More than 60% of Americans believe that religious beliefs and values should form the basis for executives’ business decisions, but less than two thirds of high-level business leaders agree, according to [pdf] a study by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, commissioned by the Knights of Columbus.
Results from the study, which included surveys of both the American public and corporate executives, indicate a gap in perception of the role religion and morality should play in business, as well a significant difference in how each group views corporate America’s morality. Some 76% of Americans believe that corporate America’s “moral compass” is pointed in the wrong direction, while only 58% of corporate executives agree.
Despite this disparity, the surveys did find that most Americans and at least some executives are concerned about the quality of corporate leadership during the economic crisis and think ethics should be a priority moving forward. Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) Americans rate the country’s business leadership as fair or poor during this time of economic crisis and 72% of executives agree.
Financial and Investment Industry Worst
Regarding specific industries, the financial industry fares worst in the opinion survey. The majority of Americans and two-thirds of executives gave a grade of “D” or “F” (on an A-F scale) in ethical matters to the financial and investment industry.
Along with Wall Street and financial-industry executives, politicians also received terrible ethics grades from a majority of Americans and a majority of executives, the survey found.
Doctors and accountants received the best marks for ethics among both Americans and executives.
Obstacles to Improvement
More than 90% of Americans and 90% of executives see career advancement, personal financial gain, increasing profits, or gaining competitive advantage as the primary factors that corporate executives take into account when making business decisions. in contrast,only 31% of Americans, and 32% of executives believe the “public good” is a strong motivating factor.
On the bright side, three-fourths of Americans and more 90% of executives think that a business can be both successful and ethical. However, while 74% of Americans and 86% of executives believe people should have the same ethical standards in business as in their personal lives, more than half of executives, and nearly three-fourths of Americans, think that most people miss that mark.
These survey findings confirm the downward slide in perception of executives and echo recent research from Harris Interactive that found the reputation of corporate America is “terrible.”
Results from another survey by Weber Shandwick similarly found only 14% of executives think American CEOs have a good reputation.
About the study: The “Business Ethics in a Time of Economic Crisis” (pdf) study was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. Some 2,071 US adults were interviewed from January 25 through February 3, 2009. Data from 110 corporate executives, who were asked the same questions, was collected between January 26 and February 5, 2009.