ERC Fellows Current Working Groups

Relationship between CSR and Ethics (est. July 2007)
This working group was formed from a considerable interest in and discussion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the ERC Fellows Meeting in June. Many different viewpoints exist on the relationship between CSR and ethics, and how these disciplines need to be integrated in the following years. Ethics officers and CSR officers can learn a lot from one another, particularly since ethics officers have dealt more in-depth with the question of "how to get a seat at the table" and make ethics a legitimately recognized part of their company's corporate governance system. The ERC Fellows and the ERC research team will commence this group with a very brief review of the relationship between CSR & ethics. The primary focus of this group, however, will be on producing a document of guidelines that can provide ethics officers with best practices on ways to apply ethics and CSR into their formal corporate governance structure.

Benchmarking Helpline Data (est. January 2007)
The ERC Fellows have raised concern that even when they have third-party support for their helpline, they have limited ability to understand what their helpline statistics mean given a lack of good benchmarks. Therefore, this working group formed to collaborate with ERC on the development of a benchmark comparison tool that will allow for an industry-wide cross comparison of helpline statistics and identify commonalities and differences among company reports of misconduct across industry, size, and region. After providing ERC with their helpline report, companies will have the ability to compare their data to other company helpline data, as well as to analyze their own data longitudinally.


Procedural Justice (est. January 2006)
This working group is concerned with how ethics or compliance officers dealing with employees' reports of misconduct might most effectively handle these cases. The approach is based upon the general findings of the existing literature on procedural justice. By introducing ethics and compliance officers to key tools for managing disputes, the reported ethical issues can be resolved in a manner that better maximizes satisfaction and continued organizational commitment on the part of both the complainant (reporter) and the target of the complaint. This can be accomplished by developing an understanding of the experience of employees who report problems and issues to ethics and compliance officers.

Incentives That Foster Ethical Conduct (est. July 2004)
The Incentives group conducted preliminary research by interviewing a select group of corporate representatives regarding various incentives programs they are currently employing to foster ethical conduct within their organization.  After reviewing the data from the initial interviews, the group revisited the question set and decided to prepare a simple survey that could be delivered electronically. After reviewing the data from these initial surveys, the group decided that, given the fact that almost 90% of the respondents to the survey indicated that they use performance management as a way to encourage ethical behavior, the focal point of this study would be performance review. The next steps for this group are to conduct interviews with both ethics and HR managers to focus specifically on how organizations use performance management to encourage ethical behavior. Ultimately, the group will consider creating the following deliverables: 1) An article that provides recommendations to influence the US Federal Sentencing Commission with respect to a clearer definition of "incentives that foster ethical conduct", as stated in the revised Federal Sentencing Guidelines; 2) Suggested strategies for effective communications between HR and ethics and compliance officers; and 3) A list of incentives programs focused on performance management.

Measurement (est. July 2003)
The Measurement working group members meet on a monthly basis to share insights and experiences from organizations on measuring training, program effectiveness, and best practices. The next steps for this group include the development of a white paper based on past research conducted on measuring ethical culture. More specifically, this research was focused on leadership influences and the impact of training on employee culture. Additionally, this group continues to explore what "support for following organizational ethics standards" looks like and what cultural indicators managers can use to measure if support is being demonstrated.