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Who Are the Most and Least Ethical Companies in America Today?

A recent major national survey asked Americans to rank the best known companies based on their ethical standards. The results might surprise you - and upset a lot of executives!

By David WyldPublished 3 years ago 20 min read
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Who Are the Most and Least Ethical Companies in America Today?
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

Introduction

There is no more important factor in a company’s reputation than the perception that it is an ethical company. And that perception - both from an individual consumer’s perception and across wider society - can be changed in an instant. One bad customer interaction. One bad social media post. One indictment of an executive. One exposé on the evening news about a questionable company practice. These days, a company’s reputation when it comes to the ethics of its people, its practices, its standing - is literally on the line each and every day.

Companies can do a great deal to help themselves when it comes to how they are perceived in the minds of consumers from an ethical perspective. We see firms such as Chick-fil-A consistently highlight in their advertising what they do to go “above and beyond” for their customers.

However, what they do for their communities also results in significant free media coverage for the company as well, further solidifying their image as a highly ethical corporate citizen.

And when the company has had “missteps,” it has quickly worked to correct them, such as ending its support for some anti-LGBTQA+ organizations.

All of this has led to Chick-fil-A being consistently being regarded as not just one of the country’s fastest growing food chains, but one of America’s most loved companies as well - which is strong, positive sentiment for consumers to have for one’s company.

Now on the other hand, we see companies and their executives take actions that not just significantly harm their perceptions in the minds of consumers, but hurt their sales and standing in the market as well. Take MyPillow for instance. The Minneapolis-based company was started by Mike Lindell, a college dropout who bounced between jobs and prior failed ventures, including raising pigs and being a professional card counter in Las Vegas, and oh, by the way, acknowledges that he was a crack addict for years set straight by of all people - his crack cocaine dealer.

My Pillow was regarded for years as a classic American “rags to riches'' success story…

… making Lindell one of the highest profile business executives in the United States.

However, the downside of that high profile of its founder and CEO has whipsawed on the company today. Since November 2020, Lindell has been the principal face of the “Stop the Steal” movement, insisting that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 Presidential election. For many months now, he has persisted in taking very public stances to bolster the case - often with wild conspiracy theories - that the election was somehow stolen from the former President - even when every court and every serious audit, recount, and research effort has shown that the 2020 election was actually one of the smoothest - and secure - in history, in spite of all of the changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. All of this has worked to have a deleterious effect on MyPillow as a company, as its sales have plummeted and major retailers have dropped the brand as consumers have voted with their wallets as to their feelings about the brand that is so closely intertwined with Lindell, to the very real detriment of the firm. In time, the MyPillow case may well become the classic case study of how public perception of the company’s ethical standing can work to severely damage its sales and its brand - and even endanger its future viability in the marketplace.

In this article, we will examine the latest findings on how Americans perceive the largest and most prominent companies today in regards to their ethics. Using recently completed research, we will look at the firms that excel in regard to being seen as highly ethical and how this impacts their overall success and standing in their respective competitive markets. And on the flip side, we will look at major companies that are too often seen by the American public as being “ethically challenged,” being regarded as the least ethical firms today. We will conclude with a discussion of how management of highly-regarded companies on this important dimension of corporate reputation can work to with either solidify and/or build upon a “good” ethical perception from consumers, or alternatively, how lowly-regarded firms can seek to improve the public’s perception of the ethics of their company and its management.

By Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

The Axios Harris Poll Survey on Corporate Reputation

Every year since 1999, the Harris Poll has conducted an annual survey of Americans to assess the public’s perceptions of companies and their brands. As such, their corporate reputation research work stands as one of the best assessments of both present and historical views of American consumers about major U.S. consumer-facing corporations. Partnering with the media firm, Axios, the 2021 survey results (2021 Axios Harris Poll 100) have recently been released.

Their methodology is actually quite interesting, as first they compile the rankings of the top 100 firms in terms of being the most visible, highest profile companies today. Each participant in their screening research was asked to name two companies that they believed had the best reputations in America today and the two firms that they felt had the worst reputations. Since those surveyed could name any company and any brand that came to the top of their minds in response to these two questions, there were a wide array of firms and products/services that were in the mix. The Axios/Harris Poll researchers then proceeded to refine the data to produce their list of the 100 most visible companies in America. This list is shown in Table 1 (The Most Visible Companies in America for 2021) below:

Table 1: The Most Visible Companies in America for 2021

Visibility Rank, Company, Reputation Rank

1. Amazon.com (#10 in Reputation Rankings).

2. Walmart (#83 in Reputation Rankings)

3. Apple (#16 in Reputation Rankings)

4. Facebook (#98 in Reputation Rankings)

5. Google (#60 in Reputation Rankings)

6. Target (#41 in Reputation Rankings)

7. Microsoft (#36 in Reputation Rankings)

8. Wells Fargo & Company (#95 in Reputation Rankings)

9. Nike (#62 in Reputation Rankings)

10. McDonald's (#73 in Reputation Rankings)

11. Chick-fil-A (#4 in Reputation Rankings)

12. Sears Holdings Corporation (#96 in Reputation Rankings)

13. AT&T (#86 in Reputation Rankings)

14. Ford Motor Company (#50 in Reputation Rankings)

15. Twitter (#93 in Reputation Rankings)

16. Costco (#9 in Reputation Rankings)

17. Samsung (#31 in Reputation Rankings)

18. Tesla Motors (#8 in Reputation Rankings)

19. Comcast (#92 in Reputation Rankings)

20. T-Mobile (#56 in Reputation Rankings)

21. Verizon Communications (#61 in Reputation Rankings)

22. The Trump Organization (#100 in Reputation Rankings)

23. The Coca-Cola Company (#58 in Reputation Rankings)

24. General Motors (#68 in Reputation Rankings)

25. The Home Depot (#45 in Reputation Rankings)

26. Best Buy (#48 in Reputation Rankings)

27. Toyota Motor Corporation (#18 in Reputation Rankings)

28. Bank of America (#77 in Reputation Rankings)

29. Yum! Brands (#70 in Reputation Rankings)

30. Lowe's (#22 in Reputation Rankings)

31. ExxonMobil (#80 in Reputation Rankings)

32. eBay (#66 in Reputation Rankings)

33. Starbucks Corporation (#65 in Reputation Rankings)

34. The Walt Disney Company (#37 in Reputation Rankings)

35. GameStop (#82 in Reputation Rankings)

36. Publix Supermarkets (#23 in Reputation Rankings)

37. The Kroger Company (#30 in Reputation Rankings)

38. Hobby Lobby (#53 in Reputation Rankings)

39. General Electric (#40 in Reputation Rankings)

40. IBM (#39 in Reputation Rankings)

41. Sony (#34 in Reputation Rankings)

42. Macy's (#64 in Reputation Rankings)

43. Fox Corporation (#99 in Reputation Rankings)

44. Johnson & Johnson (#72 in Reputation Rankings)

45. Burger King (#84 in Reputation Rankings)

46. Dollar General (#71 in Reputation Rankings)

47. Netflix (#38 in Reputation Rankings)

48. PepsiCo (#20 in Reputation Rankings)

49. Kohl's (#55 in Reputation Rankings)

50. Robinhood (#79 in Reputation Rankings)

51. CVS (CVS Health) (#24 in Reputation Rankings)

52. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (#54 in Reputation Rankings)

53. My Pillow (#91 in Reputation Rankings)

54. BP (#85 in Reputation Rankings)

55. JCPenney (#89 in Reputation Rankings)

56. HP, Inc. (#26 in Reputation Rankings)

57. Uber (#90 in Reputation Rankings)

58. USAA (#12 in Reputation Rankings)

59. Procter & Gamble Co. (#35 in Reputation Rankings)

60. Wish.com (#97 in Reputation Rankings)

61. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (#75 in Reputation Rankings)

62. Dollar Tree (#74 in Reputation Rankings)

63. Nordstrom (#63 in Reputation Rankings)

64. Walgreens (#46 in Reputation Rankings)

65. Adidas (#49 in Reputation Rankings)

66. Berkshire Hathaway (#27 in Reputation Rankings)

67. Nestle (#29 in Reputation Rankings)

68. Chipotle (#76 in Reputation Rankings)

69. State Farm Insurance (#52 in Reputation Rankings)

70. TikTok (#94 in Reputation Rankings)

71. United Airlines.87 (#1 in Reputation Rankings)

72. Wegmans.13 (#1 in Reputation Rankings)

73. Wendy's (#67 in Reputation Rankings)

74. Unilever (#15 in Reputation Rankings)

75. Honda Motor Company (#2 in Reputation Rankings)

76. American Express (#44 in Reputation Rankings)

77. UPS (#19 in Reputation Rankings)

78. Subaru (#14 in Reputation Rankings)

79. Citigroup (#43 in Reputation Rankings)

80. Pfizer (#7 in Reputation Rankings)

81. 3M Company (#25 in Reputation Rankings)

