By David Gebler on January 6, 2012
The Ethics Resource Center, a Washington DC based ethics research organization, released its 2011 National Business Ethics Survey. The NBES is regarded as the premier survey of ethics issues in the American workplace. This year’s survey identified some interesting trends: On the one hand, misconduct has reached an historic low and observers of wrongdoing are [...]
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By Carter McNamara on January 2, 2012
Guest post from Jack Hoban. What are Values? According to the dictionary, values are “things that have an intrinsic worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor,” or “principles, standards, or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable.” However, it is important to note that, although we may tend to think of a value as something good, [...]
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By David Gebler on July 18, 2011
At some point in a scandal companies can longer gloss over the trouble with settlements and promises of reform. Curious as to whether News Corp has crossed that line. From today’s New York Times: As Mark Lewis, the lawyer for the family of the murdered girl, Milly Dowler, said after Ms. Brooks resigned, “This is [...]
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By David Gebler on July 5, 2011
The Wall St. Journal reported today that Western companies including Cisco Systems Inc. have been contracted to build an ambitious new surveillance project in China —a citywide network of as many as 500,000 cameras that officials say will prevent crime but that human- rights advocates warn could target political dissent. Should companies be responsible for how [...]
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By David Gebler on June 11, 2011
Today’s Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from the forthcoming book by former Chrysler and GM exec Bob Lutz. Lutz says that in the auto industry a knowledgeable autocrat is the successful model for a leader. In critiquing the bureaucracy for which GM has been famous for, Lutz says that the autocrat is the model for leadership [...]
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By Carter McNamara on April 7, 2011
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By David Gebler on March 18, 2011
A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine offers insights into what distinguishes high-performing and low performing with regard to deaths of heart attack patients under their care. It’s not the training of the doctors or the investment in high-tech equipment. It’s the organizational culture that makes the greatest difference. As Dr. Pauline [...]
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By David Gebler on March 14, 2011
It’s ironic that a word like “transparency” can have several confusing meanings, even in a business context. While transparency as a concept is often most visible in the realm of social responsibility and compliance, its real benefit is when it’s seen as a business priority. Transparency is about information. It is about the ability of [...]
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By David Gebler on February 27, 2011
It’s ironic that Charlie Sheen played the character with the ethical conscience in the 1987 film “Wall Street.” Now he’s at the center of a titillating Hollywood scandal that has lessons to teach us about business ethics and the business of Hollywood. As has been widely reported in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, CBS [...]
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By David Gebler on February 1, 2011
Today’s Wall Street Journal reported the story of the progress BP is making in re-characterizing its culture in the aftermath of the April 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. According to the Journal, new CEO Bob Dudley has created a new global safety division at BP, a company that also suffered a 15-fatality refinery explosion in Texas [...]
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David Gebler with Skout Group is a recognized thought leader in values-based ethics and culture risk management, and is an innovator of new approaches to help companies align behavior with ethical and strategic values.