What You Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company Business transformation programs and change management initiatives. Companies can warp their own ethical climate by pushing too much change from the top, too quickly and too frequently. Leaders in the study reported having to implement staff reduction targets, dispose of big businesses in major markets, and lead mergers and acquisitions. Some of these activities included inherent conflicts of interest; others simply caused leaders to have to act counter to their values (loyalty, for example). Many leaders felt poorly prepared for the dilemmas they faced and felt compelled to take decisions they later regretted. Incentives and pressure to inflate achievement of targets. People do what they are rewarded to do, and most leaders are rewarded for hitting targets. Take Wells Fargo as an example: Managers were rewarded for the number of accounts they opened and managed . As a result, apparently, many felt driven to open accounts