For Best Results by Jerry Brown Nine out of ten U.S. employees say that they expect their organizations to do what is right, not just what is profitable. Similarly, nine out of ten employees say the people they work with believe in their organization's standards and values. How Employees Perceive Ethics at Work illustrate the high ethical expectations that employees have for their organizations and leaders. In recent years increasing numbers of organizations have made values such as honesty, respect and trust an important focus of their ethics and compliance programs. In organizations where employees see values applied frequently, there appear to be fewer instances of misconduct at work.
Employees feel less pressure to commit misconduct and are more satisfied with their organizations.
These signs of health are usually apparent in the case of conduct and job turnover and are somewhat less easy to identify in the case of job satisfaction. Misconduct is misconduct. While a high percentage of observed misconduct in an organization may signal problems, low percentages of reported misconduct do not necessarily mean that all is well. For example, senior and mid-level employees are more likely to report misconduct than are lower level employees. There are also indications that employees' levels of satisfaction with the results of reporting past misconduct may be linked to their perceptions about reporting misconduct in the future.