Many workers say hypocrisy and favoritism, rather than legal and financial misdeeds, are the biggest ethical problems in the workplace, according to a new survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

"The survey holds mixed news for employers," says Ilene Gochman, national practice leader of organization measurement at Watson Wyatt. "While most employees do not believe there are concrete ethical breaches in the workplace, some clearly feel compromised by day-to-day hypocrisy and broken promises. This might explain why job commitment is also down–a problem for companies as the economy picks up and job prospects brighten."

The survey of 1,200 U.S. workers found that a vast majority of employees –72 percent – believe that their immediate bosses behave with honesty and integrity, although they are somewhat less certain about top management – and even their co-workers.

When asked to elaborate on why others' behavior lacks honesty and integrity, workers were far more likely to cite hypocrisy and favoritism (62 percent of those who question top management's integrity cite this factor) than dishonest financial dealings (8 percent) and investor-related violations (2 percent).

A small minority of employees in the survey (9 percent) says that the demands of work "almost always" or "often" put pressure on them to do things that conflict with what they think is right. Another 22 percent say that this is "sometimes" the case. But 70 percent say this happens "infrequently" or "never."

"Some workers may see the relentless pressures on the job as causing them to compromise their personal standards for behavior and performance. Couple these findings with our ongoing research on employee commitment levels and the data suggest that we could, in fact, be seeing the aftereffects of organization restructuring and downsizing," says Gochman.

Indeed, overall employee commitment levels have dropped since 2002. Specifically, employee responses have declined at least five percentage points with regard to pride in company, preference to remain with company, overall rating of company, and satisfaction with company. Three out of ten workers surveyed also indicated they would leave their company if they could.

"These results should give employers cause for concern," says Gochman. "One positive lever companies have at their disposal is the role of immediate bosses in the employment equation. Employees still have very positive feelings about their immediate bosses, and this is perhaps the best defense against job hopping as the economy picks up steam."