Ethics
The Neverending Battle: Ethics and Money
The pressure for companies to develop effective ethics and compliance programs continues to grow as legal developments force companies to take greater responsibility for their actions.The ethics and compliance department must compete with every other group in the organization for funding. In many cases, all that the top level decisions makers want to hear is about how ethics and compliance can save the company money – proving that it’s not just a cost centre. In times when organizations are careful with their money, it’s often decided that doallrs are better spent elsewhere than ethics and compliance. I don’t agree with this decision, as there’s a lot more to the benefits ethics and compliance brings to the table. To help ethics and compliance departments plead their case to decision makers, there’s been a push, demanding that the DOJ release information on the role of ethics and compliance when deciding the fate of a company during a legal battle.
Effectiveness of Ethics and Compliance Programs
The Ethics Resource Centre, Ethics and Compliance Officer Association and the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics teamed up to prepare a report for the DOJ. The focus of the report was to get the DOJ to provide more information about the role of ethics and compliance programs in enforcement decisions. In a press release issued by the ERC, it states:
“Ethics and compliance practitioners seek data from the U.S. Department of Justice that identifies how often an effective ethics and compliance program yields a direct return in enforcement decisions, according to a survey jointly conducted by the ERC, ECOA and the SCCE. We welcome the recent efforts by the DOJ to publicize cases where it has rewarded companies for having strong ethics and compliance programs, but the ethics and compliance community challenges the Department to take steps to be even more forthcoming with information.”
The press release also includes a list of some of the different types of data that ethics and compliance professionals would like to see the DOJ report. The list includes:
Descriptions—without identifying information—of individual cases in which ethics and compliance programs were a mitigating factor in enforcement decisions.
Information about what specific aspects of an ethics and compliance program factored into enforcement decisions.
Information about the benefits of an effective ethics and compliance program, such as helping avert a decision to prosecute or avoidance of other sanctions such as appointment of a monitor.
Money Matters
Ethics and Feminism Articles
What do we mean by ethics?
The word ethics comes from a Greek source meaning custom or habit. Ethical philosophy involves the study of right and wrong. Sometimes people use the word morality instead of ethics. Both morality and ethics are about finding out how we ought to live. Ethics is a major branch of philosophy. (The other branches being: epistemology or knowledge, metaphysics or the essential nature of things and logic or reason.
Approaches to Ethics
There are four possible ways of approaching ethics.
Descriptive ethics: involves the description of how things are or the customs of a society.
Normative ethics: is about making moral decisions or deciding what is right and what is wrong. There are two main ways of doing this, namely by intentions or moral rules relating to duty (deontological ethics) or by outcome (teleological).
Meta-ethics; this approach analyses the nature of ethics. It includes both realism and antirealism. Realism is the view that moral values can be discovered, possibly by using intuition. Antirealism is the view that morality is determined by people’s thoughts and feelings
Applied ethics: this is how ethical values may be used in specific circumstances. So for example, the study of abortion would involve an individual applying moral theory to the situation of abortion. In order to do this they may draw on both normative values those of meta-ethics.
Normative Ethics In More Detail
Teleological Theory
Teleological theory is also known as consequentialism and involves outcomes. One example of teleological theory is utilitarianism. According to this theory one should do what creates the most happiness for the greatest number of people. However utilitarians are divided about what happiness is. Some claim that happiness is simply pleasure but others claim it is about minimising pain. Two major exponents of utilitarianism are Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
Jeremy Bentham produced the felicific calculus, or hedonic calculus. For Bentham one could calculate the actual amount of pleasure over pain using a sort of mathematical method. The calculus involves taking into account factors such as: intensity, duration and certainty of pleasure.
John Stuart Mill divided pleasure into higher and lower order, claiming cultural, spiritual and intellectual pleasures to be higher order in nature.
Ethical Conduct: the Importance of High Moral Standards
Ethical Conduct: The Importance of High Moral Standards
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ABSTRACT
Ethical conduct should inspire a quality of behavior that exemplifies honor and dignity for oneself. In a school district, teachers, administrators, staff, and school board members should understand the importance of ethical conduct in the educational arena. An effective educational organization entails the need of individuals maintaining integrity and high morals. The Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (2007) by William Allan Kritsonis, PhD provides insight in improving ethical conduct in the educational environment.
