That's the finding of the latest VJESI/LaMotta leadership survey.

While 58% of the respondents felt business leaders had lost their “moral compass,” only a third of them believed there were serious ethical issues in the direct marketing business.

Two-thirds thought that businesses need written codes of ethics.

The most egregious ethical issues cited in the survey were the low level of integrity in the behavior of senior executives (18%) and disappointment in their personal integrity (19%).

The next concern was about misleading communications regarding business performance to internal and external audiences (19%).

However, nearly a quarter of the respondents stated that announcing misleading financial information was not a serious problem in the direct marketing field. Roughly 14% said it was.

Despite their general disappointment, 81% of the respondents said they admired someone in business because of their ethical qualities.

Nearly 40 qualities were named, with high marks given to leading by example ethically; making decisions based on the long-term benefits for the company and treating customers and employees properly. The personal characteristics admired included honesty, candor, trustworthiness, integrity, impartiality and forthrightness.

Almost three-fourths of respondents felt that when business decision-making is linked to unethical conduct, it negatively affects the bottom line. Some of the toughest ethical business decisions that DM executives are dealing with are the use of data and the truthfulness of advertising copy.

And what do they worry about in the direct marketing field?

Nineteen percent said it's a challenge to create ethical advertising and promotions about products or services. An additional 17% said the proper use of customer data is an ethical challenge. Doing the right thing when it means your business will incur a short-term loss was cited by 9%. Other issues included compensation questions (12%) and issues of non-discrimination (11%).

Whose responsibility is it to set the moral and ethical culture of an organization?

Respondents placed the responsibility as follows: the CEO (22%), the board of directors (18%) and the senior management team (22%), with 31% stating that it was everyone in the organization's responsibility.

The VJESI/LaMotta Leadership Survey is designed to gather the collective wisdom of the direct marketing leadership in addressing business challenges in today's unprecedented environment. The number of replies varied with each question, the highest drawing 111. Most of the participants to this survey are in marketing or sales.

If you want to opt in and be part of one of the upcoming VJESI/LaMotta Leadership panels, send an e-mail to vjames@victoriajames.com with “Opt-in survey” in the subject line. All answers are tabulated in the aggregate and analyzed to produce a big picture.