Categorical Imperative
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time, as an end and never simply as a means.”
Kant
Misconduct and ethics
http://www.ethics.org/nbes-retaliation
New research out on misconduct in the workplace. Take a look.
Business ethics
Business ethics is the consistency between the practices of the organization and its moral philosophy.
How many organizationns have a moral philosophy much less explain what it is?
Rep. Rangel and ethics?
Rep. Rangel is being charged with 13 counts of ethics violations by the House Ethics Committee.
However all of the charges seem to be legal issues. Are we confusing again the distinct line between ethics and compliance??
Ethics training can save you money
Ethics training can prove an essential defense should an ethics lapse occur, demonstrating to an enforecement agency that your organization took ethics seriously enough to train your entire workforce. Such good faith efforts can make regulators less likely to assess fines or penalities and can lessen public relations damage to the organization.
Ethics training should never be cut!
http://www.workforce.com/section/11/feature/26/92/03/index.html
This research says it all! Ethics training should be a priority, not an option, particularly in this economy. Once again the Federal Sentencing Guidelines mandate ethics/compliance for a company’s own good. Saving money on not having ongoing ethics training in the short term, can “cost” a company dearly in the long run.
Whistleblowers and Ethics
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2010-07-27-cnbc-whistle-blowers_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
Isn’t this more about the leadership in companies than it is about people agonizing over “doing the right thing?”
If leadership rewarded good behavior, had ongoing ethics training and really modelled appropriate and expected behavior, would this even be an issue?
Is this really about the money or is it something else?
Knowledge vs. wisdom
Knowledge is the “stuff.” Wisdom is what you do with it! We need to be wisdom merchants in the marketplace.
Inspiration or Regulation
Here’s the fundamental problem. We have confused rules with principles.Therefore we need more inspiration than regulation.
Rules and Principles
“Rules can be bent, but principles cannot.”
James Owen, author of book, Cowboy Ethics.