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“Business Ethics – What’s Happening Where We Work?”

Written by: Glenn Ebersole

Article Overview: The National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) provides an overview of ethics in the workplace and the 2005 version indicates that ethical misconduct is increasing. And this is after Enron, et al. The NBES included more than 3,000 American workers and their survey showed that more than half of American workers have observed at least one type of ethical misconduct in the workplace. Yet, employee reporting of the misconduct they observe is down by 10%. This is cause for alarm, in my opinion, and more businesses need to be aware of what is happening with ethics at work today.

“Business Ethics – What’s Happening Where We Work?”

“Business Ethics – What’s Happening Where We Work?”
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group ™

The National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) provides an overview of ethics in the workplace and the 2005 version indicates that ethical misconduct is increasing. And this is after Enron, et al. The NBES included more than 3,000 American workers and their survey showed that more than half of American workers have observed at least one type of ethical misconduct in the workplace. Yet, employee reporting of the misconduct they observe is down by 10%. This is cause for alarm, in my opinion, and more businesses need to be aware of what is happening with ethics at work today.

The NBES defines misconduct as “any behavior that violates the law or organizational ethics standards.” And the two most common types of misconduct observed by employees are abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees and lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public. The 2005 survey shows that types of misconduct most observed by employees include:
21% observed abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees
19% observed lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public.
18% observed a situation that places employee interests over organizational interests.
16% observed violations of safety regulations.
12% observed discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age or similar categories.
11% observed stealing or theft.
9% observed sexual harassment.

It is interesting to view these results knowing that there has been regulation and other actions put in place since Enron and other corporate scandals. Ad although there has been an increased or renewed emphasis on corporate ethics, there is not solid evidence of a positive direct impact on ethical behavior in the workplace. Organizations have received yet another “wake-up call” about ethics and need to evaluate what they are doing and look at the ethics culture within their companies. The bottom line is to find out what formal program will work for them.

A recommended formal ethics and compliance program, suggested by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, includes six (6) elements. Those elements are:
1. Written standards of conduct
2. Training on ethics
3. Mechanisms to seek ethics advice or information
4. Means to report misconduct anonymously
5. Discipline of employees who violate ethical standards
6. Evaluation of employee’s performance based on ethical conduct


Ownership and senior management must recognize the problem and the risk factors and then develop and implement a strong ethics program within the organization. A strong ethical environment must be a top priority and the owners and senior management must lead by example and create a strong ethical culture throughout the company. Good corporate ethics needs to be what is happening in your workplace.

If you are interested in learning more about the importance of business ethics and incorporating business ethics more deeply into your company culture, please contact Glenn Ebersole through his website at www.businesscoach4u.com or email Glenn at jgecoach@aol.com

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