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Introduction
Employees of a school district should serve with honor. Individuals should strive to help students reach their potential to be socially and responsible citizens. School district employees should understand the importance of upholding ethical values. The following statement by Harry Wong emphasize the significance of educators valued principles: “Teachers are not in private practice. We are in the helping and caring profession, a service profession to help people enhance the quality of their lives.” The supportiveness, safety, and security of all areas are crucial in the learning environment.
Purpose of the Article
The purpose of this article is to discuss ten recommendations that are important in the improvement of ethical conduct. The Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (2007) provides insight in improving ethical conduct in the educational environment. Dr. William Allan Kristonis is a noted author, professor, lecturer, consultant, editor-in-chief, and publisher. Using his expertise, he has detailed concepts in the realms of ethics. The focus of this essay is regarding the improvement of ethical conduct for school administrators. The administrator is responsible for providing leadership to the school community. The recommendations that are given will enhance the character development of principals and leaders as they model behavior for the students and staff.
Ethical Theory
The development of ethical theory dates back to Plato and Aristotle. The word ethic has its roots in the Greek word ethos. Ethos is the perceived degree of character or credibility that a person believes exists in another person or object (Haskins, 2000). The amount of trust and belief one has in another will have an important impact in how persuasive one will be.
Ethics in Business ? From Compliance to Commitment
By the time this article goes to print all of us will surely have had our fill of news reports about Conrad Black’s infamous lawsuit. We’ll likely be numb to the never ending allegations of fraudulent practices at Nortel. But, how many of us as human resource professionals will be asking, ‘What does this have to do with me?’
It seems that, by and large, human resource professionals have been quite happy to have the accountability for their company’s business ethics and code of business conduct rest with their legal or audit departments. In so doing, human resource professionals miss an opportunity to help their companies shift from merely being compliant with the law to demonstrating their company’s firm and unwavering commitment to build an ethical business culture.
The ‘iceberg model’ helps us to better appreciate the influences that may undermine a company’s policies and practices with respect to business ethics. Think of the ‘the Law’ and your company’s Code of Business Conduct Policy as the tip of the iceberg, visible above the surface. Now, think about the influences that exist below the surface lurking within many companies. Things like:
· Pressures to conform (“Hey, we always take off early Friday afternoons, you need to join us or else someone’s going to take notice”)
· Desire to please (“I picked up the tab for a lunch I had with my boss. He told me it was the only way he could expense it without needing to get further approval. I did it because I wanted to stay on his good side!”)
· Accepted practices (“Don’t worry, we give box seat tickets to all our clients and they sure don’t have any problem with accepting them!”)
· Performance drivers (“Hey, maybe we should just alter our numbers a bit. If we do, we’re sure to be in the top category for a bonus this year!”)
When asked, most of us do not hesitate to say that we are ‘ethical’. In fact some people are offended when asked to sign a document confirming they have read and understood their company’s Code of Business Conduct Policy. However, what we fail to recognize and appreciate is our ability to rationalize our own behavior. Sometimes we justify our actions so convincingly that we no longer even perceive that what we are doing is inherently wrong or unethical. For example:
Inculcation of Ethics Through Education and Globalization Effects on Ethics
Inculcation of Ethics Through Education and Globalization
Effects on Ethics
INTRODUCTION
‘The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government’………….. Thomas Jefferson.
‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist’……………..Dom Helder Camara.
Now we are living in the technological modern world. Science and Technology have a prominent role in the development of the any nation in the world. India is a developing county in the world. Indian economy is the fourth largest economy in the world. According to 2001 census the literacy rate of India is 64.84%. It is very less when compared to developed county in the world. The Planning Commission made a survey for finding out the number of persons below poverty line and estimated that 18.96% of the total peoples live below poverty line as of the year 1993-94. It is necessary to take care about poor and illiteracy.
ETHICS
Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is “the good life”, the life worth living or life that is satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct. The major problem is the discovery of the summum bonum, the greatest good.
