Research Data

Daniel Malan (2002) reports on the first ever South African ethics survey and notes that "a basic ethics infrastructure exists in most organisations, practices and mechanisms are too basic to be effective and, in some cases, merely indicate lip service to ethics without a real commitment by leadership to ethics management". Results of the survey include:

• 84% of the 166 respondents had written documents that outline the organisation's values and principles. In most cases this was referred to as a Code of Conduct that often incorporated a mission statement, a message from the CEO, values, principles and examples of unethical behaviour.

• 50% of surveyed organisations reported having undertaken formal evaluations of the organisational culture related to ethics, ethic related performance of individuals and organisations, and ethics-related documents and policies;

• 60% indicated that a senior manager was specifically assigned to implement, monitor and assure ethics initiatives were undertaken. In 78% of cases this responsibility was part of another position and in most cases was an addition responsibility of the Human Resources Manager;

• Only 5% of those responsible for ethics had tertiary education in ethics, though 38% had other tertiary training. 25% gained their knowledge and skills through attendance at conferences or workshops, and 25% indicated they were self taught;

• 74% of those surveyed indicated that their organisations had a formal policy that protected employees who report ethical or legal violations;

• 2% state that their organisations train employees on their ethics policies, with 58% indicating that their organisations do not provide training on the application of their Code of Conduct. 72% do not provide training on ethical decision-making and 65% do not provide training on how to integrate ethics into everyday activities;

• 50% of responding organisations do not have specific performance criteria item(s) related to ethical behaviour.

Results from the American Management Association '2002 Corporate Values Survey' also highlights both positive and negative aspects in relation to ethical business practices. Of the 175 executives who responded:

A survey by Steve Priest (founder of the Ethical Leadership Group), at the 2002 Conference Board's annual Business Ethics Conference in the USA, polled the senior ethics executives present and focused on the lack of ethics involved in situations like the Enron scandal and on whether greater attention to ethical issues could prevent such disasters. Of the respondents:

• 60% said that ethics training would significantly reduce the likelihood of a scandal at their own companies;

• 50% said their boards were not engaged enough in ethics and compliance issues;

• 8% said they promote high performers even if they didn't meet their company's ethical standards;

• Only I% said that ethics training would have entirely prevented the Enron scandal; and

• Almost 100% believed that there were at least six major corporate scandals on the horizon.

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