This sixth biennial National Business Ethics Survey by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) was conducted in July and August, before the recent media attention to the subject. According to a press release on the study, a total of 83.6 percent of respondents said it was unacceptable to date one's boss. Of those who did say it was acceptable, two-thirds were men and one-third were women.
On the question of whether dating a co-worker is unethical, 47.5 percent said it was OK, while 50.6 percent didn't think it was a good idea. Here those thinking the practice was acceptable split roughly equally on gender lines, with 49 percent of men and 45 percent accepting workplace romances among peers. (Note: some respondents ha
About 8 percent of respondents said they had personally observed incidents of sexual harassment in the workplace in the last 6 months, but only about half (52 percent) reported it to management or the appropriate person listed in their company's sexual harassment policy.Explaining this relatively low figure, ERC President Patricia J. Harned, Ph.D. says: “As we put together all the survey findings, we see a clear pattern that fear of being fired in a tough economy is a big factor in determining whether people report ethical transgressions.”
Source: HR STrange but True
