We invited Patricia Harned, president of Ethics Resource Center, to respond to Norm Augustine's questions regarding the data underlying "Dangerous Silence"
Here are Pat's comments:
Norm Augustine has asked an insightful question about the types of misconduct that were observed but not reported by employees. Unfortunately the Ethics Resource Center’s 2007 National Business Ethics Survey indicates some troubling detail. Some violations that go unreported are the types that Norm highlighted (“Mary got promoted but Jane didn’t…”). Yet others are egregious violations of the law. For example, sixty-four percent of employees who observed someone accepting or giving a bribe did not report it to management. Fifty-one percent of employees who observed sexual harassment remained silent. Forty-five percent of employees who observed environmental violations failed to report. Given the nature of the study we don’t know the specifics of these situations or the extent to which these incidents would have been found to be actionable misconduct if they had been reported to a helpline, and thus Norm’s question has a great deal of merit. Nevertheless, the fact that two in five employees believed they saw wrongdoing yet felt they could not report it to management is of concern. If management is not aware that something is going wrong, they can’t do anything about it. Please visit www.ethics.org
to download a free copy of the ERC’s National Business Ethics Survey report.
Patricia J. Harned, Ph.D., President
Ethics Resource Center
Later this week, watch for remarks by Scott Avelino, Principal, Forensic Services, KPMG. Scott will also comment on Norm Augustine's inquiry, based on research conducted by KPMG.
GE
