I'm often asked why anyone would ever admit they stole, cheated or hit someone in anger. The answer is simple: they believe this is acceptable behavior and their peers agree.
The latest (Dec 2007)Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey confirms why honesty and integrity tests are a good pre-employment tool for employers who want to weed out candidates who might cheat, steal, fight or just not show up for worl. The findings should be frightening to anyone who is counting on the next generation of workers to drive their organization ahead.
Harris Interactive did the actual survey of American teens ages 13-18, and here are a few of the findings:
• 71 percent of teens say they feel fully prepared to make ethical decisions when they enter the workforce.
• 38 percent of that group believes it is sometimes necessary to cheat, plagiarize, lie or even behave violently in order to succeed. In fact, some 23 percent of all teens surveyed think violence toward another person is acceptable on some level. Of those who think so, the justifications for violence include settling an argument (27 percent) and revenge (20 percent).
• 24 percent of all teens surveyed think cheating on a test is acceptable on some level, and more than half of those teens (54 percent) say their personal desire to succeed is the rationale.
• Of the teens who think plagiarism is acceptable on some level, 37 percent think a personal desire to succeed is justification, and that number climbs to 51 percent among the students who feel an overwhelming pressure to succeed.
• 27 percent of all teens surveyed said it’s not fair for an employer to suspend or fire employees for unethical behavior outside of their jobs.
• 57 percent of all teens surveyed believe it is not fair for employers to make hiring or firing decisions based on material they have posted to the Internet, and another 19 percent weren’t sure if it was fair or not.
• 47 percent of teens said it was acceptable on some level to illegally download music without paying for it, but only 5 percent said it was acceptable to steal something from a store.
