Can neuroscience modernize human self-understanding?

May 17th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Ethical Development

I found this great article at the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics

“Tearing down old buildings and erecting new ones on the basis of modern science and technology – we are constantly doing it in our cities. But can similar ambitions to get rid of the old, to modernize, be realized even more thoroughly, with regard to us and the human condition?

Can we tear down “traditional” human self-understanding – the language we use when we reflect on life in literature, in philosophy, and in the humanities – and replace it by new neuroscientific terms?

Earlier this spring, the philosopher Roger Scruton published an essay in the Spectator where he eloquently attacks claims that neuroscience can and should replace the humanities by a set of brave new “neuro”-disciplines, like neuroethics, neuroaesthetics, and neuromusicology.

Not only will these purported new “sciences” fail to create the understanding that traditional ethics, aesthetics, and musicology, helped us towards (for example, of Bach’s music). They will even fail to achieve the scientific explanations that would justify the brave new “neuro”-prefix.

In order for there to be explanations at all, there must first of all be questions. What characterizes the purported “neuro”-sciences, however, it is their lack of questions, Scruton remarks.

“Neuro-explanation” typically is no more than translation into neuro-jargon. The aim is neither understanding nor explanation, but the ideological one of replacing the traditional by the new, at any cost.

The result of these extreme modernization ambitions running amok in human self-understanding, Scruton claims, and I agree with him, is nonsense: neurononsense.

Yet, something worries me in Scruton’s essay. He almost seems to purify human self-understanding, or the human condition, as if it were a higher sphere that should not be affected by changing times, at least not if they are modern.

I agree that neuroscience cannot explain the human condition. I agree that it cannot replace human self-understanding. But it can change the human condition and challenge our self-understanding. It already does.

Science and technology cannot be abstracted from the human condition. We are continually becoming “modernized” by, for example, neuroscientific developments. These changing conditions are real, and not merely nonsense or jargon. They occur everywhere, not merely among intellectuals or academics. And they reach all the way to our language.

Neuroscience certainly cannot replace the humanities. But it can challenge the humanities to reflect on changed human conditions.

When attempts in the human sciences to understand modern human conditions focus on neuroscience, the prefix “neuro-” could denote a more responsible form of intellectual work than the one Scruton rightly criticizes. It could denote work that feels the challenge of neuroscientific developments and takes it seriously.

Here at CRB, Kathinka Evers works to develop such a responsible form of neuroethics: one that does not translate ethics into neuro-jargon, but sees neuroscientific findings about the brain as a philosophical challenge to understand and clarify, very often in opposition to the temptation of jargon.

Pär Segerdahl”

One Response to “Can neuroscience modernize human self-understanding?”

  1. I am a big supporter of the advancement in human technology and in making our future more advanced and easier to deal with. However, I strongly oppose human experimentation. Why can’t we just let natural evolution take stage and see how far we humans can go?

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Innovate or Get Marginalized?: The Future of Ethics & Compliance Programs

May 11th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Ethical Development, Ethics training

“LRN’s periodic surveys and assessments find that, while ethics and compliance programs have taken deep root across the corporate landscape in the past decade, often they remain in silos, running education and risk management programs peripheral to day-to-day business operations. Reliance on these narrowly defined programs is no longer adequate to meet the exacting demands thrust upon businesses in today’s marketplace; incremental increases of compliance budget and staffing levels for these programs are likely to have diminishing returns.”Read more.

One Response to “Innovate or Get Marginalized?: The Future of Ethics & Compliance Programs”

  1. David Nitkin says:

    Siloing of ethics programs in organizations is indeed a sad reality. Appointing a chief ethics officer causes other to leave it to that person, whereas decentralizing the authority implies that it lacks the senior executive team’s blessing. Not an easily bridged dilemma.

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The Ethics of Space: Jaques Derrida and the architecture to come.

