According to the Ethics Resource Center, each year almost half of U.S. employees report witnessing unethical or illegal behaviors in their workplaces. The costs of these lapses in ethics can be costly both in terms of financial metrics (fines for fraud, bankruptcies, etc.) and employee morale. Also, according to the Great Place to Work Institute report in 2012, the stock price growth of the 100 firms with the most ethical cultures outperformed stock market and peer measures by almost 300 percent. Thus, researchers have shown that a firm’s culture is the strongest predictor of how much market value that firm will create for shareholders’ investments.
Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to Wes Bush, the CEO of Northrop Grumman, as he delivered a compelling talk at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. In his talk, he highlighted three characteristics that distinguish great leaders from others. He talked about being passionate and committed to one’s work; having real competence, knowledge, and expertise; and having ethics and integrity.
via Career Coach: The value of keeping an eye on ethics – The Washington Post.
