The Global Business Ethics Survey (GBES) conducted by the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) provides valuable insights into workplace ethics and compliance from the perspective of employees. Tom Fox recently had the opportunity to visit with ECI CEO Pat Harned on the 2023 GBES. This survey has become a reliable benchmark for organizations to compare their workplace culture with third-party research, allowing them to identify areas for improvement and address potential risks.

Over the past 30 years of GBES research, ECI has identified and proven that certain “outcome” metrics are indicative of the well-being of workplaces from an ethics & compliance perspective. In this, the largest and latest update to the GBES body of research, employees in 42 countries around the world told us that there is reason for concern. In Part 3 of a five-part podcast, we consider addressing workplace misconduct.

The 2023 GBES showed that within workplace ethics, retaliation, and whistleblower protection issues, retaliation is a pervasive issue in the workplace, with a significant number of individuals who report misconduct experiencing some form of retribution. The GBES revealed that retaliation remains unacceptably high, with many victims of harassment or discrimination choosing not to report due to fear of further retaliation. Pat emphasizes the importance of educating supervisors and coworkers to recognize and address retaliation, as well as supporting and educating employees who come forward about what retaliation might look like and how to handle it. Join Tom Fox and Pat Harned as they delve deeper into these issues on the 2023 GBES podcast.

Key Highlights:

Join us in Part 4, where we ask ‘what is an ethical culture”?

Resources:

ECI

2023 Global Business Ethics Survey

Blog Post on the 2023 GBES, Part 3