Ethics Newsline®

NEW YORK
Three recent surveys about ethics figured in press reports last week:

• More than two-thirds of U.S. teenagers said they lied in the past year, 34 percent report downloading a song they did not pay for, and 22 percent admitted cheating on a test, according to a survey released last week by the financial services firm Deloitte & Touche and the youth group Junior Achievement Worldwide. USA Today reports that many respondents said they were under strong pressure to succeed in school no matter what the cost, and most say they believe the pressure will be worse when they enter the workforce.
• Finland and Denmark were rated as the least corrupt nations in a new survey from the Gallup organization, with Poland and Lithuania finishing at the bottom of the list. The “Gallup World Poll 2006 Corruption Index” was calculated from respondents in 101 countries who were asked to rate their perception of the level of corruption in government and business. The United Kingdom finished in 6th place, with first place being least corrupt and last place being most corrupt. Canada was 15th, and the United States was 19th. Gallup says countries that were ranked as least corrupt generally exhibited high levels of confidence in government and showed a high perceived level of personal freedom. (For more details, see accompanying Research Report.)
• A survey by a business-research organization found that the commitment of senior executives is the most important factor when battling bribery during business with developing nations. As reported in the publication Management Issues, the survey of 165 multinational firms, conducted by the Conference Board and the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association, found that most respondents say building a “culture of compliance” within the firm, based on the leadership of management, is the key factor to sustaining a company’s anticorruption programs.