As a consultant with responsibilities to monitor client as well as your own ethical conduct, the state of ethics in business is an important part of your ongoing education and preparedness. The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) conducts a biennial survey of ethics in the workplace, and publishes its findings in the National Business Ethics Survey. 

This year's report had some interesting findings:

• Misconduct witnessed by U.S. workers is now at historic lows, while reporting of misconduct is now at near highs.
• Retaliation against employee whistleblowers rose sharply.

• The percentage of employees who perceived pressure to compromise standards in order to do their jobs climbed five points from 2009 to 13 percent.
• The share of companies with weak ethics cultures also climbed to near record levels.
• Two influences stood out in the unusual shift in trends: the economy and the unique experiences of those actively using social networking at work.
• NBES continues to show that companies behave differently during economic difficulties. The decisions and behaviors of their leaders are perceived by employees as a heightened commitment to ethics. As a result, employees adopt a higher standard of conduct for themselves.
• As the economy gets better – and companies and employees become more optimistic about their financial futures – it seems likely that misconduct will rise and reporting will drop, mirroring the growth in pressure and retaliation that have already taken place and conforming to historic patterns.
• Active social networkers report far more negative experiences in their workplaces. As a group, they are much more likely to experience pressure to compromise ethics standards and to experience retaliation for reporting misconduct than co-workers who are less involved with social networking.
  

You can download the report and some supplemental reports on this year and prior year findings.