May 8th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Ethical Development

“Between 1986 and 1993 Jacques Derrida wrote various papers and contributions on architecture. I intend to demonstrate that these writings focus on the question of the relation to the other and, therefore, on the ethical dimension of architecture. In particular, I argue that within this ethical perspective one must understand Derrida’s expression of ‘the architecture of the event’ elaborated in l’architecture (1986). According to Derrida, architecture determines the human experience and existence on a concrete as well as on a symbolic level and, thus, the human relations. As a distribution and organization of the anthropic space, it has always been connected with the affirmation of a collective identity (of a city, a people or a Nation). This identity would have always affirmed itself against alterity in general and against the other as different, foreign, stranger and, eventually, enemy. Identity has always been distributed according to the discriminating opposition inside/outside, internal/external, to which architecture has given a concrete form in various ways. An architecture of the event should give place to the relation to the other – the event is what comes from outside and is unpredictable from within – which for Derrida is the irreducible condition of an identity that is not simply reactionary and violent.

From this perspective, the other is not simply the foreigner – today, one could say the immigrant – but also and above all anyone who comes after us and has already come, whose survival is given to our memory. Not only does our identity but also our own survival (in their biological and collective meaning) depend on the other. In two papers of 1991, which are dedicated respectively to the reconstruction of Prague (Générations d’une ville: mémoire, prophétie, responsabilité) and to that of Berlin after the fall of the wall (Berlin Stadtforum), Derrida insists on the interpretation of the city as the place of collective identity but also of the relation to the other. The task of architecture consists in keeping open and lively the dialectics between those two moments as well as among the present where it intervenes, the past on which it engraves and, above all, the future (the tocome). The architecture to come must give place to the other, take the other into account in this double movement. Derrida develops this task in explicitly ethical terms, since he determines it as the principle of responsibility to which the architect is called to respond before the other: the other to whom his project is addressed, but also the other that is no longer there or is not there yet and, therefore, is absolutely passive before the decisions of the architect, the other with respect to whom the ethical injunction is even stricter. In this context Derrida affirms that the ethics of responsibility must constitute the fundamental discipline to be taught to the future generations of architects.”

Francesco Vitale, University of Salerno, IT

One Response to “The Ethics of Space: Jaques Derrida and the architecture to come.”

  1. chenxu says:

    Some foolish people even expect that was invented by the Chinese.

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And Now for Something Different-Ethics and Morality in the World of Games

May 6th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Social Media

In the world of Cyber/Computer games participants are “asked to answer some ethical multi-choice questions in a gypsy’s caravan. The answers affected your starting class, and in the rest of the game you were vaguely encouraged to be virtuous by the game mechanics. It was interesting and different at the time, and felt as though you were really generating a personality … or at least a few traits.”Read more here.

One Response to “And Now for Something Different-Ethics and Morality in the World of Games”

  1. I have to say, your blog needs to be one of the best written blogs that I have learn in a protracted time. Many thanks for making the sincere effort to explain this.

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The Real “Happy Marriage” Between the GC and the Compliance Officer” By Donna Boehme

May 2nd, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business Ethics

“Hello, Ben. In 2009, when you and I sat together on a panel for the PBS documentary In Search of the Good Corporate Citizen, I recall your statement that there really wasn’t a need for a chief compliance officer, because the general counsel and chief financial officer could “split” that role. I remember countering with, “The last time I looked, the GC was a full-time job.”Read the full exchange here.

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An International Look at Ethics Education Across Professions

April 24th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Ethical Development, Ethics training

“This program gives us opportunity to learn from each other and to be mindful of the professional values we share in teaching and through our example,” said ten Have, who also serves as secretary of the international organization. “Ethics provide the foundation for how we conduct ourselves, and this conference offers a chance for us to reflect upon exactly how we do so.”

Over two days, attendees can choose from 125 presentations, including those focused on bioethics as well as business, clinical, medical, religious, pharmacy, biological sciences, law, education, biotechnology, nursing and philosophical ethics.”

One Response to “An International Look at Ethics Education Across Professions”

  1. Tony says:

    Thanks a lot for the post, very useful information.

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Ethics in the ER: Ottawa emergency makes room for bigger questions

April 23rd, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development, Public Sector/Government

Read about a fledgling project, seemingly unprecedented in North America, to routinely involve ethics professionals in the moral conundrums of the emergency ward, health care’s most hectic, time-crunched environment.

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Who Will Be the Business Ethics Winners and Losers at the London Olympics?

April 21st, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in CSR

“Corporate involvement in the Olympic Games continues to expand in size and significance. This year, the 2012 London Olympics will boast sponsorship on hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate sponsorship and tie-ins. But as the corporate money flooding into the Games increases, so too do the attendant ethical risks. For all the advantages of being associated with one of the world’s greatest and most watched sporting events, it also puts you at the mercy of activists and other critics ready to use the Games’ huge pulling power to target big brands. Adidas, BP, Dow Chemical, McDonald’s and Rio Tinto are all currently in the firing line regarding their involvement in the London Games.”Read more.

