Yesterday’s Carnival of Trust post got me thinking about the relationship of compliance and trust. “Compliance lays out policies and checks to make sure you are complying with those policies. Trust, but verify, and mostly verify.” I equate trust more with the ethics side of business: Doing what you should (or should not) do, based … Read more »
Category: Ethics
Carnival of Trust
The Carnival of Trust is the brainchild of Charles Green of Trust Matters. It’s intended to highlight the best posts about trust in the business and professional workspace over the previous month. He apparently ran out of worthy people to host his carnival and, in what must have been a moment of weakness, asked me … Read more »
School Official Disciplined for Misuse of LexisNexis
The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission fined Mark Rivera, the former Lawrence School Department Urban Affairs Liaison and Special Assistant to the School Superintendent, for misuse of his access rights to LexisNexis. The Lawrence School Department purchased access to the LexisNexis database so Rivera could obtain contact information for parents no longer living in the district, … Read more »
Ethics and Baseball Tickets
Baseball season is here. That means businesses will be opening their boxes and seats for entertaining clients and potential clients. Of course those tickets are gifts. How do you treat them under your company’s gifts policy or a government’s ethics policy? One typical requirement is that you pay for the tickets. Face value is the … Read more »
Child Climbing Mount Everest
Jordan Romero is thirteen years old. And he is departing on April 5 for his trip to climb Mount Everest. That would be an extraordinary feat. But is it ethical to allow such a young person to put himself in such a dangerous situation? (In case you are wondering, the current record for the youngest … Read more »
Keeping Your Colleagues Honest
Mary C. Gentile put together a great piece on how to challenge unethical behavior at work in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review: Keeping Your Colleagues Honest. She starts with four rationalizations for staying silent when encountering an ethical problem: It’s standard practice. It’s not a big deal. It’s not my responsibility. I … Read more »
Global Ethics Summit 2010
Today I will be in New York attending the Global Ethics Summit 2010, hosted by Dow Jones and Ethisphere. Assuming I can get an internet connection and power, I will be live-blogging from the summit. If not live, I will try to get my notes published later tonight on the train ride home. Here is … Read more »
Ethics of Congressional Stock Ownership
The Washington Post published a story using Congressman John Dinghell as an example of the ethics issues involved when you have an investor lawmaker: Dingells and GM illustrate limits of congressional conflict-of-interest rules. Kimberly Kindy and Robert E. O’Harrow Jr. use Congressman Dinghell because of his financial connection with General Motors. This connection was one … Read more »
Ethics of Oreos in the Minibar
Is it ethical to replenish the items in your hotel’s minibar to avoid being charged for consumption? Randy Cohen tackled this issue in last week’s The Ethicist. David Lat, publisher of the legal tabloid Above the Law, posed the question after eating a box of Oreos from his minibar and then later replacing them. Mr. … Read more »
Global Ethics Summit
Dow Jones and Ethisphere Institute are teaming up to present the 2010 Global Ethics Summit on February 23-24, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt New York City. I just confirmed that I will be attending, thanks to an offer from the event’s organizers. “In an effort to help companies deal with anti-corruption compliance and other significant … Read more »