As the preeminent global organizational consultancy firm, Korn Ferry carefully tracks the characteristics corporate search committees seek when hiring senior executives. We also track what the best and most outstanding candidates are asking about their potential roles with a new organization.
And over the last three years, there is a common interest and cause for pause that is increasingly rising to the top of the agendas of those seeking senior roles and the committees who make the hiring decisions: Ethical behavior and ethical decision making.
The issue has taken on so much importance that it can often become the deciding factor in whether to make an offer – or accepting an opportunity.
Given the clear importance of ethics and ethical leadership to both sides of the employer‑employee relationship, we have three recommendations to consider:
1. Business Schools and MBA programs should listen carefully – as we do – to what the market is saying. Preparing the next generation of business leaders to make value-based decisions and installing a high level of appreciation for the importance of ethics and ethical leadership is paramount and may make the difference in students meeting the demanding standards of the best global organizations.
2. We also suggest being in tune to what students are saying. For example, when the Colorado State University College of Business offered two courses in ethics and ethical leadership to the entire student body, without any promotion or effort to encourage participation, well over 1,000 students signed up on their own in three weeks - That’s listening to the market.
3. Walk the Talk. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, trust has been declining in almost every institution in American society for years. To make themselves more attractive to customers, employees, and shareholders and rebuild trust in business, companies and prospective "C‑suite" executives should lead by example deliver on ethics and ethical leadership.
What the marketplace is telling us led to our support of the work of the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund and its longstanding priority on enhanced ethics and ethical leadership in business. For 15 years, the McGowan Fund has funded a model for a truly immersive experience in ethics and ethical leadership by working with 10 universities to select a high‑potential MBA student to be a McGowan Fellow and providing all the costs for participation in the program. The Fellows Program is a model for other MBA programs to follow, evidenced by the compelling feedback from the participants.
We also are pleased that one of our senior executives served on the founding National Panel of Judges for the first‑ever Ethical Leader of the Year Award, created by the McGowan Fund three years ago. In our view, they have made truly outstanding choices for the first three awards of Chief Executive Officers who have so consistently “walked the talk” of ethics and ethical leadership:
· 2022 – Charlie Lowrey, Chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, Inc.
· 2023 – Ed Bastian, Chairman and CEO of Delta Airlines.
· 2024 – Marvin Ellison, Chairman, President, and CEO of Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
These are outstanding examples of genuine ethical leadership. Each of them has made it clear to us, and to the 20,000 HR professionals who attend the SHRM National Conference where the award was presented, that ethics is not simply the right thing to do, but (as Bill McGowan always said) it is also the right business thing to do.
The Ethical Leader of the Year Award stresses the importance of being transparent and consistently demonstrating a commitment to ethics and ethical leadership even in the toughest of times. These companies are all rated the best-in-class in their industries, in the eyes of their customers, shareholders and employees.
We don’t believe this is a coincidence – it further affirms the business value of ethics and ethical leadership.
As leaders in the talent management and executive search profession, we try to predict what the future relationship will be between employers hiring at the C‑suite level and those executives who became a part of their leadership team. The evidence demonstrates that on both sides of the employer‑employee relationship there is an acceleration in the demands for a shared commitment to ethics and ethical leadership.
For many years, we have made background searches on candidates a key component of our service to the companies and organizations that retain us. To further ensure their success in identifying people who will make a positive impact within their corporate culture and environment, we have extended our assessment process to include evidence of appropriate ethical leadership and behavior.
It is our conviction, based on the market intelligence we have, that ethics and ethical leadership is here to stay.
Its time has truly come.
