Ethics policies are only "Step One." Step Two requires training. But an educated, ethical workforce still won't prevent senior executives from committing fraud if they're intent on doing so, nor will it motivate a Board unable (or unwilling) to identify potential problems.

It's surprising, then, that—while most companies have conducted ethics and compliance training for employees—only 27 percent have held any training sessions for their directors.

In fact, a new survey by The Conference Board shows that the number of companies conducting ethics training for directors actually decreased from last year.

Dov Seidman, CEO of ethics training firm LRN, is not surprised by the numbers. "I think the historical pattern has been to impute integrity and ethical leadership of board members because of the stature that they had achieved," Seidman says.

The risk, of course, is that ethical values and policies are not shared across the enterprise.

"The company can end up with one framework for action at the top and another for the rest of the organization," continues Seidman. "That sends a very troubling message to employees, Wall Street and Main Street."

The complete report from The Conference Board, in PowerPoint format, is available below:

  Click Here To Download The Survey Results (PowerPoint Format)

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