Deloitte Study: Reasonable Work Hours are Good for your ETHICS

A newly-released survey by Deloitte Touche shows a strong link between work-life balance and strong ethical behavior, with supervisory actions and encouragement also being strongly linked.
Sharon Allen, DT Chair, said that excessive work hours risked having an excessive self-esteem investment in the job. Additionally, inflexible work schedules and workplace stress tended to produce alienation from management and its goals--60% of survey respondents felt that job dissatisfaction was a leading cause of unethical behavior. A somewhat surprising pair of results--increased criminal penalties for unethical behavior and ethics training classes were seen by respondents as having little impact on the level of ethical behavior.

The survey results for the most part were consistent with common sense, with "tone at the top" adherents finding support for their views while supporters of ethical training (such as required continuing education in ethics) getting less aid than expected. The "pressures" point of the fraud triangle also was supported by the results.