Words: 487
The NBS measured critical aspects of ethics culture, including: management’s trustworthiness, whether managers at all levels talk about ethics and model appropriate behavior, the extent to which employees value and support ethical conduct, accountability, and transparency. ” Misconduct in the workplace is statistically greater in organizations with weaker ethics cultures. Although two key drivers Of ethics culture are supervisors and senior executives, the employee perception of these individuals has been on rapid decline. This evidence only supports the predicted decline of business ethics.
The coupling of low misconduct and high reporting of wrongdoing along with high levels of various forms of retaliation and increasingly weak ethics cultures is an anomaly when considering previous NBS conclusions. “These trends seem to be highly influenced by two factors: the lingering effects of the recent recession and the experiences of an emerging group of individuals ho spend a significant amount of work time engaged in social networking. ” Reporting Of wrongdoing has usually followed directly with increases or decreases in the state of the economy.
Although the economy has slightly improved in the last two years, reporting of wrongdoing has actually declined. This is attributed to a more worrisome outlook on the economy despite improvements. Employees are more aware to avoid misconduct because they are feeling less and less financially secure. Active social networks have been shown to report more negative experiences in regards to ethics at work. While they seem to be much more likely to observe misconduct, they report it in at a similar rate to their co-workers who are much less active on social media.
Where they most definitively differ from their co-workers relates to how tolerant they seem to be when it comes to questionable ethics visitations in the workplace. When added to the observation that social networks also seem to be much less attached to their current jobs, the conclusion is that this combination may present future ethics issues for employers. Alternatively, social networks are more likely to use social media to report costive work experiences than negative.
There may be a way for employers to work with this active social media group in ways not yet examined. Ultimately, although the recent NBS report seems to be predicting a down sloping trend in business ethics in the future, this prediction is in no way set in stone. It is up to businesses and organizations to use the knowledge that has now been presented to them to turn this issue around. Enhanced vigilance, including increased investment in ethics and compliance programs, and renewed commitment to building ethics cultures can block the decline.
A well-implemented program will drive a stronger ethics culture. The result will be reduced pressure for misconduct, a decrease in observed misconduct coupled with an increase in reported misconduct, and a decline in the instances of retaliation for weightlessness.