Does Ethics training work? Maybe

From CFO.com I Am Joe's Conscience - CFO Magazine - March Issue 2006 - CFO.com:

Do training and new regulations lead to more ethical behavior? Maybe, Maybe not.

On the "no side":

"But is there any reason to believe all these codes and classes and scenarios do any good? The evidence is mixed. A recent survey of more than 4,000 employees found that reports of misdeeds have not diminished. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the employees involved in the survey, which was conducted by accounting firm KPMG, said they had observed misconduct in the prior year. That's about the same level of wrongdoing reported in a pre-Sarbanes-Oxley survey."

Evidence that says the training does work include:

"The KPMG survey does suggest that the most rigorous corporate-ethics programs have some value. Survey subjects who indicated their employers have a comprehensive ethics program (about 11 percent of respondents) reported fewer instances of misconduct, felt less pressure to bend the rules, and were more comfortable about reporting misdeeds to their supervisors. Ethics programs, concludes Richard Girgenti, partner in charge of forensic services for KPMG (Americas), "can have a positive impact.""