leaders are kneeling at the altar of money and greed, with scant regard for concerns of ethics, integrity, and trust. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup national poll of more than one thou- sand people in mid-2002 found that people trusted one another and the federal government more than they had two years before but that they trusted CEOs less--a lot less. More than seven in ten of those polled said they distrusted CEOs of large corpo- rations, and nearly eight in ten believed that top executives of large companies would take improper actions to help themselves at the expense of their companies. Perhaps even more telling (or damning), in the nine months previous to the poll the percentage of Americans who saw big business as a threat to the nation's future nearly doubled, to 38 percent. But what about those in the top echelons of today's organizations--do these senior leaders concur that there has been a breakdown of integrity and trust that is fast approaching an ethical vacuum? To shed light on this ques- tion, CCL surveyed a group of people highly qualified to provide an answer: participants in CCL's Leadership at the Peak program, designed for the most senior leaders--CEOs, presi- dents, executive and group vice presi- dents, and other top officers (see the sidebar on page 5). The survey posed three questions intended to gather the leaders' impressions of the state of ethical behavior, integrity, and trust in the corporate world in general and in their own organizations specifically. The poll turned up some interesting-- and in some cases perhaps surpris- ing--results. it's just that it recently has increas- ingly come to light. My suspicion is that some degree of unethical behav- ior has always existed but the current environment allows people to come forward with it more readily. In addi- tion, changes in the financial/techni- cal realm have afforded new opportu- nities to misbehave. I don't know whether it's a matter of deterioration of ethics or greater visi- bility of what has always occurred. I believe this is a matter of human nature . . . that does not change. There have always been, and always will be, dishonest people. Here is a response that is typical of the senior leaders who answered yes to the question: To a certain extent, I believe there has been a deterioration. With the incredible stock market rally we experienced over the last several years, greed appeared to be on the rise and many CEO "stars" seemed ABOUT THE AUTHORS Gina Hernez-Broome is a senior program associate at SPLIT DECISION The survey began by asking the senior leaders, "Has there been a deterioration in the ethical perfor-