Ethical Standards Erode at Nonprofit Groups, Study Finds - Philanthropy.com: "Nonprofit organizations have long held a reputation for having significantly higher ethical standards than businesses and government.
But a report released today by the Ethics Resource Center, in Washington, shows that gap is closing quickly — as standards at charities are declining at what the study’s authors say is a disturbing rate.
Rates of observed misconduct at nonprofit organizations are at the highest level since the Ethics Resource Center began measuring in 2000. In 2007, more than half — 55 percent — of nonprofit employees observed one or more acts of misconduct in the previous year.
Twenty-four percent of nonprofit employees observed their co-workers putting their own interests above those of the organization. Twenty-one percent observed managers or executives lying to employees. Nearly one in five employees — 19 percent — reported that they had seen abusive behavior or that they had seen co-workers misreporting the number of hours they had worked.
The frequency of these behaviors mirrors the frequency reported in the for-profit and government arenas, the study found.
“One would think that freed from the pressure to generate and distribute profits to shareholders, nonprofit organizations would rise high above the myriad ethics and compliance issues that have plagued..."
As it turns out, economics doesn't determine behavior contra Marx. As C.S. Lewis observed in Men Without Chests, "We laugh at honor, and we are shocked to find traitors in our midst." Why be good? Why believe anything at all that can't be proven in a laboratory? Such is the plight of pure secularism.
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