* Set a good example for staff
Senior management and direct supervisors play a large part in influencing ethical behavior in the workplace, according to the results of a recent study from Deloitte & Touche USA.
“In order to encourage high ethical standards within our organizations, we first have to provide an environment that is conducive to ethical behavior,” says Sharon Allen, chairman of the board at Deloitte & Touche. “However, management and leadership have a huge responsibility in setting examples for their organizations and living the values they preach if they want to sustain a culture of ethics.”
The report, “2007 Deloitte & Touche USA LLP Ethics & Workplace,” is based on responses from 1,041 U.S. adult workers. Harris Interactive conducted the research in February on behalf of Deloitte & Touche.
The top two factors contributing to the promotion of an ethical workplace are the behavior of management and direct supervisors, as chosen by 42% and 36% of respondents, respectively. More surprisingly, emphasis of criminal penalties doesn’t seem to do much to deter unethical behavior, nor does ethics training.
There is, however, a strong relationship between ethical actions at work and a healthy level of work-life balance. In fact, 91% of those employees surveyed agreed that workers are more likely to behave ethically at the office when they have a good work-life balance.
Allen explains why this may be so. “If someone invests in all of their time and energy into their jobs, it may have the unintended consequence of making them depend on their jobs for everything – including their sense of personal worth. This makes it even harder to make a good choice when faced with an ethical dilemma if they believe it will impact professional success.”
Editor’s Note: Is your IT organizational structure holding your company back?
We’re assembling a package of stories to be published in Network World looking at the IT organizational structure of the future and we need your help:News Editor Bob Brown
* If your company has recently reorganized in light of new business and technology challenges and opportunities, can you send along “before” and “after” org charts? (Feel free to strip out the names, we’re really just looking for titles. But give us a sense of the size of your IT organization/business.) Can you tell us how the reorganization has worked out?
* If your company is in need of an IT org makeover, what areas are currently most dysfunctional?
* Any advice on what your peers can do to improve their IT organizations right now?
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