Latest Survey of Ethical Behavior in the Workplace finds Little Improvement

The 2007 National Business Ethics Survey, published by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC), based on a nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 employees of U.S. companies, reveals:

	Ethical misconduct in general is very high and back at pre-Enron levels.
	Many employees do not report what they observe because they are fearful of retaliation and skeptical that their reporting will make a difference.
	The number of companies that are successful in incorporating a strong enterprise-wide ethical culture into their business has declined since 2005. Only nine percent of companies have strong ethical cultures.

The top three types of observed misconduct are: conflicts of interest (employees putting themselves above their company), abusive or intimidating behavior, and lying to employees. Misconduct is even more common in negative environments, and a major element is lack of trust in keeping promises and commitments.

The good news:

	The number of formal ethics and compliance programs is on the rise. Companies with well-implemented programs yield increased reporting of observed misconduct and reduced ethics risk.
	Companies that adopt a strong ethical culture, extending beyond a compliance mentality, dramatically reduce misconduct.
	Both a well implemented ethics and compliance program and a strong ethical culture significantly reduce ethics risk.

In the post-Enron era, formal rules like The Sarbanes-Oxley Act will never be enough. Compliance alone does not substantially reduce risk. The challenge ahead is for corporate leaders to help employees move beyond feelings of futility and fear of retaliation towards empowerment. Through building and reinforcing an ethical culture, shaped by ethical leadership, supervisor reinforcement, peer commitment to ethics, and embedded ethical values, employees can find the ethical courage to do what is right.

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A New Model of Business: Towards Wholeness and Interdependence

The dominant paradigm in business has been, and continues to be, a model of competition that prioritizes short-term gain over long-term sustainability. However, there are signs of a new potential for business. According to the 2007 Shift Report: Evidence of a World Transforming by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, the Newtonian model of business characterized by Frederick Taylor and his contemporaries back in the early 1900?s is giving way to a perspective in which systems thinking and organic processes are primary. The findings of quantum physics and evolutionary biology have influenced this new conception of business. Margaret Wheatley describes the companies we work for as ?bundles of potential.? In this new paradigm, companies are ?creative, in motion, in relationship, self-organizing, networked, and decentralized.?

The report also talks about the two most prominent approaches to building this new paradigm of business: outer-directed strategies and inner-directed strategies. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and socially responsible investing (SRI) fall under the outer-directed strategies. The inner-directed strategies involve an inside-out process of human transformation that includes values like integrity, authenticity, social and emotional intelligence, and self-awareness, among others.

Businessman-futurist John Renesch says, ?There are lots of models, but it?s really about each of us waking up.?

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You Can't Know ? You Have to Trust

In terms of trust in business, the ?soft? stuff is the hard stuff. Trusting relationships increase profitability, boost market value, add competitive advantage, lower costs, and provide efficiencies. Creating bonds of trust leads to higher morale, lower turnover, and improved productivity. Partnerships based on trust provide the greatest value at the lowest cost.

Trust need not be measured in standard business or financial terms. The word faith comes from the Latin fidere, meaning ?to trust.? The concept of fiduciary responsibility is about more than financials. Trust in Spirit, trust in ourselves, and trust in each other create the bottom line. We can look at trust in economic terms, after we acknowledge the first priority.

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Trust Yourself

Helping people trust in themselves, their own empowerment, and the process toward a successful outcome is key to building and promoting an environment of trust within organizations. Research scientist Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., one of the leading voices of the new biology, tells us: ?The new science takes us from victim to creator; we are very powerful in creating and unfolding the lives that we lead. This is actually knowledge of self and if we understand the old axiom, ?Knowledge is power,? then what we are really beginning to understand is the knowledge of self-power. ?

?Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.?
? Author Benjamin McLane Spock, American pediatrician, educator, writer

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Trust and the Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction says that like attracts like and what you focus on expands. Therefore, trust begets more trust. Leaders who demonstrate positive values like integrity and authenticity, and who are accountable, just as employees are held accountable for their performance, will gain the trust and respect of their employees, achieve greater collaboration, teamwork and communication within the organization, and a more open, caring and ethical culture.

?The predominant thought or the mental attitude is the magnet, and the law is that like attracts like, consequently, the mental attitude will invariably attract such conditions as correspond to its nature. ? ? Charles Hannel (1866 ? 1949)

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