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A PR Professional’s Code Of Ethics

April 21st, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Codes

“I was reminded recently that there’s a reason that PR people (and I count myself as one) are sometimes lumped with manipulators of the truth. That’s because a few misguided players can confuse the role of PR.PR used correctly, is rooted in transparency, not duplicity. PRSA, the largest US public relations professional organization, has a code of ethics for PR professionals that speaks to the heart of it.”

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Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It.

April 20th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in CSR

The authors argue for a strategic and pragmatic, rather than ideological, approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). They assert that, despite criticisms of and debate about the value of CSR initiatives to society and to corporate profitability every company needs a CSR strategy.
“Executive Summary:

Despite certain criticisms, more and more companies in the world practice some form of corporate social responsibility. This paper offers a pragmatic alternative framework for CSR with a view towards developing its practice in an evolutionary way. The authors’ extensive experience working with CSR practitioners convinces them that exhorting companies to hone their CSR practice under a shared value framework does not reflect the reality for a majority of businesses. CSR executives oversee a variety of social initiatives that may or may not directly contribute to a company’s business goals. The role of an executive is to achieve the difficult task of reconciling the various programs, quantifying their benefits, or at least sketching a logical connection to the business, and securing the support of his or her business line counterparts. This role, when performed well, would lead to the development of a CSR strategy for the company. Key concepts include:

Ideally, well-managed CSR creates social and environmental value, while supporting a company’s business objectives and reducing operating costs, and enhancing relationships with key stakeholders and customers.
There is no one-size-fits-all CSR model. Individual companies typically engage in a variety of programs motivated by a wide range of perspectives and corporate protagonists.
In current practice, the management of philanthropic initiatives happens in what the authors label as Theatre 1; supply chain and cause marketing initiatives happen in Theatre 2; and transformative ecosystem initiatives occur in Theatre 3. These different initiatives are typically managed at different management levels, and some are staff functions and others line functions, resulting in a messy state of affairs. Gaining a unified vision is a central challenge of coordinating CSR efforts in all three theatres.
In addition to empowering CSR executives to practice strategic initiatives, strong leadership and support for CSR initiatives at the top levels of executive management is critical.
The strategic role of a Corporate Responsibility Officer needs to be established as an independent full-time position having access to the CEO and having input to the development of the company’s business strategy.”

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Peak Bureaucracy: Perhaps it’s time we considered alternatives

April 20th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Decision Making

An extract from a great piece by Nick Charney “The Atlantic published a great piece last week by Eric Garland entitled Peak Intel: How So-Called Strategic Intelligence Actually Makes Us Dumber, here’s a particularly powerful excerpt:

“Hierarchical organizations have a very different logic than smaller firms. In less consolidated industries, success and failure are largely the result of the decisions you make, so intelligence about the reality of the marketplace is critical. Life is different in gigantic organizations, where success and failure are almost impossible to attribute to individual decisions. Though a given conglomerate might have hundreds or thousands of “executives,” each is much more beholden to a complex culture of bosses. Even if people mean well, they’re living and dying by a system where the incentives are to seek advancement by pushing responsibility downward and pulling credit upwards. In large, slow-moving bureaucracies, conventional thinking and risk avoidance become paramount, irrespective of how many times a day people at that organization use the word “strategy” or “innovation.” It is far more preferable to fail conventionally than to make a daring but uncertain decision without the full backing of the entire organization. Because massive bureaucracies are so much more common than they were even a few years ago, decisions are simply not in vogue right now.”

While Garland, a (private sector) strategic intelligence analyst, is speaking mainly about large privately held companies the same could easily be said about public sector bureaucracies. In fact, it is probably one of the reasons why federal public servants in Australia prefer working in micro-agencies over larger departments. According to the Canberra Times, the recent Public Service Commission (of Australia) Survey found:

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Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals

April 20th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development

Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity — caring about the well-being of others seems like a very human trait. But Frans de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of these moral traits all of us share.

