There is no great mystery about what is and is not ethical. It is doing the right thing even when it is difficult, uncomfortable or tempting to cut corners.

We read time and again about societal concern over corruption and unethical behavior in corporate America. Among the triggers for this situation are scandals like those involving the Enron collapse. Obviously, such worry goes far beyond business-industry, as it should. A study released last week by the nonprofit Ethics Resource Center showed that nearly 60 percent of government employees at federal, state and local levels have seen violations of ethical standards, policy or laws in their workplaces in the past year.

The resource center study involved nearly 3,500 governmental workers at all levels. Among the findings:

l Thirty percent of federal workers and 14 percent of state and local government workers believe their organizations have well-implemented ethics and compliance programs. But who talks and who walks along such paths?

l The misconduct most frequently observed by federal employees was abusive behavior, safety violations, lying to employees and putting one’s own interests ahead of those of the organization.

l Fifty-eight percent of all government workers who saw misconduct did not report it because they did not believe managers would take action. Thirty percent of all workers feared they would face retaliation if they reported what they saw.

There were encouraging findings, too, and a number of those in the study reported declines in bad behavior. Yet there is vast room for improvement in all categories of American life.

Facing such issues and reacting is the key to altering things for the better.

In November 2004, Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics, was brought to Lawrence by the Journal-World for a series of appearances, lectures and forums. The noted author and commentator said he’s sick and tired of hearing people complain about crooks, moral deviants and dirty-trick politicians.

“Stop whining and do something about it,” he told one group. “There is no better place to start than with people taking responsibility for their behavior and holding those in leadership positions to high standards.

“Enron didn’t happen because of a core group of villains; that core group has always been with us,” Josephson said. “I pin this scandal on more good people willing to do bad things and more good people willing to look the other way.”

Josephson, like many others, is disturbed that an ever-increasing acceptance of “dishonesty, irresponsibility, selfishness and disrespect have created a generation predisposed to rationalization, gamesmanship and me-first entitlement attitudes.”

That trend purely and simply threatens the nation’s democratic principles and that takes us right back to corporate and government individuals and agencies engaging in behavior that should be challenged by ethical workers. And citizens, such as in this vital election year.

Ethical behavior, says Josephson, springs out of six pillars of character: “Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.”

That leads us back to people who are recognized and admired for their ethical behavior because they do the right thing even when it is difficult. There isn’t a single area of our existence where more of that behavior wouldn’t make a beneficial difference.