82. Chewy (#6 in Reputation Rankings)

83. Patagonia (#1 in Reputation Rankings)

84. REI (#11 in Reputation Rankings)

85. In-n-Out Burger (#17 in Reputation Rankings)

86. Electronic Arts, Inc. (#51 in Reputation Rankings)

87. FedEx Corporation (#33 in Reputation Rankings)

88. Reddit (#78 in Reputation Rankings)

89. Wayfair (#42 in Reputation Rankings)

90. SpaceX (#5 in Reputation Rankings)

91. Domino's Pizza (#57 in Reputation Rankings)

92. Delta Air Lines (#81 in Reputation Rankings)

93. IKEA (#21 in Reputation Rankings)

94. Paypal (#32 in Reputation Rankings)

95. Moderna (#3 in Reputation Rankings)

96. Huawei Technologies (#88 in Reputation Rankings)

97. Goya (#59 in Reputation Rankings)

98. Hulu (#28 in Reputation Rankings)

99. Kaiser Permanente (#47 in Reputation Rankings)

100. Royal Dutch Shell (#69 in Reputation Rankings)

Source Data: The Harris Poll, 2021 Axios Harris Poll 100.

As you can see, the 100 most visible companies were also ranked based on their corporate reputations. This was done by the Axios/Harris Poll researchers asking a much larger sample of the American public to assess how they regarded these 100 most visible companies on each of 7 dimensions that are integral to a company’s reputation. These were:

1. Trust – “Is this a company I trust?”

2. Ethics – “Does this company maintain high ethical standards?”

3. Citizenship – “Does this company share my values and support good causes?”

4. Culture – “Is this a good company to work for?”

5. Products and Services – “Does this company develop innovative products and services that I want and value?”

6. Vision – “Does this company have a clear vision for the future?”

7. Growth – “Is this a growing company?”

So, as you can see by examining Table 1, some of America’s most visible firms are not among the most highly regarded for their corporate reputations, and conversely, a number of the companies that consumers see as having the best corporate reputations today are far less known in the minds of the American public. In fact, there’s little correlation between the top 10 most visible companies (Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Facebook, Google, Target, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Nike and McDonald’s) and the top 10 most reputable companies (Patagonia, Honda, Moderna, Chick-fil-A, SpaceX, Chewy, Pfizer, Tesla, Costco and Amazon). That is a topic for another day and far more analysis, but it is safe to say that some of America’s best known companies and brands have a significant image problem in the minds of consumers, especially in the tech area.

By Joshua Golde on Unsplash

The Highest and Lowest Regarded Companies for Ethics Today

In this article, the focus is on the second dimension of corporate reputation - ethics. To capture how Americans today regarded companies in regard to their ethical standing, the survey respondents were asked to respond to a simple question and only on companies with which they were familiar from a subset of the 100 most visible companies, that being: “Does this company maintain high ethical standards?”

As can be seen in Table 2 (The 25 Most Ethical Companies in America in 2021 and Their Ethics Rating) below, Patagonia, a retailer of clothing and gear for the outdoors, was the firm rated highest for its ethics by the American public today. Quite notably, its strong rating on ethics contributed to the company also being regarded as the firm that had the best corporate reputation overall in the Axios/Harris Poll 2021 survey. Patagonia’s commitment to a wide variety of causes is made quite clear on its website. In fact, on its homepage, the company does not first display anything about its products or stores. Rather, if you go there today, you will see this message (as shown in Figure 1: Patagonia’s Homepage - August 2021 below), encouraging its customers to engage in volunteer efforts to help their local communities to work on environmental concerns and projects.

Figure 1: Patagonia’s Homepage - August 2021

Source: Patagonia, https://www.patagonia.com/home/.

Likewise, the company fills their website with stories from actual Patagonia customers detailing how they combined their passion for the outdoors (wearing and using Patagonia clothing and gear, of course) to not only better themselves, but to advance their causes and help their communities (see: https://www.patagonia.com/stories/). The company also produces a wide-range of highly viewed documentaries on a variety of environmental, political, and social topics, not just about issues in the United States….

.... but around the world.

And today, Patagonia’s very public - and persistent - efforts to advance causes and to encourage its community of customers to do the same in their own lives has led to its being regarded not just as a highly ethical company, but the one with the best overall corporate reputation today. This is an invaluable asset for the firm in the consumer marketplace, as its high regard builds not just brand awareness and sales, but a high degree of customer loyalty as well.