Ethics are related to institutions and rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and human rights accordingly stem from ethics even if no moral grounds can be adduced. Yet moral grounds are to be found everywhere, including science. From the point where, in the name of ethics, science itself does not fall outside this domain, morals, similarly, do not lie outside the realm of ethics as ethics are a profoundly human, secular construction in so far as they represent a conscious choice or plan and a legal endeavour in terms of the law. The confusion that exists between rights and values on the one hand and between morals and ethics on the other lie at the heart of the debate on universal ethics, that is to say, universal ethics based on recognition of human rights.
Accounting Ethics Courses: Optional or Necessary
Ethics and high morality are in high demand today especially among corporate America, and specifically within the accounting profession. After the ethical failures of Enron and WorldCom, a public outcry for future preventative measures resonated throughout the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and the accounting community at large. Consequently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the overseeing government board of the AICPA, released the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, otherwise known as SOX. The act requires a higher performance standard for accounting firms and the audits they perform to prevent future accounting scandals. SOX, which has been extremely beneficial, doesn’t change the ethical standards of an individual but instead takes away most of the opportunity to commit a scandalous act. The basic character of the fraudulent individual remains corrupt, even with legislation in place. The question is then posed: Can ethics be taught, and if so, what accounting or business ethics courses are available? The answer is not ironclad as the word ethics describes the morality of an individual, which is hard to measure. There are also very limited courses offered on ethics, however ethical education should be a required course in college and a prerequisite to new employment for all accounting firms.
Most higher education institutions, and some high school level institutions, are implementing brief ethical materials into their curriculum, but very few offer courses on the subject. The basic argument against incorporating a required accounting ethics course is that there isn’t any proof that individuals who take a course would be any more ethical than they already are. If this is truly the singular obstruction to imposing an accounting course in ethics, than why aren’t other courses in the curriculum subject to examination from proof. Many audits, specifically those at Enron and WorldCom, have failed because of poor functional accounting knowledge, not just ethical queries. Most other curricular accounting courses would fail a proof assessment required by those who oppose an accounting ethics course. It is necessary to have an accounting ethics course to properly prepare students for any future ethical temptation they may experience within the field. Without experience in fraud recognition or ethical righteousness, many new timid accountants are susceptible to fraud or ethical dilemmas. A recommendation would be to add not just one course on ethics into a curriculum, but possibly three or four. A course in ethical theory could tie into another ethics course involved in spotting frauds and ethical dilemmas while a third course could focus on answering these ethical uncertainties.
Method to Ethically Eliminate All Political Corruption
Our Political System was a revelation in 1776, before
Hidden Microphones & Cameras,
Big Business,
Indoor Plumbing and Toilet Paper,
before Ethics was understood,
and
before the National Security Agency (NSA).
The actions of our political Representatives like George Washington were shaped by the ethics of honor instilled by the educational system and social awareness of that time. Ethics plays no large part in our present educational systems. Ethics should be a formal part of every class from pre-school to doctoral presentation. Instilled formally, the people would better understand how to predict consequences from any proposed action. The corrupt would die out with time and attrition.
Since the Declaration of Independence (and the first fights against taxation without representation), technology has allowed Special Interest groups (to include Terrorist Groups, souless Corporations, and corrupt politicians) to use the innate weaknesses of our political structure to undermine the basis for our Constitution; a modern form of racketeering and organized crime, jeopardizing national security.
The Citizens of the United States
require implementation of
State representation, including ALL states,
by a large and diverse Ethical Oversight Committee
to ensure the security of peoples Freedoms,
to manage National Security Agency (NSA) operations,
and
to determine how the information collected and derived by
the NSA shall best be used
as it relates to our Freedoms and Security,
and to “absolutely” restrict this information
from any other purpose.
Who are the ghosts behind the faces of our government, who continues to manipulate the world into a continuous chain of wars. A chain that has killed many millions of people, and that deters development? This is only one relationship the NSA should be informing the public about.
The NSA is soley controlled by the office of the President of the United States and only needs a single judge to obtain a warrant to covertly monitor any person or corporation (wire tapping, covertly breaking in to copy documents, copy by any means computer information, record in detail the habits and personal relationships of anyone, …).
Recently, President Bush took control away from that judge and even though the judge was ineffectual, the President now has absolute control over the NSA.
