Survey Documents State of Ethics in the Workplace

Levels of Ethical Misconduct Prevalent Despite Rise in Programs

More than half of American workers have observed at least one type of ethical misconduct in the workplace, a slight increase from 2003, despite an increase in worker's awareness of formal ethics programs, according to the 2005 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) released today by the Ethics Resource Center. Employee reporting of misconduct they observe is also down by 10 percentage points. Despite the decrease in ethical conduct, according to the NBES report, "Ethics and compliance programs can and do make a difference. However, their impact is related to the culture in which they are situated."

The survey of more than 3,000 American workers, analyzes trends in workplace ethics, the implementation of formal programs, the ethical culture within organizations, the impact of programs, and factors that pose risks of misconduct.

Some of the key findings include:

52% of employees observed at least one type of misconduct in the workplace in the past year, with 36% of these observing at least 2 or more violations.

69% of employees report their organizations implement ethics training, up 14 percentage points from the 2003 NBES.

65% of employees indicated their organizations have a place they can seek ethics advice.

55% of employees who observed misconduct at work reported it to management, down 10 percentage points from the 2003 NBES.

Five of six elements of a formal ethics and compliance program measured by NBES have increased over time with the presence of written standards of ethical business conduct up 19 percentage points since 2004.

See full Press Release and access to the Executive Summary, in pdf format.