~ August 21st 2012

The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) released, “The National Business Ethics Survey® of Fortune 500® Employees: An Investigation into the State of Ethics at America’s Most Powerful Companies,” indicating that compared to all companies in the U.S., the highest revenue companies show a higher incidence of misconduct.

The report reflects a survey of 2,172 workers at U.S.-based companies with annual revenues of $5 billion or more. The survey was conducted from June 7-13, 2012 among members of Precision Sample’s market research panels. Major findings from the study included:

Just over half of workers (52 percent) at the highest revenue companies had observed misconduct in the previous 12 months, compared to 45 percent at all companies in the U.S.
Seventy-four percent of employees at the Fortune 500® businesses reported misconduct when they saw it, compared to 65 percent on average for all businesses in the U.S.
Sixteen percent of workers at the Fortune 500® companies felt pressure to break the rules, compared to 13 percent at all companies in the U.S.
Whistleblowers were slightly more likely to experience retaliation at Fortune 500® companies than at companies in the U.S. overall.
ERC also found during the course of analysis that findings were consistent with previous waves of its biennial National Business Ethics Survey (NBES®) which has been fielded since 1994. “We’re pleased with the quality, quantity and speed of data we were able to provide to ERC on this project and to see that our panels have shown to be representative and consistent with such a long running research project.” stated Don Golden, President of Precision Sample.

A full copy of the report is available at http://ethics.org/nbes/

About Precision Sample

Founded in 2010, Precision Sample is one of the fastest growing companies in the online market research industry. With a focus on emerging technologies, Precision Sample helps businesses connect with consumers where they live via traditional online methods as well as at social networks and via mobile devices. Precision Sample’s clients have access to one of the most representative and dynamic panels available with over 1,000,000 highly vetted, active respondents across 4 countries growing at a rate of over 300,000 new panelists monthly.

About the Ethics Resource Center

The Ethics Resource Center is devoted to independent research and the advancement of high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions. Visit us at http://www.ethics.org.

The findings and conclusions of this report are those of the Ethics Resource Center alone and do not represent the views of the corporate sponsors of this research project.