An Ethics Moment, September 2000 PA TIMES
Ethics is about day-in, day-out living and working with others. The respect and dignity with which you treat bosses, subordinates, coworkers, friends, and even strangers who you may never encounter again in your life-time matters if you aspire to be an ethical person. Moreover, it doesn’t matter if you are gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, female or male, or employed in the public or private sectors. Consider the 2000 National Business Ethics Survey conducted by the Ethics Resource Center. The survey canvassed, by telephone, more than 1,500 U.S. employees to learn about the ethical practices in the organizations for which they work.
On the positive side, the survey findings indicate that organizations with ethics programs in place do make a difference in how employees view their workplace–they tend to have a more positive view. Additionally, there is evidence of a direct link between the presence of an ethics program and how employees view workplace ethics in transitioning organizations. That is, organizations that are undergoing transitions such as mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring benefit the greatest from having an ethics program in place.
On the not so positive side, the survey findings indicate that:
* About one in every three employees observe misconduct at work
* The most commonly observed misconduct is: lying, withholding needed information, abusive or intimidating behavior toward employees, misreporting actual time or hours worked, and discrimination.
* More than two in five employees do not report the misconduct they observe at work
* Approximately one in three employees fear retaliation by management and coworkers if they report misconduct or other ethics concerns
* There are relatively few differences in the ethics perceptions of employees in the government, for-profit and non-profit sectors.
The report is available on-line at http://www.ethics.org/2000survey.html