Tag: Chris MacDonald

Ethisphere’s 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics


The Ethisphere Institute unveiled its “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics,” an annual list of individuals who have made a significant impact in the realm of corporate citizenship over the course of the previous year.

Some are world famous and some are little unknown. Here are some that caught my attention:

#48 Stephen Colbert – Satirist, The Colbert Report
Category: Media and Whistleblowers

#64 Jack Dorsey – Founder and Executive Chairman, Twitter
Category: Business Leadership

#77 Chris MacDonald – Author, Business Ethics Blog
Category: Media and Whistleblowers

#85 Dick Cassin – Author, FCPA Blog
Category: Media and Whistleblowers

#91 Matt Kelly – Editor-in-Chief, ComplianceWeek
Category: Media and Whistleblowers

At Siemens, Bribery Was Just a Line Item

The New York Times ran an in-depth look at how entrenched corruption had become at the multi-national corporation: At Siemens, Bribery Was Just a Line Item.

For his part, Mr. Siekaczek is uncertain about the impact of the Siemens case. After all, he said, bribery and corruption are still widespread.“People will only say about Siemens that they were unlucky and that they broke the 11th Commandment,” he said. “The 11th Commandment is: ‘Don’t get caught.’ ”

As Chris MacDonald at The Business Ethics Blog points out:

When you pay a bribe, you’re attempting to induce someone to make a decision that is favourable to you, rather than a decision that is favourable to their employer. Perhaps that moral argument is obvious to everyone. The less-obvious point, perhaps, is that bribery also represents an unwanted expense for companies…an expense that all companies would like to be able to avoid, if they could. Paying bribes only works if you out-bribe the competition. If you & your competitors are all bribing with equal zeal, no one wins (and you’ve all suffered unnecessary, indeed, useless, costs). But of course, if everyone else is paying bribes, then the company that declines to is going to suffer losses. It’s a classic ‘collective action’ problem.

Inflated Credentials

The Wall Street Journal had a story on inflated academic credentials: Inflated Credentials Surface in Executive Suite by Keith J. Winstein.

Kroll issues an annual report of its “hit ratio” that says about 20% of job seekers and rank-and-file employees undergoing background checks by their companies are found to have inflated their educational credentials.

Referring to this story, Chris MacDonald of The Business Ethics Blog, writes in Executives & Inflated Academic Credentials:

The details are not exactly eye-popping. A few execs said they completed degrees they only started, one said he got a Bachelor’s degree when all he really got is an Associate’s degree. But still. Their information was inaccurate, and that’s bad. It’s dishonest (though the WSJ acknowledges that some cases might best be chalked up to misunderstandings) and it sets a lousy example for people lower down the corporate ladder.