The President is a puppet of the same organization that controls the Federal Reserve. Therefore they control the United States, not the President, not the People, and certainly not ethics. The Fed encourages war to promote special interest prosperity. Loans with interest to both sides of every war. Interest paid on every dollar produced for the United States. Who benefits from the interest paid?
Information Tools: The Ethics Resource Centre
The Ethics Resource Centre
For the past 88 years, the Ethics Resource Centre (ERC) has been a source of information and guidance for ethics and compliance professionals everywhere. The information provided by the ERC serves as a benchmark for companies when gauging the success of their own ethics and compliance programs. The ERC conducts both national and private, single organization surveys, and publishes the results to help businesses and government agencies understand trends, gaps and best practices in ethics and compliance.
The ERC has launched a Student Fellows program targeted at secondary school students, to help instill ethics into their daily decisions. Emphasizing ethics and compliance at a young age helps prepare future business leaders by shaping them to be ethical thinkers. The ERC also provides information on developments and trends in federal legislation, regulations and ethics and compliance related court decisions. On the ERC website, they state, “we take advantage of its Washington, D.C. location to encourage understanding between business and the federal government.”
ERC Resources
The ERC houses countless ethics and compliance resources. The ERC releases a number of publications, survey and articles, as well as providing services to help companies develop, implement and measure their ethics and compliance programs. Here are some of the informative resources the ERC has to offer (all of the information and resources below are available on the ERC website):
Ethics Toolkit: The Ethics Toolkit contains a number of guides that outline tips and techniques for writing codes of conduct.
National Surveys- Data from the ERC is used widely throughout business, government and academia. According to the ERC under the “National Surveys” section of their website:
“As the only longitudinal survey measuring how employees at all levels in more than 3,000 U.S. workplaces view ethics within their own organizations, NBES is a valuable tool for business leaders, policymakers, boards of directors, ethics and compliance officers, consumers and investors interested in monitoring ethics trends and better understanding ethical practices within organizations.”
Here is the link to the National Business Ethics Survey
2009 National Business Ethics Survey
Publications: The ERC offers a number of articles and videos to assist companies in promoting ethics and compliance within their workforce. The ERC publishes a monthly newsletter entitled “Ethics Today,” which features ethics and compliance related articles and upcoming events. Every few weeks, the ERC publishes an EthicsStat- statistics that have been pulled from ERC research, surveys and other educational initiatives. The publications section also features a list of ethics and compliance books, staff articles and publications from groups partnered with the ERC.
Business Ethics
From a business perspective, working under government contracts can be a very lucrative proposition. In general, a stream of orders keep coming in, revenue increases and the company grows in the aggregate. The obvious downfalls to working in this manner is both higher quality expected as well as the extensive research and documentation required for government
contracts. If a part fails to perform correctly it can cause minor glitches as well as problems that can carry serious repercussions, such as in the National Semiconductor case. When both the culpable component and company are found, the question arises of how extensive these
repercussions should be. Is the company as an entity liable or do you look into individual employees within that company? From an ethical perspective one would have to look at the mitigating factors of both the employees and their superiors along with the role of others in the failure of these components. Next you would have to analyze the final ruling from a corporate perspective and then we must examine the macro issue of corporate responsibility in order to attempt to find a resolution for cases like these.
The first mitigating factor involved in the National Semiconductor case is the uncertainty, on the part of the employees, on the duties that they were assigned. It is plausible that during the testing procedure, an employee couldn’t distinguish which parts they were to test under government standards and commercial standards. In some cases they might have even been misinformed on the final consumers of the products that they tested. In fact, ignorance on the part of the employees would fully excuse them from any moral responsibility for any damage that may result from their work. Whether it is decided that an employees is fully excused, or is given some moral responsibility, would have to be looked at on an individual basis.
The second mitigating factor is the duress or threats that an employee might suffer if they do not follow through with their assignment. After the bogus testing was completed in the National Semiconductor labs, the documentation department also had to falsify documents stating that
the parts had surpassed the governmental testing standards. From a legal and ethical standpoint, both the testers and the writers of the reports were merely acting as agents on direct orders from a superior. This was also the case when the plant in Singapore refused to falsify the documents