Ethics at work

The Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership is the national partner for the IBE Ethics at Work survey.

2021: Ethics starts at the top

The UK Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) have released their 2021 findings on workplace ethics, including an in-depth look into New Zealand. The Ethics at Work survey asks employees how they experience ethical dilemmas in their day-to-day working lives, looking at whether they have witnessed misconduct, whether they have reported it, and what stops them. It provides insights into what supports employees to do the right thing.

The Brian Picot Chair is the national partner to IBE for this global ethics survey and Professor Karin Lasthuizen gives her comments on the 2021 survey.

“These findings are key to help mitigate the risks that can lead to organisational failures, to improve the practice of ethical leadership and to lead New Zealand organisations towards sustainable business outcomes."

This 2021 survey of 10,000 employees in 13 countries provides facts and figures that give insights into employees’ attitudes to views on workplace ethics. In New Zealand, 750 employees across industries and sectors were surveyed.

“These findings, which show that 37 percent of respondents now have a higher opinion on how ethically their organisation behaves, are in line with the global average. Only 6 percent say they have a poorer opinion of their organisation, while 54 percent said their opinion remained the same,” explains Professor Lasthuizen.

She thinks organisations have missed opportunities to encourage dialogue and discussions about ethics internally, especially when it comes to creating a more open ethical culture and the ethical leadership role of line managers. A greater focus on providing formal ways in which employees can obtain advice about behaving ethically at work would be another way to address these issues. “This is especially important as we are more likely to work remotely and may need more active advice on ethical issues,” she says.

The survey includes responses from Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as New Zealand.

Professor Lasthuizen says, “These findings should alert organisations in New Zealand worldwide to do more to create inclusive, ethical, and safe workplaces, and to work towards a more open ethical organisational culture.”

Read the survey results for New Zealand here.

Or check out the full survey.

2018: What does ethics at work mean to employees?

Phillipa Foster Back, Executive Director of the Institute of Business Ethics, UK, officially launched the publication Ethics at Work: 2018 Survey of Employees—Australia, New Zealand at a public lecture hosted by the Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership on 28 November 2018.

View the video below to see the slides and hear a recording of the presentation.