The 2005 National Business Ethics Survey

More than half of American workers have observed at least one type of ethical misconduct in the workplace, a slight increase from 2003, despite an increase in worker's awareness of formal ethics programs, according to the 2005 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) released today by the Ethics Resource Center. Employee reporting of misconduct they observe is also down by 10 percentage points. Despite the decrease in ethical conduct, according to the NBES report, "Ethics and compliance programs can and do make a difference. However, their impact is related to the culture in which they are situated."

The survey of more than 3,000 American workers, analyzes trends in workplace ethics, the implementation of formal programs, the ethical culture within organizations, the impact of programs, and factors that pose risks of misconduct.

Download the Executive Summary.