ETHICS PULSE #1: DO YOU BELIEVE ETHICAL BUSINESS CONDUCT WILL DECREASE OR INCREASE?

Nordic Business Ethics Pulse #1

As part of the Nordic Business Ethics Pulse* we asked the respondents about how they believe that ethical business conduct will develop during the next year and the next five years. In general, we do believe that ethical business will increase, with some notable differences between the countries. The Danes have the most positive outlook regarding ethical business development, whereas the Swedes are most sceptical. In Denmark and Finland some 30 % believe that ethical business conduct will increase during the coming year, compared to 24 % in Norway and 16 % in Sweden. The most common response was that it at least would remain unchanged with Denmark 47%, Finland 36%, Norway 46 % and Sweden 44 %. Over a five-year horizon the outlook was not much different, apart from a slight shift from the remain unchanged category to the increase category.

In addition, there seem to be a positive tune within the younger generation (18-24 year olds), where 38 % believed that ethical business would increase during the upcoming year, compared to some 23 % in the other age categories (25-34, 35-49 and 50+). The employees with less than two years in working life were also most positive, with 39 % believing that ethical business would increase during the next year compared to some 23 % in the other categories (3-10, 11-25 and 25+). In general, persons working in a leading position (28 % believe ethical business will increase) and persons working in a publicly listed company (36 % believe ethical business will increase) were more positive than workers (23 % say ethical business will increase) and persons working in the public sector (21 % believe ethical business will increase).

* Nordic Business Ethics Pulse was conducted in the end of February 2020 on 4.000 respondents by TNS Kantar, the respondents were equally distributed from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Forensic Risk Alliance is sponsoring the survey