Table 2: The 25 Most Ethical Companies in America in 2021 and Their Ethics Rating

NOTE: Index = 100

1. Patagonia (84.7)

2. Chick-fil-A (82.5)

3. Chewy (82.4)

4. Moderna (81.6)

5. Honda Motor Company (81.3)

6. Subaru (81.2)

7. USAA (81.1)

8. Wegmans (80.7)

9. REI (80.4)

10. Costco (80.1)

11. In-n-Out Burger (79.8)

12. PepsiCo (79.6)

13. IKEA (79.3)

14. Toyota Motor Corporation (79.2)

15. FedEx Corporation (79.1)

16. Paypal (79)

17. The Kroger Company (78.9)

18. CVS (CVS Health) (78.7)

19. Lowe's (78.5)

20. Procter & Gamble Co. (78.2)

21. Pfizer (77.4)

22. Hulu (77.4)

23. UPS (77.3)

24. Wayfair (77.2)

25. Publix Supermarkets (77.1)

Source Data: The Harris Poll, 2021 Axios Harris Poll 100.

The rest of the top 25 ranked firms for their ethics is replete with household names of companies that consumers have come to truly rely upon - and buy from - today. The aforementioned Chick-fil-A was the second ranked company based on consumer perception that they maintain high ethical standards. The fast food giant has built a loyal following through its efforts to not just serve customers well, but to serve their communities as well. Likewise, the list of highly regarded firms is replete with companies that consumers touch, in many cases, on a daily or weekly basis, with a noteworthy contingent of grocery stores (Wegmans at #9, The Kroger Company at #17, and Publix Supermarkets at #25) and shipping companies (FedEx Corporation at #15 and UPS at #23). Likewise, REI, a direct competitor with top-ranked Patagonia that also uses cause-based marketing in its appeal to consumers, is ranked 9th in the current survey. A select group of auto companies (Honda Motor Company at #5, Subaru at #6, and Toyota Motor Corporation at #14) standout as highly ethical in the minds of consumers, and this perception certainly helps these firms stand out in a highly competitive marketplace for what are consumers’ second-biggest purchase - other than a home - in most of their lifetimes. In other words, consumers today value shopping and using companies - which means spending their money - with companies with whom they agree ethically. Having a good ethical standing - based on being a good corporate citizen, supporting causes that consumers generally support themselves, and yes, delivering products and services that deliver excellent quality, value, and reliability - thus becomes in and of itself a competitive advantage for strong performing companies in this area of corporate reputation today.

Finally, it is also noteworthy that the 2021 survey results show a strong “pandemic effect” in play, as pharmaceutical companies that spearheaded the development of vaccines (Moderna at #4 and Pfizer at #21) made the most ethical list. Also, where we got our vaccines - and pandemic supplies - mattered, as consumers rated CVS at #18, and yes, as our pets took on an even greater importance in our lives as we spent more and more time at home, the online pet supply retailer Chewy came in at #3 in the consumer rankings.

On the flip side of the ethics equation, Table 3 (The 25 Least Ethical Companies in America in 2021 and Their Ethics Rating) below shows the most visible firms in America today that the public collectively perceives as having the worst ethical standing at present.

Table 3: The 25 Least Ethical Companies in America in 2021 and Their Ethics Rating

NOTE: Index = 100

100. The Trump Organization (55.2)

99. Facebook (55.9)

98. Wish.com (56.8)

97. Fox Corporation (57)

96. TikTok (62)

95. Wells Fargo & Company (62)

94. Comcast (62.3)

93. Twitter (63)

92. Huawei Technologies (64.1)

91. My Pillow (65.2)

90. Sears Holdings Corporation (65.2)

89. BP (66.8)

88. Google (66.9)

87. Uber (66.9)

86. Robinhood (67.5)

85. AT&T (67.5)

84. United Airlines (67.5)

83. Walmart (67.6)

82. Reddit (68.6)

81. Dollar Tree (69)

80. Delta Air Lines (69.9)

79. Samsung (70.1)

78. ExxonMobil (70.1)

77. eBay (70.4)

76. Chipotle (70.6)

Source Data: The Harris Poll, 2021 Axios Harris Poll 100.

