NEW YORK - AMERICANS hold a dim view of business executives, giving them poor grades for honesty and ethics and blaming them for business failures, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Nearly 60 per cent gave the worst grades to Wall Street executives for honesty and ethical practices, according to research conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Corporate executives fared slightly better, getting poor grades from 49 per cent of those polled. Lawyers fared even better, getting bad grades from a third of respondents but excellent grades from a quarter of them.

The poll, commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal and charitable organization, questioned 2,071 US adults and 110 business executives.

Some 58 per cent of the adults gave poor grades to top business executives for leadership during the economic crisis, while 31 per cent rated them as fair, 9 per cent as good and 2 per cent as excellent.

Among the executives, only 19 per cent gave themselves poor grades for leadership, while 53 per cent rated themselves as fair, 27 per cent as good and 1 percent as excellent.

Nearly 70 per cent of the adults blame a company's failure or success on the decisions of its top executives. Just 31 per cent blame outside forces such as the economy's health. Among executives, 88 per cent said they blame top executives for a company's success or failure. Only 12 per cent blame outside forces.

The negative views notwithstanding, three-quarters of adults and 85 per cent of executives gave their own companies good or excellent grades for ethics.

The adults were surveyed by telephone from Jan 25 through Feb 3. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The business executives, comprising leaders of Fortune 1000 firms and companies with annual sales of US$500 million (S$771 million) or more, were questioned by telephone and online from Jan 26 through Feb 5.

The margin of error for the executive poll was plus or minus 9 points, Marist said. -- REUTERS