Ethics Programs and Practices: A 20-Year Retrospective

An analysis of corporate ethics and compliance practices of the past 20 years reveals that involvement of the board— perhaps the surest sign of company commitment to a formal ethics process—jumped from 21 percent in 1987 to 96 percent in 2006. It also shows a convergence between U.S. and non-U.S. core program rationales: incorporating approaches used by companies in China and India and increased collective company action, including anti-bribery pacts, participating in NGO ethics efforts, and active involvement in governmental legislative processes as mandated by the U.S. Revised Sentencing Guidelines of 2004.