ISSUES
: Business and Trade
Chapter 2: Corporate responsibility
39
Ethics at work
2015 survey of employees in Britain.
By Daniel Johnson
Summary and conclusion
This fourth IBE
British Ethics at Work
report has explored
the attitudes and perceptions of British employees of
ethical standards and behaviours in their workplace.
The results in this report provide insight into the state
of business ethics in British organisations in 2015. It has
also shown how the view of British employees towards
ethics in the workplace has shifted over time.
The findings show that between 2012 and 2015 there
has not been a significant shift in the experiences of
British employees of ethics at work:
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the practice of honesty is still considered to be
prevalent with more than four-fifths of employees
saying that honesty is practised always or frequently
in their organisation
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a consistent fifth say that they has been aware of
misconduct over the previous year
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only half of employees aware of misconduct continue
to raise their concerns, and
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only 8% say that they had felt pressured to
compromise their organisation’s ethical standards.
However, each of the elements of a formal ethics
programme is now more prominent than three years
ago:
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almost nine in ten say that their organisation has
written standards of ethical business conduct, up
from slightly less than three-quarters in 2012
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a similar proportion say their organisation offers a
means of reporting misconduct confidentially, up
from slightly more than two-thirds in 2012
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nearly three-quarters say their organisation has an
advice or information helpline, up fromapproximately
six in ten in 2012
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almost four-fifths say their organisation provides
ethics training, up from less than two-thirds in 2012.
In 2015, ethics programmes now appear to be well
established, and are becoming more embedded in
organisations as their awareness amongst employees
has increased substantially.
However, in a reversal of previous findings, fewer than
two-fifths (39%) are now satisfied with the outcome
when they raise their concerns of misconduct. In 2012,
70% were satisfied. This is consistent with the finding
that not believing corrective action would be taken was
the second most prominent barrier to employees raising
concerns. The finding that almost three-quarters of
employees in organisations with the most supportive
ethical cultures said that they were satisfied with the
outcome when they spoke up, does however suggest
that individual organisations have a degree of control
over this.
There is also evidence to suggest the benefits of
formally supporting employees to do the right thing.
Organisations which take ethics seriously by providing
support to employees through formal ethics programmes
and/or a supportive ethical culture experience:
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honesty more frequently in their day-to-day
operations,
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misconduct less frequently, and
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less pressure on employees to compromise their
standards of ethical conduct.
November 2015
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The above information is reprinted with kind
permission from the Institute of Business Ethics.
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© Institute of Business Ethics 2016
