United States. Johnson Controls announced that it was recognized as one of the most ethical companies in the world in 2018, by Ethisphere Institute, a company specializing in the definition and advancement of ethical business practice standards.
Johnson Controls is one of only five honorees in the industrial manufacturing category, underscoring its commitment to leading with integrity and prioritizing ethical business practices.
In 2018, 135 honorees were recognized, spanning 24 countries and 57 industries. The twelfth class of honorees had record levels of engagement with their stakeholders and communities around the world. Measuring and improving culture, leading authentically, and committing to transparency, diversity, and inclusion were all priorities for honorees.
"Acting with integrity and following our compliance and ethics policies is a core part of Johnson Controls' values, and research shows that companies with a strong integrity culture outperform in productivity and employee engagement," said George Oliver, president and chief executive officer of Johnson Controls.
Ethics and performance
Once again, the 2018 World's Most Ethical Companies have proven that operating with integrity leads to higher financial performance. Research has found that, when indexed, the world's most ethical companies outperformed the U.S. Large Cap Index in five years by 10.72 percent and in three years by 4.88 percent. Ethisphere refers to this as the Ethics Premium.
Methodology and score
The evaluation of the World's Most Ethical Companies is based on the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient (EQ) framework, which offers a quantitative way to evaluate a company's performance in an objective, uniform and standardized manner. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of the final criteria of core competencies rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics.
The scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35 percent), corporate citizenship and accountability (20 percent), ethics culture (20 percent), governance (15 percent), and leadership, innovation and reputation (10 percent). All companies participating in the evaluation process receive their scores, giving them valuable insights into how they compare to leading organizations.
