Member Article

Pressure to act unethically in business on rise

Four out of five businesses worldwide have committed to ethical performance, but rhetoric does not always match reality, according to a new report launched todat from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) . The report found a weakened “tone from the top” and more pressure on financial professionals – especially in emerging economies — to act unethically.
Managing Responsible Business, a global survey of almost 2,000 Chartered Global Management Accountants (CGMA) in nearly 80 countries, found that 80 percent of organizations provide a code of ethics to guide employees about ethical standards in their work, up from 72 percent in 2008. However, only 36 percent collect ethics information such as the number of employees attending ethics training and actions taken on hotline reports. Since ethical performance can only be managed with the right information, this suggests ethical practice falls short of stated policy, according to the report.

In addition, neither senior management nor boards of directors seem to be reviewing, analyzing and monitoring ethics information at the level recorded four years ago. In 2008, 86 percent of senior management and 68 percent of boards reviewed ethics data, according to the report. In 2012, it was 78 percent and 56 percent, respectively. This “weakened tone from the top” comes as more than a third of those surveyed, 35 percent, said they sometimes or always feel pressured to compromise their organization’s standards of ethical conduct. This compares to 28 percent of respondents in 2008. The pressure is most pronounced in developing economies such as Malaysia, 54 percent, and India, 51 percent, and lowest in the U.K. and U.S., where 18 percent of those surveyed feel pressure.

Derek Barnes, CIMA Area Chairman for the West Midlands, commented: “Management accountants play a critical role in linking the objectives of the organisation across the whole business and are therefore well-placed to constructively challenge how things are done and offer an objective view. They are in an excellent position to be the ethical conscience of their organisation.”

The report is a follow up to one conducted by CIMA in 2008 and is the first time responses from the U.S. have been included. Geography and company size are key factors in the findings, with larger companies from more developed economies generally having more advanced ethics programs. U.S. companies, for instance, are most likely to monitor or evaluate ethical standards, according to the report.
Other key findings from the report include:
Ethical Performance: More than half of companies, or 57 percent, now provide training on ethical standards, 49 percent provide a hotline for reporting conduct that violates the organization’s standards of ethics and 25 percent provide incentives for staff to uphold the organization’s standards of ethical conduct, according to the report.

CGMAs and Ethical Performance: The main ways CGMAs say they contribute to management of ethical performance are by upholding their professional code of ethics, 86 percent; ensuring the integrity of management information, 83 percent; leading by example, 80 percent.

Pressures to Act Unethically: Asked how likely various situations were to result in pressure to compromise standards of ethical business conduct, those surveyed identified the top situations as: working with colleagues from different functional areas within the organization; meeting reporting deadlines; compiling management accounts; and dealing with customers.

Business Issues: When asked how relevant various ethical issues were to their organizations, the top issues cited by respondents were security of information , 91 percent, safety and security, 88 percent, bribery, 78 percent, discrimination, 75 percent, conflicts of interest, 74 percent, environmental, 73 percent and supply chain, 72 percent.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CIMA UK Regional News .