Nearly One-Third of Teens Believe “You Have to Bend the Rules to Succeed”

In a surprising increase from a similar poll last year, nearly one-third of teens surveyed in a new Junior Achievement/Deloitte & Touche USA LLP poll conducted by Harris Interactive believe you have to “bend the rules to succeed.” Only 20 percent gave the same answer in the 2003 poll done by Harris for JA and Deloitte.
In addition, more than eight of 10 teens questioned in the new poll identified friends as the most likely source of advice in making ethical decisions, followed by parents (68 percent), teachers (27 percent), the Internet (24 percent) and clergy (14 percent).

More encouraging is the percentage of teens who think people who practice good business ethics are more successful than people who don’t. That figure rose from 56 percent in 2003 to 62 percent this year.

The poll of 624 teens between the ages of 13 and 18 was conducted as part of the Excellence through Ethics curriculum, a $1 million initiative of Junior Achievement (JA) and Deloitte to promote business ethics among today’s young people.

“These poll results indicate that teens are getting mixed messages, so we continue to believe that ethics education must begin early, during formative years,” says James H. Quigley, CEO of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. More than 800 Deloitte employees are JA volunteers. The company’s involvement was recently recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate Citizenship with its Citizenship in Action award in connection with the organization’s commitment to support early ethics education.

“Every generation needs to learn and understand why bending the rules is not only wrong, but also not good business,” says Quigley. “That’s why we’ve teamed up with JA to foster a constructive dialogue among teens, teachers and role models through the Excellence through Ethics program.”

Students learn about new ways to explore the everyday ethical dilemmas of the business world, whether it’s examining the concept of intellectual property rights, learning the importance of presenting yourself accurately and truthfully during a job search or understanding why insider trading is illegal.

"JA has a long history of teaching young people about business,” says David S. Chernow, president and CEO of JA Worldwide. “It is imperative that we as adults emphasize the importance of ethics to our young people to keep our free enterprise system, and our nation, strong.”

Designed to teach young people that responsible, ethical behavior is the cornerstone of the American free enterprise system, the lessons are used in all JA programs for grades 4-12, with a potential audience of more than three million students each year.

Excellence through Ethics activities are designed for classroom use and are valuable tools to help teach students about ethics.