What is the Answer to Ethical Conduct Problems?

Ethical misconduct can cause a host of challenges for an agency, not the 

least of which is eroding an agency's ability to accomplish its mission. Public 

sector employees who behave unethically not only adversely affect those 

inside their agency (and bring shame upon the agency's reputation) but also 

harm others outside the agency—the American public who utilizes the 

agency's products and services. In one way or another, Federal work 

touches the lives of every American every day. For these reasons, it is not a 

surprise that Governmentwide job analysis studies conducted by the Office of 

Personnel Management have found that the Integrity/Honesty competency is 

perceived as crucial to performance across a wide range of occupations.

Are ethics problems common? According to the results of the Ethics 

Resource Center's (www.ethics.org/) recently-released The State of Ethics in 

Large Companies,

1

 fifty-one percent of employees in these organizations2

reported witnessing unethical behavior on the job. Clearly, some action is 

needed to reduce the incidence of unethical behavior in the workplace.

What can be done to mitigate ethics problems?

Strategy 1: Encourage safe reporting of violations. Agencies might, as the 

ERC has suggested, put increased emphasis on oversight and programs 

which allow employees to anonymously report ethics violations without fear 

of retaliation. 

Strategy 2: Role-model ethical behavior. Agency leaders should be proactive 

in encouraging employees to behave more ethically to begin with—and not 

just because they fear being caught. Leaders' words and actions greatly 

influence agency culture and can shape employees' perceptions of what is—

and what is not—appropriate behavior. 

Strategy 3: Determine the root cause of ethics problems. HR professionals 

might advise their agency's leadership to determine the root cause of ethical

misconduct in the agency. For example, if otherwise-honest employees have

problems in specific areas it may be due to ignorance or misunderstanding of 

the ethical standards that apply to their particular jobs. Government jobs

include many situations in which ethical considerations are different or even

seem counter to the ethics we apply in our non-work lives. For example, it

may seem unhelpful or dishonest when our job requires us to withhold 

information due to privacy or confidentiality restrictions. It may also seem 

dishonest when confidentiality must be violated for workplace safety 

reasons. In these circumstances, the best answer is likely training on the 

ethical responsibilities of an employee's particular job. 

Strategy 4: Use sound selection assessments to screen out candidates who 

are likely to pose an ethics risk. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to 

predict who will engage in unethical behavior. However, there are certain 

characteristics that can help agencies discern whether an individual is likely 

to pose an ethics risk. For example, psychologists have identified a general 

characteristic they call “Conscientiousness.” People with a high level of this

characteristic tend to behave in honest and responsible ways across a wide

variety of situations. People who score low on conscientiousness measures

are considered risks to employ in any job. It can be difficult (if not futile) to 

try to train people to be more conscientious or honest; these characteristics 

tend to be innate qualities of individuals, shaped over a lifetime. Thus, the 

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best way to foster a conscientious workforce is with a good hiring process—

including reference checking to verify applicant claims about their work 

history and mechanisms such as the probationary period to remove unethical 

employees as soon as they reveal themselves.

Ethics problems occur much more frequently than we typically assume and it 

is critical that agencies work to reduce their incidence. We have suggested 

several strategies, but emphasize that it is important to first understand 

ethics problems in order to solve them effectively and to avoid wasting 

government resources. We encourage agencies to exercise wise judgment in 

deciding whether to use training or selection methods to try to shape the 

ethics of their workforce. It wastes time and money to train someone who is 

not conscientious to begin with. It also wastes time and money to replace an

employee who means well, but simply misunderstands his or her job

responsibilities. In all cases though, a detailed job analysis can help agencies 

see the kinds of ethical situations employees are likely to encounter and the 

critical abilities and competencies necessary to navigate such situations 

appropriately.

1

Available at http://www.ethics.org/nbes/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/LargeCompaniesExecSummary.pdf. 2

 Companies with 90,000 or more employees.

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