Continual vigilance needed to protect gains in ethical behavior. Maintaining an ethical work environment is a primary pillar of the corporate culture Lockheed Martin is continuing to build upon. In recent years, measures of ethical behavior and perceptions in the Corporation - already at high levels - have improved even further. In last year’s Perspectives Survey, employees said they: - Observed less ethical misconduct
- Reported the misconduct they did observe more often
- Were more satisfied with the company’s response to their reports
- Felt less pressure to compromise the company’s ethical standards.
“Ethics and integrity have always been core principles at Lockheed Martin, and that’s reflected in our value statements,” says Alice Eldridge, vice president of Ethics and Business Conduct. “Even if you didn’t know anything about our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, if you followed the value statements - do what’s right, respect others and perform with excellence - you could come pretty close to how we would want you to act in any situation that involved an ethical judgment.” But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Eldridge notes that the 2007 survey showed that a lower percentage of employees felt managers were doing a good job of keeping promises and commitments and communicating the importance of ethics. Curiously, she adds, a similar result has been seen across virtually all U.S. industries, which suggests that broad social or economic trends might be at work. Nevertheless, the Corporation has focused its 2008 and 2009 Awareness Training program on strengthening trust. Entitled “A Culture of Trust,” this training places special emphasis on managers’ need to behave in ways that cultivate trust and employees’ need to approach their managers when they have concerns. When employees face ethical dilemmas or believe their concerns aren’t being handled appropriately, they have many resources to consult. The channels available to employees to raise concerns include: Employees can communicate with the ethics office by: Every Lockheed Martin operating company has an ethics officer and many individual sites and facilities also have someone trained in managing ethics concerns. In all, the Corporation has 143 ethics employees, including 45 full-time ethics and compliance officers as well as others who are part-time officers, ethics representatives or ethics champions. “One of the things that makes our program work,” Eldridge says, “is that our ethics officers, in the field and at the business unit level, are embedded in the business. We attend business meetings and strategic planning sessions. We understand the businesses we support, and by participating at the business level we are able to close the gap between business and ethics. At Lockheed Martin, they’re the same thing.”
In a corporation, the temptation is to become complacent about the minor infractions, she adds, but that’s a dangerous course. “Little ethical lapses destroy trust, and that weakens our culture. Before you know it, you have the big fracture,” Eldridge says. “We all have a stake in not allowing that to happen. An ethical reputation is crucial for our continued business success and for our ability to attract and retain the best employees.” | 
