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There's been some bad news lately about ethics in government.


The good news is, however, that it's not all bad.


The Ethics Resource Center has been studying ethics in the workplace for 85 years and the group just released their 2007 National Government Ethics Survey.


ERC President Pat Harned spoke about her group's findings on this morning's Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Jane Norris.


"There was good news and bad news. The bad news is that more than 50 percent of employees in the federal government observed some kind of misconduct within the last year. The good news is that the federal government fared better than their state and local counterparts -- but, nevertheless, one in two [employees] sees misconduct in the workplace."


What, however, defines 'misconduct'?


Harned says ERC's definition ranges from: abusive and intimidating behavior, safety violations, lying to employees by supervisors and conflicts of interest.


"When we ask employees if they've observed misconduct, we read them a list of different types of behaviors they might have seen in the workplace and so the number that we are sharing is based upon the percentage of employees who have observed at least one of those acts around them."


Another interesting finding of the survey: about 30 percent of employees who see ethics violations don't do anything about them. Harned says this is because employees either think that no one will take any action or that retaliation will occur.


"What's most worrisome about the findings from this survey is that, in government sectors in particular, more employees are in situations that invite misconduct. So, misconduct is high right now, but there's every reason to believe it will get worse unless intervention is taken."


Harned also notes that, since the ERC started looking at government employees in 2000, there has been a consistent rise in the trend of their definition of misconduct.


The problem, according to Harned, goes deeper than just training.


"There certainly has been a lot of attention put towards putting formal programs into place -- having internal controls within government organizations -- and I think part of the reason we're not seeing a lot of change is that those efforts do make a difference, but they don't make as big a difference as building a strong ethical culture within an organization."


The survey results are not all gloomy.


Education about misconduct has improved. Harned says 8 out of 10 employees who responded say they feel prepared to handle situations when it comes to fighting misconduct. This statistic, however, is hampered by the fact that many employees don't actually take action.


"The problem is not that employees don't know what to do, it's that they actually have fears about taking the steps that they're encouraged to take."


Harned also notes that the survey concluded that, even when an employee reports misconduct, his or her complaint might not reach the highest level.


"The concern coming out of this study . . . is that the vast majority of employees [who] report to their immediate supervisor or another person they know in management and those reports aren't always reaching the highest levels of government where leaders know that there's a problem going on."





According to the survey, Harned says the most frequently observed types of misconduct involve workplace relationships.


"Abusive behavior, giving false information to employees, conflicts of interest, those types of misconduct. Bribes, stealing, financial fraud, some of the other more egregious types of misconduct tend to be low in percentages. Four and five percent of federal employees will see those kinds of things. . . . Nevertheless, it doesn't take a lot of those incidents to really do a lot of harm to a federal agency."


Harned says, according to the Center's data, only two percent of all misconduct reports go to through help lines connected to a senior manager. She says most complaints go to an immediate supervisor.


The National Government Ethics Survey is the second in a series of three reports that focus on employee views of ethics in the workplace. The ERC's first report dealt with business ethics and the third will look at nonprofit groups.

Why do u think the following article is useful, please!?
well it tells about how employees don't report things as often as they should i guess.

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