Contained in this category are any reports or documents that were created by the Ethics & Compliance Initiative

Inside The Mind of a Whistleblower

In 2011, 45 percent of U.S. employees said they had observed misconduct in the previous 12 months. Roughly two-thirds of those who observed wrongdoing reported it. While this is the highest reporting rate we have seen, that still leaves over 20 million members of the U.S. workforce who said nothing. How confident are you that none of those 20 million work at your company? What can—what should—you do to ensure that you will know about problems before hearing about them in the paper or online? How can you improve reporting rates at your company and drive down your reputational risk? What goes through employees’ minds when deciding whether and where to report? What happens inside the mind of a whistleblower?

2024-03-22T13:55:22-04:00Thursday, February 29, 2024|
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Changing Our Mindset About Corporate Responsibility: A Challenge to the Business Community

Perhaps now more than ever, business leaders are called on to address and manage a multitude of risks and opportunities on a global scale. With rapidly evolving technologies, urgent global issues, and stakeholders who expect more and have platforms for voicing their opinions like never before, being in business is increasingly complex. Complicating matters further, debate continues about the extent to which companies should act, particularly with regard to environmental and social challenges that arise in and beyond their operations. While a myriad of important laws and regulations have emerged to encourage companies to define and address specific issues, these are not sufficient. Critical business decisions — particularly when it comes to strategy, risk, and stakeholder impact — fall into grey areas where rules, frameworks, and laws will never be clear enough. Instead, these are ethics questions which require responsible businesses to respond by looking beyond what they must do and identifying what they should do.

2024-03-22T13:56:43-04:00Tuesday, February 27, 2024|
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The Risk of Non-Compliance: A Report from ECI’s Global Business Ethics Survey

When it comes to the potential for employees to engage in non-compliant behavior in the workplace, the risk is great. Through the longitudinal Global Business Ethics Survey® (GBES®), the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) regularly tracks the extent to which employees are in situations that result in non-compliance. We also identify the business practices that reduce the likelihood of future wrongdoing. Now more than ever, employees are being exposed to situations that result in wrongdoing. More employees are observing actual acts of non-compliance than in the 29 years of ECI’s GBES research. There is a known and proven solution … so what’s the bottom line? Unless organizations take action by implementing high-quality ethics & compliance programs, they are 467% more likely to experience non-compliance in their operations.

2024-03-22T15:10:27-04:00Tuesday, October 31, 2023|
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The State of Ethics & Compliance in the Workplace: A Global Look

Since 1994, the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) has conducted the most reliable longitudinal, cross-sectional study of workplace conduct from the employee’s perspective. Referenced from boardrooms to classrooms, this rigorous study has been a benchmark for many ethics & compliance (E&C) professionals. Over the years, leading academics, survey researchers, experts on culture and business ethics have worked on ensuring validity regarding the survey questions, methodology and results. Now in its 17th iteration, ECI’s Global Business Ethics Survey® (GBES®) data provide the global benchmark on the state of ethics & compliance in business across the globe.

2024-02-05T16:03:56-05:00Monday, October 2, 2023|
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2023 GBES Research Summary

Conducted in 42 countries around the globe, the GBES surveys thousands of employees about their experiences and perceptions around ethics in the workplace. ECI members use this vast but easy-to-sort dataset to understand the current global state of Ethics & Compliance, identify potential issues at their own companies, and generate benchmarks that reveal how well their companies are doing in achieving their ethics goals.

2024-03-22T15:12:53-04:00Tuesday, August 29, 2023|
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