Interesting times at Boeing.

Its chief executive James McNerney has vowed to build a strong ethics culture at the ethically-challenged aircraft market and defence contractor.

Boeing has discovered how much bad ethics can hurt the bottom line, after paying $615 million to settle two reputation-busting criminal investigations.

McNerney clearly believes that clarity about corporate culture is the key to tackling the problem, something he obviously learned at GE, reports The Economist.

How successful a clean-up it's going to be remains to be seen. The company could still be liable for further payments because of an ongoing Air Force review of a tainted cargo plane contract stretching back to 2000, according to new reports.

McNerney is right. The recurring problems might just have something to do with the culture of the place.