Ethical Culture in Large Companies
"Companies that invest in ethics reap an enormous return. Better workplace ethics cut business risks by reducing the chance that serious ethics problems will throw companies off course and distract them from their core business" ERC CEO Patricia Harned In the latest National Business Ethics Survey from ECI (Ethics & Compliance Initiative), it's no surprise that an organization's culture, leadership, and values-based ethics and compliance program makes a huge difference in increasing an employee's willingness to report workplace misconduct. Employees feel free from retaliation! The survey, conducted on large organizations of 90,000 or more employees, shows that with an effective values-based ethics and compliance program, employee reporting of wrongdoing increases by 61 percent. These such program also decrease retaliation by as much as 93 percent. The likelihood of retaliation against reporters is also lessened in instances where employees believe that individuals at all levels of the organization are held accountable if they violate company standards or the law.