What commonalities are there among firms that the public perceives today as being “ethically challenged?” These are outlined in the following groupings:

  • Election controversy: With the continuing controversy over the 2020 Presidential election persisting into 2021, companies that Americans associated with instigating - and prolonging - the public rancor over the election are regarded poorly for their ethics. As can be seen in Table 3, 3 of the top 10 worst ranked firms for this important dimension of corporate reputation (The Trump Organization [inescapably associated with “the former guy”] at #100, the Fox Corporation [parent company of Fox News] at #97, and My Pillow [whose CEO, Mike Lindell, has been at the forefront of efforts to overturn the election results for former President Trump] at #91) were negatively perceived by consumers in regards to ethics, which can be directly linked to their involvement in their roles in the election controversy.
  • Tech companies: The leading social media companies today are facing a real “crisis of confidence” with the American public today. Not only are Facebook and Twitter under scrutiny for their role in the 2020 election and the misinformation that played such a role in the controversies coming out of the election, the companies continue to face mounting concerns over data privacy issues with both their users and government regulators. Looking back at Table 1, both Facebook and Twitter, while being among the most visible companies today, fared poorly in terms of their overall corporate reputation. Likewise, on the all-important perception of consumers as to how ethical the companies are, both were among the worst regarded companies in relation to ethics today, with Facebook being #99 and Twitter being #93. Google has been less impacted by the present concerns over the election and data privacy, but the tech giant also fared poorly on the ethical dimension, being ranked #88 in this regard.
  • Transportation companies: With the hassles of modern travel, which have only been made more complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, it should come as no surprise that transportation companies fared poorly in regards to their ethics. In the airline sector, both United (#84) and Delta (#80) were among the worst rated companies for ethical conduct, while Uber came in at #87. This poor regard for these companies’ ethics can indeed spring from not just personal bad experiences on a plane or in a rideshare, but as is so common today, a bad encounter with an airline employee, an Uber driver, a fellow passenger, etc. can go viral on social media and quickly damage the reputation of the firm.
  • Retailers: Interestingly, both retailers that are regarded as doing well in the marketplace today and those that are struggling to survive appear to have problems in terms of how they are perceived by the public in regards to ethics. Sure, Sears Holdings (#90) was high on the “bad list” of companies in this regard, having closed hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores and laying off tens of thousands of workers in an attempt to somehow survive the “Retail Apocalypse.” However, both the retailing giant, Walmart (#83), and Dollar Tree (#81), the fast growing chain of yes, stores where everything is a dollar, also were poorly perceived by the public on the ethical dimension of corporate reputation. As with the transportation sector, even the best retailers can be hurt by the “word of mouth” of bad customer experiences and interactions, amplified a thousandfold today - or more - in the social media age in which we live.
  • The “Usual Suspects”: A final category that is important to delineate from the list of companies with the worst ethical perceptions out there today might be labelled simply as the “usual suspects” - companies that many people find historically difficult to deal with. In this segment, there would be cable and telecom providers, with Comcast coming in at #94 and AT&T at #85, as well as your bank, with surprisingly only Wells Fargo making the top - well bottom 25 - in this regard, coming in at #95.
By Isaac Smith on Unsplash

Analysis

So, what are the implications for management from these findings in regard to the ethical dimension of corporate reputation? In short, this should be a reminder to executives and managers everywhere - from the C-suite in major corporations to those who manage small businesses - that everything matters today. And while it’s one thing to have a top executive “screw-up” like a Mike Lindell or have a sexual harassment scandal come to light, far more often, it is the little things that count when it comes to having your firm be regarded as being highly ethical in how it treats its customers, its employees, and its communities. In an age where one misstep - mishandling a customer complaint, seeing employees get into a verbal argument - or worse, having an executive “behaving badly,” whether on the job, on a plane, in a restaurant, etc. - can be videoed and instantly shared across the country and around the world, your company’s reputation for ethical behavior is on the line 24/7/365 today.

And so it is critical that companies have not just the procedures, processes, and guidelines in place to promote ethical behavior among all employees. But even moreso, it is crucial to have a culture that promotes - and rewards - employees for not just “doing the right thing,” but encourages them to go above and beyond, and not just for their customers, but for their coworkers, their company, and their community. One would far, far prefer that your company be trending on social media and perhaps even be featured on news stories for your folks doing good than for all the negative “stuff” that can and does happen today. And so yes, the “Golden Rule,” simply treating others as you would like to be treated, is perhaps the greatest management - and life - advice ever crafted, and it still holds true today, no matter how complex, interconnected, and small the world may become.

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About David Wyld

David Wyld is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. You can view all of his work at https://authory.com/DavidWyld.

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About the Creator

David Wyld

Professor, Consultant, Doer. Founder/Publisher of The IDEA Publishing (http://www.theideapublishing.com/) & Modern Business Press (http://www.modernbusinesspress.com)

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