You Report Misbehavior. What's the Likelihood You'll Be the One to Pay?

Sadly, it's pretty high.

Consider, for a moment, what you would do if you observed unethical behavior in your workplace.

Would you report it immediately? Would you ignore it, because it's "just business"? Would you worry about possible blowback to you if you did report it?

If possible negative repercussions occurred to you, you're wise to worry.

Back in January, I noted that the 2011 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) reported nearly half of all Americans had observed either legal or ethical violations at their workplace in the previous year. The good news was that it was nearly the lowest level reported.

The really good news, I said, was that about two-thirds of those who observed violations reported them.

But now the Ethics Resource Center, which conducts the NBES every other year, has issued a supplemental report, with some really bad news. According to their press release:

Retaliation against workplace whistleblowers is rising dramatically, extending to previously safe groups such as senior managers and also including more acts of physical violence...

Of those who reported misconduct, more than one in five reported some form of retaliation, up from 15% in 2009 and 12% in 2007.

 Since fear of retaliation is one of the most commonly cited reasons for not reporting illegal or unethical behavior, the rise in actual retaliation is doubly worrisome.

Remarkably, the greatest increase in reported retaliation rates occurred at higher levels of management (from fewer than one in ten of those reporting misconduct in 2009 to more than one in four in the most recent study). Moreover, according to the report,

Employees at higher management levels are more likely to experience traceable forms of retaliation. Traceable forms of retaliation are those that leave proof of having happened: physical harm, online harassment, harassment at home, job shift, demotion, cuts to hours or pay.

It's likely that these higher-level employees are reporting the most serious infractions.

The news isn't all bad, because there are clear ways for management to reduce the likelihood of retaliation:

...Ethics and compliance programs, strong ethical cultures, high standards of accountability that are consistently applied, and positive management behaviors are all linked to a reduced likelihood of experiencing retaliation.

The full ethics report and the new supplement are both available as free downloads at the Ethics Resource Center website, here.