Key point from ERC’s 2009 National Business Ethics Survey
From the Ethics Resource Center’s 2009 National Business Ethics Survey:
ERC’s 2009 update to the National Business Ethics Survey® focuses on the extraordinary economic events of the past two years and their impact on ethics in the American workplace.
Overall, 78 percent of those interviewed this year said they or a colleague had been affected by company efforts to weather the U.S. recession.
Yet surprisingly, most of ERC’s key measures improved:
Misconduct at work is down. Fewer employees said they had witnessed misconduct on the job; the measure fell from 56 percent in 2007 to 49 percent in 2009
Whistleblowing is up. More employees said they had reported misconduct when they observed it; 63 percent in 2009, up from 58 percent in 2007
Ethical cultures are stronger. ERC’s measures of the strength of ethical culture in the workplace increased from 53 percent in 2007 to 62 percent this year – a positive sign
Pressure to cut corners is lower. And overall, perceived pressure to commit an ethics violation – to cut corners, or worse – declined from 10 percent two years ago to 8 percent
Only retaliation against those who reported misconduct increased – a negative trend. (my emphasis)
What this may well demonstrate is how FORMAL systems can not support ethical cultures and protect those reporting wrong doing.
By contrast, informal, confidential structures like Organizational Ombuds clearly can.
It would be beneficial if more Ombuds Programs would report if they heard about ethical issues and what outcomes came from their involvement.
It also would not hurt if the ERC would include Ombuds as a tool for addressing ethics and compliance issues. The word does not appear in the final report, which is available here: http://www.ethics.org/nbes/
