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Several years ago I wrote about Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale’s ‘Ethics Check’ Questions, found in their book, The Power of Ethical Management. I still think they’re the best! The three are: 1) Is it legal? 2) Is it balanced? (fair to all concerned and promotes a win/win) and 3)How will it make me feel about myself?

In a recent survey published by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC), a Washington, D.C. based, non-profit education and research organization there are some surprising and important findings given the troubled economy, the end of the dot.com boom, and the recent series of ethics scandals in major corporations and non-profit organizations (Enron, WorldCom, and others). The central findings of the new report show the first overall drop in observed misconduct seen in a decade (from 31% in 1994 and 2000 to 22% 2003). Employee reporting of misconduct increased to 65% in 2003 continuing an upward trend from 48% (’94) to 57% (’00).

Some of the changes could be due to new and emerging legislation and regulations, which puts additional emphasis on executive conduct and organizational standards and practices. Today employees’ say that top management talks about the importance of ethics, keeps promises, and models ethical behavior (82% over 77% in 2002). In addition, formal ethics programs matter when they have these 4 elements: (1. written standards of conduct, 2) ethics training 3) ethics advice lines/offices and 4) systems for anonymous reporting of misconduct. When in place 78% of the employees will report. Reporting seems to decline with less than all 4 elements. Perhaps this says we need to first make ethics important and second make it easy for employees to respond.

Still some challenges remain: Nearly 1/3 say coworkers condone questionable ethics practices by showing respect for those who achieve success using them. The types of misconduct most observed in 2003 include: abusive or intimidating behavior (21%), misreporting of hours worked (20%), lying (19%) and withholding needed information (18%). Misconduct declines are mostly among non-management employees. Younger employees with low tenure are among the least likely to report misconduct and less than 3 in 5 employees who report misconduct are satisfied with the response of their organizations.

As executives are increasingly called upon to ‘certify’ the integrity of their organizations, ethical business leaders may have greater concern that the actions of one or more employees could eventually compromise their companies. The study also points out that the view from the top (in regard to ethics) is rosier than from the bottom. The report does show promise, however, for which we can be both proud and grateful.

I think that ethics begins at home and I’m not sure it is something that can be taught to adults. What we can do with adults is talk about ethics, set the system in place, point out the right way, the expected way, the acceptable way, walk the talk, make it easy to report misconduct and enforce the consequences of misconduct.

As the old saying goes: There is no right way to do a wrong thing — and when in doubt ask: Is it legal, is it balanced and how will it make me feel about myself?

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