By David Gebler on August 3, 2012
By David Gebler and Donna Boehme In the wake of the Penn State child abuse scandal, many in the media were outraged by the NCAA’s decision to instantly vacate the university’s win record from 1998 through 2011. As two ethicists with a combined 40+ years working in the trenches with organizations and their cultures, we’d […]
By David Gebler on May 2, 2012
What’s at the heart of many of today’s scandals? Legal and even innocent behavior that creates a toxic culture. Take the recent GSA scandal for example. As quoted today in Forbes: David Gebler, a whistleblowing expert, lawyer, and author of The 3 Power Values: How Commitment, Integrity, and Transparency Clear the Roadblocks to Performance, says good […]
By David Gebler on March 21, 2012
SAIC, a major government technology contractor, just agreed to pay the City of New York $500 million to settle charges of fraud in the development of an employee timekeeping system. Yes, a couple of employees were the real bad apples, engaging in fraud, kickbacks, and money-laundering. But SAIC’s real crime, the actions that cost it […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By David Gebler on January 26, 2011
Today’s NY Times reports the story of Kansas City Royals pitcher Gil Meche, who was contractually entitled to $12 million in compensation for 2011, but instead forfeited the money by retiring. As reported by Tyler Kepner, Meche was contractually entitled to the money if he showed up to spring training next week, even if he […]
By David Gebler on January 16, 2011
The window is closing for Johnson & Johnson to retain realistic hopes of regaining its trusted position with customers. Customers are moving away from the brand and are increasingly finding suitable substitutes. Today’s New York Times offers an update on what is happening with J&J. But what is most striking to me is how this […]
By David Gebler on December 22, 2010
Today’s business press reports that a lawsuit filed last week on behalf of Johnson & Johnson shareholders accused the company’s directors of ignoring “red flags” foreshadowing product recalls and government probes of manufacturing defects and marketing practices. The lawsuit alleges that while J&J once set “the gold standard for integrity and excellence,” the directors’ “utter […]
Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, provides organizational development, consultant training and Action Learning services, and is developer of the Free Management Library. [Read more ...]