By David Gebler on July 10, 2013
Can there ever be too much transparency? Transparency has been recognized as a vital attribute for organizational health and performance. Organizations that demonstrate transparency give voice for employee concerns. Leaders that are willing to be vulnerable in sharing even bad news create environments where employees can admit mistakes before crises erupt. So when is too much transparency? […]
By Carter McNamara on November 27, 2012
In an earlier life, I taught business ethics. (Most of my undergraduate college credits are in philosophy.) So here’s a very concise overview of the major “school”s of ethics that are often taught in business ethics programs. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative (1700s) Kant asserted that a belief is an ethical principle if, and only if, […]
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 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 […]
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 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 17, 2010
A powerful tool was made available to the public yesterday. In research reported Thursday in the journal Science, scientists at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google and the Encyclopedia Britannica unveiled a database of two billion words and phrases drawn from 5.2 million books in Google’s digital library published during the past 200 years. […]
By Carter McNamara on November 27, 2010
The following guidelines ensure the ethics management program is operated in a meaningful fashion: 1. Recognize that managing ethics is a process. Ethics is a matter of values and associated behaviors. Values are discerned through the process of ongoing reflection. Therefore, ethics programs may seem more process-oriented than most management practices. Managers tend to be […]
By David Gebler on November 1, 2010
Last week GlaxoSmithKline settled a claim with the US Justice Department for $750 million. However, what really made the news was that whistleblower Cheryl Eckard stood to receive $96 million for her efforts. The concern, as raised in today’s Wall Street Journal, is that with such a potential goldmine on the back end, potential whistleblowers will […]
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 ...]