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SHRM and the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) just released The Ethics Landscape in American Business Survey Report (membership required). The most interesting component, in my opinion, is the list of most commonly observed misconduct in the workplace. For fifty-seven percent of HR professionals, abusive or intimidating behavior toward employees (excluding sexual harassment) tops the list.

While we’ve seen this issue percolating for years (check out Workplace Bullying, which has an extensive amount of information and resources on the subject), this is the first time I’ve seen bullying tied to a survey on ethics.

No, Gina’s not a person – it’s a new law that every HR, legal and ethics professional should know about. GINA stands for the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and was just passed into law by Congress on May 21, 2008. Sponsors of the bill called it “groundbreaking” and lauded it as a critical civil rights bill.

GINA is designed to balance the benefits of obtaining and using genetic information for things like research and managing personal health and wellness, with the harm that results when employers and health insurance companies misuse the sensitive data.

You’ve probably heard the news by now. (And if you haven’t, you’re far too wrapped up in the race for the Democratic nomination.) The California Supreme Court recently issued a significant ruling about same-sex marriage – holding that it’s against the state constitution to deny the benefits of marriage to people based on sexual orientation. (The decision is based in part on a 1948 state case striking down California’s anti-miscegenation laws, which essentially banned the mixing of different racial groups – in marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, etc.)

So California and Massachusetts are leading the way on recognizing same-sex marriage. And where they go, others will follow – notably New York state, which just last week pronounced that it will recognize same-sex marriages performed in jurisdictions such as California and Massachusetts. (New York To Back Same-Sex Unions From Elsewhere).