ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Just one-in-four
employees believe their teammates engage in and model ethical
behaviors, according to a new study from CEB, now Gartner. With
recent headlines proving cultural failures can lead to serious
misconduct within organizations, it is imperative that companies
build cultures of integrity or risk reputational and financial
damage.
In 2017, CEB surveyed 5,000 employees on drivers of culture and
found only 25 percent of employees believe their teammates and
colleagues engage in and model the right ethical behaviors. So for
many employees, what their teammates and colleagues say and do has
a significant impact on their perceptions of culture.
For almost a decade, building a culture of integrity has been
the most frequently cited goal of compliance executives. In fact,
more than half stated it was their most critical objective in 2016.
However, while this focus led to an increase in resources and
training centered on improving corporate culture, these efforts
have not meaningfully reduced the amount of misconduct present in
organizations. An analysis of nearly 2 million employee responses
on corporate culture and misconduct shows that in the last eight
years, there has been a less than 1 percent decrease in the number
of employees who observed misconduct at their organizations.
"Employees today do not believe their companies are any more
ethical than they were eight years ago," said Brian Lee, compliance practice leader at CEB,
now Gartner. "Most companies' top-down approach to improving
corporate integrity and culture—focused on senior leaders' messages
and tone—is clearly not enough to create change. Seeing and sensing
integrity in the everyday actions of their peers is what really
makes a difference, and until companies focus efforts there,
cultural challenges are likely to remain and fester."
A Two-Pronged Approach
Companies should not discount the impact of improving tone at
the top. Using a top-down approach requires limited resources and
ensures employees learn about culture from individuals that they
know and trust. More than half of employees CEB surveyed believe
that senior leaders engage in and model the right ethical
behaviors, and 61 percent feel the same about their direct
managers. However, those leader-level efforts are not enough if
they aren't reinforced by the behaviors front-line employees sense
and experience among their colleagues.
"Leaders need to model appropriate integrity and ethical
behavior, but companies can't stop there," said Lee. "To trust that
employees will behave with integrity at all times, leaders must
also create an environment where a culture of integrity is
consistently reinforced among front-line employees."
Clear Returns
While culture seems intangible, it is measurable and efforts to
improve it have a meaningful impact. CEB research shows employees
from strong cultures of integrity are 90 percent less likely to
observe misconduct and are more likely to report that which they do
see. They are also more likely to over-perform on individual and
team goals. There are financial opportunities, too – notably,
companies with strong cultures of integrity have 10-year total
shareholder returns, 7 percentage points higher than companies with
low perceptions of integrity.
Make Meaningful Changes
Companies can improve trust between colleagues and improve
corporate cultures by:
- Helping employees exhibit good behaviors in their work:
While employees often know how to avoid committing a compliance
violation, they are less sure of how to demonstrate positive
compliance and ethics behaviors in their day-to-day jobs. Companies
can help employees exhibit behaviors that strengthen their local
climate by linking these behaviors to performance expectations and
objectives.
- Ensuring managers send consistent messages: Most
managers don't actively encourage employees to engage in negative
ethical behaviors, but they may deprioritize compliance and ethics
messages and requests given other business needs. To ensure teams
receive consistent messages, companies should help managers assess
and understand what signals they may inadvertently send to
employees.
- Making colleagues' positive behaviors more visible:
Positive compliance and ethics behaviors exist on many teams, but
are often not shared broadly. By encouraging teams to publicly
share and commit to consistently demonstrating ethical principles,
leaders can ensure that positive behaviors are visible to all
employees.
CEB Compliance & Ethics Leadership Council provides
organizations and compliance and ethics professionals with cutting
edge research, tools and insight help build plans that drive
results, save time and money and minimize exposure to fraud and
risk. Learn more at https://www.cebglobal.com/compliance-legal.
About CEB, Now Gartner
Leading organizations worldwide rely on CEB services to harness
their untapped potential and grow. Now offered by Gartner, CEB best
practices and technology solutions equip clients with the
intelligence to effectively manage talent, customers, and
operations. More information is available at gartner.com/ceb.
About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading research and
advisory company. The company helps business leaders across all
major functions in every industry and enterprise size with the
objective insights they need to make the right decisions. Gartner's
comprehensive suite of services delivers strategic advice and
proven best practices to help clients succeed in their
mission-critical priorities. Gartner is headquartered in
Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and
has more than 13,000 associates serving clients in 11,000
enterprises in 100 countries. For more information, visit
gartner.com.
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SOURCE CEB