Singapore firms score 82% on ethical culture

Globally, nearly 25% of employees said breaking the rules is acceptable to get the job done.

New research by LRN Corporation revealed that companies in Singapore scored high in terms of ethical culture.

According to the "Benchmark of Ethical Culture 2024," the country scored 82%, which was higher than the global and APAC averages of 80%.

Compared to other participating Asian countries, the city-state had better results than Japan but lagged behind India, and China. 

LRN surveyed over 8,500 employees in companies across 15 countries, 6% of which were from Singapore.

Meanwhile, LRN also revealed that 23% of employees around the world agreed that “it is OK to break the rules if needed to get the job done,” and 14% said they “engaged in behaviour that violated their company’s Code of Conduct or standards” in the past year.

The report noted companies with strong ethical cultures have lower rates of observed misconduct and report their observation at a rate 1.5x higher than those in companies with weak cultures (93% compared to 63%). 

Around 33% of global respondents said they had observed misconduct or unethical behaviour in the past year, with harassment, discrimination, conflicts of interest, and employee health and safety violations cited most frequently. 

Of these, 79% reported, and 21% didn’t because they didn’t think their company would act on it, would not handle it effectively, or because they feared retaliation.

ALSO READ: 3 in 5 Hong Kongers happy to keep role despite absence of growth: report

“Our latest Benchmark of Ethical Culture report shows a clear and encouraging emphasis on reducing misconduct, with the majority of respondents able and willing to report instances of wrongdoing,” said Ty Francis, chief advisory officer at LRN. 

“Although this result is positive, it’s also clear that there are several realities organisations need to address, from an evident lack of trust in the system of procedural justice and a worrying proportion of individuals – particularly among Gen Z – not adverse to rule-breaking,” he added.

Ty said the generational divide in attitudes towards unethical conduct also needs attention, with emphasis on the importance of ethical conduct at all levels of an organisation.