Research
An American Management Association survey shows that Ethics and Integrity are listed as Core Values by 76% of American companies. Yet the same survey also shows that just 32% of respondents said their company’s public statements of their values sometimes conflicted with internal messages and realities. http://www.amanet.org/press/amanews/corporate_values.htm
A recent Zogby poll of graduating college seniors preparing to enter the workforce for the first time shows that 73% believe ethics in the workplace are dependent on the individual and a given situation and that there is no standard of ethics for all employees to adhere to.
http://www.nas.org/reports/zogethics_poll/zogby_ethics_report.htm
In 2006, just 19% of all training related to compliance issues, with nearly all of that training related to symptomatic issues. Because of this, very little attitudinal or behavioral change has actually been created when it comes to ethical behavior.
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163700688
According to research by the Ethics Resource Center, many organizations are not meeting the ethical expectations of their employees. One in three employees participating in the ERC's research said that they have observed misconduct within the last three years. Here are just a few of the observed areas:
- 26% observed lying to employees or customers
- 25% observed needed information being withheld
- 24% observed abusive behavior toward employees
- 21% observed workers misreporting actual hours worked
Further, according to a survey of American workers released a few years ago, more than half admitted they had done something unethical or illegal in the workplace during the previous calendar year.
http://www.emergingleader.com/article27.shtml
A recent study by CCH Inc., an Illinois-based human resources software firm, found that only about one-third of all employees who call in sick actually are sick. The other two-thirds call in sick for a variety of reasons: 24% falsified their sickness for family reasons. Just over 20% cited “personal needs.” 12% stated they were stressed. And 10% cited “A feeling of entitlement.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/10/29/excused.absences.ap/index.html
Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina, Ph.D, Senior Scientist at Gallup, claims that his research has shown that when employees are engaged emotionally, they are more likely to be at the top of their game and the result is that customers will be 70% more loyal, turnover rate will drop by 70%, and profits will increase by 40%.
http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/90/0446530506/index.html
AMA surveyed its Council and Executive Members in April and May 2002 to determine what core values companies stand for and how they are communicated to employees. Of the 175 executives who responded, 86% said that their companies specifically writes or states their values, including them in employee handbooks (71%), in company brochures (67%), on their Websites (50%) or on wall posters (41%). However, nearly a third of respondents (32%) said that their company’s public statements sometimes conflicted with internal messages and realities. And 36% said that their organization would always do what’s legal, but not always what would be perceived as ethical. Others indicated that their company’s values were adhered to only some of the time, including ethics/integrity (23%), accountability (37%) and respect for others (37%).
According to the AMA survey, 76% of respondents said ethics/integrity is the leading corporate value. 59% said it is respect for others, and 47% said teamwork. This survey also uncovered a number of examples where executives turned a blind eye when standards were not met. Respondents have witnessed shortcomings in office behaviors: micro-management (70%), hidden agendas (56%), dissension in senior management ranks (58%) and failure to give proper credit (59%). The reasons for running ethical businesses are only going to get more compelling—as well as more complex—over the coming decade, suggests a new global survey commissioned by American Management Association (AMA) and conducted by the Human Resource Institute (HRI).
http://www.amanet.org/press/amanews/corporate_values.htm
2005 National Business Ethics Survey:
NBES measured 18 dimensions of ethical culture, and the data show that the actions of leaders and peers significantly influence employees’ ethics. For example:
- Where top management displays certain ethics-related actions, employees are 50 percentage points less likely to observe misconduct.
- Ethics-related actions of coworkers can increase employee willingness to report misconduct, by as much as 10 percentage points.
- When employees perceive that others are held accountable for their actions, their overall satisfaction increases by 32 percentage points.
Furthermore, employees in organizations with strong ethical cultures and full formal programs are 36 percentage points less likely to observe misconduct than employees in organizations with weak culture and full formal programs.
Importantly, less than 1% employees in strong cultures did not have any elements of a formal program present, and NBES did reveal a relationship between formal programs and cultures.
http://www.globalcompliance.com/pdf/Natl.%20Business%20Ethics%20Survey%202005summary.pdf p.3
Watson Wyatt’s WorkUSA® 2006/2007 survey of 12,205 full-time U.S. workers across all job levels and major industries showed that only 55 percent believe that thier senior management behaves consistently with the company’s core values (down from 57 percent in 2004) and only 49 percent of employees said they have trust and confidence in the job senior managers are doing (down from 51 percent in 2004).
http://www.watsonwyatt.com/news/press.asp?ID=16887
Executive Summary of KPMG’s 2005-2006 Integrity Survey:
Nearly three out of four employees reported that they had observed misconduct in the prior 12-month period, with half of employees reporting that what they had observed was serious misconduct that could cause “a significant loss of public trust if discovered.”
Between 2000 and 2005, employees reported:
- Consistent levels of overall misconduct, with 74 percent reporting in 2005 that they had observed misconduct, compared with 76 percent in 2000
- Consistent levels of serious misconduct, with 50 percent in 2005 characterizing the misconduct they had observed as serious, compared with 49 percent in 2000
http://www.us.kpmg.com/RutUS_prod/Documents/9/ForIntegritySurv_WEB.pdf
An annual nationwide survey of more than 300 human resource executives found an absenteeism rate of about 2.3 percent this year. That's down from 2.5 percent in 2006, the highest rate since 2.7 percent in 1999.
The survey was conducted by the Harris Interactive consulting firm for CCH Inc., which provides employment law information.
The executives surveyed said that two-thirds of employees who call in sick at the last minute are really missing work due to family issues, personal needs, stress and an entitlement mentality. Personal illness accounts for only 34 percent of the absences.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/10/29/excused.absences.ap/index.html