Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Public Trust in U.S. Business Tumbles

See the article posted on the CIG site (Ethics News/Articles) : Public Trust in U.S. Business Tumbles
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/25/us-corporate-trust-idUSTRE70O1JO20110125

Public trust in business began to erode during the accounting scandals of the 1990s and early 2000s, but dropped like a brick during the financial crisis.  The 2010 survey shows it is getting even worse, down to 46 percent.  What does this mean for business?  U.S. businesses are under the gun by shareholders, boards, and employees to tighten their belts and meet their financial metrics in order to survive.  However, there are often unintended ethical consequences of "making the numbers or else" as the sole performance metric in a company.  Without a strong ethical culture driven by committed, involved leadership at all levels, good ethical decision making can wind up taking a back seat. 

For government contractors, a lack of emphasis on ethics and integrity could be catastrophic. Recent changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) require agencies to assess a company's record of integrity and business ethics (i.e. their "ethical posture") as part of the source selection process.  In an era of tightening budgets (at the federal, state and local levels), and shrill calls by taxpayers for increased accountability over public funds, a company's ethical posture is going to become an increasingly important factor in whether or not they get a contract.

Core Integrity Group can help companies demonstrate their due diligence and commitment to ethics and integrity by conducting an independent assessment of their Ethics and Compliance programs; making recommendations for improvement; and designing a strategy for highlighting their ethics posture to their important government customers.