The poll of 750 teens — conducted by Junior Achievement (JA) and Deloitte — doesn’t bode well for religious leaders. It shows that only 3 percent of teens see members of the clergy (pastor, priest, rabbi or imam) as “role models.”
In contrast, most teens (54 percent) see their parents as role models, followed by friends (13 percent), teachers or coaches (6 percent) and brother or sister (5 percent). About one in 10 teens (11 percent) say they have no role models.
“In large numbers, teens today express a troubling contradiction when it comes to ethical readiness for the workforce,” said Ed Grocholski of The Lindberg Group, which aided the study and analyzed its results.
“At the same time they express confidence in their preparedness to make the right choices in the future, they freely admit to unethical behavior today,” he said. “The results reveal considerable ethical confusion among teens regarding what types of behavior are appropriate in order to succeed.”
Key findings of the survey:
· 80 percent of teens either somewhat or strongly agree that they are prepared to make ethical business decisions when they join the workforce, yet more than a third (38 percent) think that they have to break the rules at school to succeed.
· More than one in four teens (27 percent) think behaving violently is sometimes, often, or always acceptable. Twenty percent of respondents said they had personally behaved violently toward another person in the past year, and 41 percent reported a friend had done so.
· Nearly half (49 percent) of those who say they are ethically prepared believe that lying to parents and guardians is acceptable, and 61 percent have done so in the past year.
· Teens feel more accountable to themselves (86 percent) than they do to their parents or guardians (52 percent), their friends (41 percent), or society (33 percent).
· Only about half (54 percent) cite their parents as role models. Most of those who don’t cite their parents as role models are turning to their friends or said they didn’t have a role model.
· Only 25 percent said they would be “very likely” to reveal knowledge of unethical behavior in the workplace.
“If teens lack accountability to others,” Grocholski said, “the data suggests that their choices may be driven purely by self-interest and not by interest in the greater good … . Teens seem to be experiencing a sense of ethical confusion and relativism — an endemic ethical attitude of ‘the ends justify the means.’”
That attitude is compounded by the absence of adult role models, “which can leave a vacuum of ethical guidance as young people enter adulthood,” Grocholski said. “With a significant number of teens reporting they don’t have an adult role model for ethical behavior, the data raises even more questions about why adults are not viewed as role models and what can be done to fill the gap.”
The survey was used by JA and Deloitte to develop “JA Business Ethics” and “Excellence Through Ethics” programs as part of a $2 million initiative to address the issues identified in the survey.
Information for this story furnished by Ed Grocholski, The Lindberg Group, Colorado Springs, Colo.
