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This spring I have the privilege of teaching a course at Stanford University on ethics in today’s highly complex, uncertain world. One of my over-arching themes is that few factors define our individual, organizational, and societal stories as definitively as our ethics. We didn’t cover stories like Somaly Mam. Why? Because there is nothing unpredictable or nuanced here. This alleged case is a straightforward narrative with a predicable end: lying with an added dose of self-promotion leads to personal destruction and extensive collateral ethical damage. (more…)
May 22nd, 2013
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This article was first published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (Summer 2013). A wave of ethics transgressions underlines the importance of comprehensive ethics oversight for organizational success. Last year, 2012, was in many regards a step forward for proponents of ethical action. Roger Gifford, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, one of the world’s financial capitals, declared business ethics a priority and critical to the City’s economic success. François Hollande published a Code of Ethics within 11 days of becoming president of France. And the new Chinese premier, Xi Jinping, highlighted the ongoing danger of corruption to economic and social development as a central part...
March 11th, 2013
Board Matters, Board Matters @zh, Conseils d'Administration, Crisis Management, Crisis Management @zh, Ethics and Leadership, Ethics and Leadership @zh, Ethics in the News, Ethics in the News @zh, Éthique et Dirigeants, Gestion des Crises, L'Éthique dans l'Actualité, New Ethics for New Issues, New Ethics for New Issues @zh, Non-Profit Organizations Matters, Non-Profit Organizations Matters @zh, Nouvelle Éthique pour Nouveaux Problèmes, Sujets relatifs aux Organisations à But Non Lucratif, Uncategorized
The recent press storm detailing ethical failures within the NHS highlights the oversimplification (to two words) and under analysis (in two words) of the ethics challenge. This blog focuses on those two words: “moral purpose”. The key question is how will this “moral purpose” result in more ethical decision-making throughout the NHS but within the context of the NHS’ reality? Calling for a moral purpose is useful if it is shorthand for calling for on-going comprehensive ethics oversight and not a one-shot tagline. For the moment, the prescription is for these two words (with a code of ethics and dismissal...
Yale Professor Thomas Pogge admonishes us to “pause for a while and reflect on what it would be like to live on [$2 per day], equivalent in 2012 to $16.50 per week or $71.70 per month or $860 for the entire year…” and to “ask yourself whether you would consider such an existence to accord with what is affirmed in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that ‘…everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and of his family…’.” Professor Pogge then reminds us that this $2 per day...