Work ethics are a core component of an organization's culture and internal environment. Risks associated with poor work ethics, such as employee misconduct, fraud, or a toxic work environment, stem directly from the "people" component of the organization. In established risk management frameworks, these are classified as organizational risks (often used interchangeably with or as a superset of operational risks). This category encompasses potential losses resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems, making it the most appropriate classification for risks related to work ethics.

A. Commitment: "Commitment Risk" is not a standard, formally recognized category in major risk management frameworks. While a lack of commitment to ethical values is a cause of risk, the risk itself is classified as organizational.

C. Strategic: Strategic risks relate to high-level decisions and external factors that affect an organization's ability to achieve its long-term objectives. While a major ethical scandal can become a strategic risk, the root cause (poor work ethics) is an internal organizational issue.

1. Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). (2013). Internal Control – Integrated Framework: Executive Summary. In this framework, the foundation for internal control is the "Control Environment," which includes Principle 1: "The organization demonstrates a commitment to integrity and ethical values." Failures in this principle represent a breakdown in the internal environment, which is a source of organizational/operational risk. (p. 4, "Control Environment").

2. Lam, J. (2014). Enterprise Risk Management: From Incentives to Controls (2nd ed.). Wiley. In discussions of risk taxonomies, operational risk is consistently defined to include "people risk," which covers employee errors, internal fraud, and ethical breaches. This is a subset of the broader organizational risk category. (Chapter 7, "Risk Taxonomy").

3. MIT OpenCourseWare. (2016). 15.433 Financial Markets, Lecture 19: Operational Risk. The lecture notes define operational risk as "the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events." This definition explicitly places risks from "people," including ethical conduct, within this category. (Section 1, "Definition of Operational Risk").