001-2002 and 2005-2006. Findings: Only a few of the largest public sector organizations in Sweden have indicated that they possess codes of ethics. This finding may be explained by the current judicial legislation that governs Swedish society. The public codes of ethics have been established both recently and, in part, years ago. Research limitations/implications: A suggestion for further research would be to examine the implementation, communication and perceived benefits of public sector codes of ethics in other countries. Another area of further research would be to replicate the reported surveys in the future to examine the existence of potential trends. Practical implications: When it comes to the perceived benefits of public sector codes of ethics there appears to be only minor acknowledgement of the code being used to resolve ethical problems in society. However, there is a strong conviction that the code of ethics positively influences the operations of public sector organizations. Originality/value: The paper examines the ethical implementation, communication and benefits put in place by private companies to embed codes of ethics into their organizations. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.