In survey responses, CEOs indicated that the five most important corporate ethics issues facing the business community are: 1) regaining the public trust; 2) effective company management in the context of today's investor expectations; 3) ensuring the integrity of financial reporting; 4) fairness of executive compensation; and 5) ethical role-modeling of senior management.

A majority of CEOs (81 percent) believe that in the wake of recent controversies standards for corporate ethics have risen. Also, most CEOs (74 percent) indicated their companies have made changes in how ethics issues are handled or reported within the last two years. Specific changes most cited include: enhanced internal reporting and communications (33 percent), ethics hotlines (17 percent), improved compliance procedures (12 percent) and greater Board oversight (10 percent).

"These results tell a consistent story," said the Institute's Academic Director R. Edward Freeman, "There is clearly a heightened sensitivity among business leaders to the importance of these issues."

With regard to the top corporate ethics priority for business, the majority of CEOs (57 percent) cited establishing a framework for business decision making that integrates ethics as the top priority followed by encouraging pushback and a culture for proactively addressing potential bad news early (35 percent).

"The Mapping the Terrain survey helped shape the curriculum for the Institute's initial CEO Seminar on Business Ethics which takes place later this month and the results also set the roadmap for our research agenda. Our aim is to help leaders put business and ethics together," said Institute Executive Director Dean Krehmeyer.

The CEO Seminar on Business Ethics will include modules on establishing ethics frameworks and on ways for leaders to encourage pushback within their companies. The seminar will be led by Professor Freeman who teaches at The Darden School and Wharton Professor Thomas Donaldson -- two recognized experts in the field of business ethics. 

The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics (www.corporate-ethics.org) was launched in January 2004, and is housed at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. The Institute conducts research, creates leading-edge business ethics curricula, leads executive seminars on business ethics, and develops best practices in corporate and business ethics.