According to the most recent Gallup Poll (January 12, 2026), rating the honesty and ethics of various professions, business executives continue their grim ratings that have been steadily declining for the past 50 years. In 1976, business executives got 61% very high/high ratings, but by 2025 this had fallen to only 27%. This decline has been continuous throughout the 2000s. Three groups–Telemarketers, members of U. S. congress, and car salespeople–are among the lowest in honesty and ethics according to this poll of public opinion., While the Gallup Poll survey focuses on American business executives, this steady decline has been reflected in many other parts of the world as well.
Business scandals of the past several decades have been illustrated by companies such as Enron, Arthur Andersen, and Worldcom, and the magnitude of CEO greed and contempt for the law have continued among some firms. The Wall Street financial scandals beginning in 2008 followed by the exposure of Bernard Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme, revealed that the problems with business ethics had not been fixed.
What the ethical tragedies of the past couple decades have revealed is that the issue of business ethics has both macro and micro effects. At the macro level, the entire business system has been contaminated and called into question. This is the level of capitalism as an economic system and Big Business as an institution as they have strived to maintain legitimacy in a complex and competitive global world. At the micro level, individual companies, managers and employees still face the continuing onslaught of ethical challenges that occur too frequently. Some of the more recent ethics scandals have been experienced by companies such as Airbus of Europe, Boeing, Purdue Pharma, Theranos, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo and Volkswagen, just to mention a few.
In the second quarter of the 2000s, it appears that society is clamoring for a renewed emphasis on values, morals and more upright practices and whether the business community will be able to close the trust gap and ratchet up its reputation to a higher plateau remains to be seen. It is certain, however, that societal concern with business ethics as well as ethics in other spheres such as government and education will continue. This is reflected in the proliferation of business ethics courses, articles, social media, blogs, and other manifestations we are seeing today. Indeed, there is an “ethics industry” that has caught the attention of virtually all citizenry.
It often is difficult to tell whether business ethics has really deteriorated or if the media, especially the mainstream media, are doing a more thorough job of reporting on ethics violations. The collective media has reported on ethical problems more frequently and fervently and this is spurred on by the continuing supply of examples. It appears that society’s expectations of business ethics have increased more rapidly than actual business ethics and the resulting gap appears to be mounting, often despite what companies are doing to address the issues. Due to affluence, education, and awareness, increasing expectations are likely to continue escalating.
REFERENCES
- Carroll, Archie B. and Jill A. Brown. 2018. Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability and Stakeholder Management. Boston: Cengage Learning.
- Gallup News. January 12, 2026. “Nurses continue to lead in honesty and ethics ratings.”
- Gallup, December 1-15, 2025, “Honesty/Ethics in Professions,” Honesty/Ethics in Professions | Gallup Historical Trends.
Professor emeritus, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Carroll received his three academic degrees in management (1965; 1966; 1972) from the College of Business, The Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida USA). He is founding author and now co-author of BUSINESS & SOCIETY: ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY & STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT (2023), 11th edition, with Jill A Brown; Co-author of CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE which won the 2014 BEST BOOK AWARD at the Academy of Management--Social Issues in Management Meeting; and Author of BUSINESS ETHICS: BRIEF READINGS ON VITAL TOPICS. Carroll won the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the Institute of Management, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, International Association for Business & Society, and the Southern Management Association. He has published over 100 articles, and his citations exceed 100,000 according to Google Scholar Citations.