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Ethics for the Whole World-Ottawa April 28th 2012

April 18th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Democracy, Human Rights

The Canada Tibet Committee is hosting a historic Public Talk by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama on Saturday, 28 April at the Ottawa Civic Centre Arena. Doors open at 9:00 AM and the Public Talk will start at 10:00 AM.“Human rights, ethics, resource and opportunity equality are the most important issues we face today, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s consistent message of universal responsibility is key to our being able to survive global challenges and achieve a new vision of genuine peace and prosperity. I sincerely hope the Canadian people will continue their steadfast support for our Tibetan brothers and sisters, and take advantage of this very special opportunity to spend two hours with the Dalai Lama.”said Richard Gere the Emcee for the Talk. In both 2004 and 2007, the Dalai Lama spoke to two sold-out Ottawa Civic Centre crowds. This year’s event will examine how religion is not a necessity for pursuing a spiritual life and how “Ethics for a Whole World” proposes a system of secular ethics grounded in a deep appreciation of our common humanity. For more detailed information go here.

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The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase … What Exactly?

April 18th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business Ethics, CSR

Justin Fox is editorial director of the Harvard Business Review Group and author of The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street.In this blog he asked and answers the question.Do you agree with him?

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Should the Chief Compliance Officer report to the General Counsel?

April 18th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business Ethics

“To whom should a company’s chief compliance officer (CCO) report? It’s a question that has ignited some surprisingly heated discussion lately.”

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Moral Brain Conference Summary -,by George Dvorsky, Sentient Developments

April 8th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Ethical Development

The Moral Brain Conference was one of the most fascinating and provocative events I have ever attended.
I recently returned from New York where I attended the NYU 2012 Bioethics Conference: The Moral Brain organized by the NYU Center for Bioethics in collaboration with the Duke Kenan Institute for Ethics and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. The conference took a multi-disciplinal approach to the issue of morality as it pertains to cognitive function and the question of whether or not our moral sense could ever be enhanced at the biological level. The event brought together an impressive number of key thinkers and academic leaders, including neuroscientists, bioethicists, and philosophers. In fact, this conference featured one of the strongest itinerary of speakers I have seen in quite some time.” .”

One Response to “Moral Brain Conference Summary -,by George Dvorsky, Sentient Developments”

  1. erik says:

    Wow the moral brain conference is something that seems like I would be interested in attending. I’ve haven’t got the chance to go to it, but hopefully next time.

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On Whether the Job of an Ethicist Is Only to Theorize about Morality, Not to Be Moral

April 5th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development

“Professional ethicists tend to behave no better than non-ethicists. Ethicists sometimes react to my work by saying “My job is to theorize about ethics, not to live the moral life.” What should we make of this response?”Continue reading the discussion here and here.

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What is Empathy, and why is it important?

April 4th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development

Here an article from a great blog site, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, that answers the question.

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Why Won’t They Listen? ‘The Righteous Mind,’ by Jonathan Haidt

April 4th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Democracy

A comprehensive review of this important book from the New York Times

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New Hope

April 1st, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Democracy

New hope

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Moral Brain conference at New York University

March 31st, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development

The Moral Brain conference at New York University, is largely devoted to a review of the last ten years of research on the neuroscience of moral sentiments and decision-making, with talks by Paul Bloom among others. See a summary of the conference.

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Why Authenticity is hard;why it is essential?

March 29th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development

According to Nick Morgan,global thought leader on presentations and communication:

Authenticity is hard because it is hard to be open and honest about ourselves, warts and all.

Authenticity is hard because sometimes we want to hide our own less-than-perfect traits from ourselves.

Authenticity is hard because other people may seize on our weaknesses as proof of our unworthiness, rather than our humanity.

Authenticity is hard because we think what makes us human is our uniqueness, but it’s really our commonalities.

Authenticity is hard because we can lose track of our essence in daily compromises, accommodations, and dealings.

Authenticity is hard because most of us are growing into ourselves.

Authenticity is hard because we think it’s all about being, but it’s really all about doing.

Authenticity is essential because it’s the only way to do good work.

Authenticity is essential because our children need to learn it from us.

Authenticity is essential because without it there is no core.

Authenticity is essential because if we open up about our weaknesses other people won’t bother.

Authenticity is essential because it’s how we grow into ourselves

Authenticity is essential because otherwise we’ll compromise once too often and lose our way for good.

Authenticity is essential because life is too short for anything else.

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SNC-Lavalin’s murky affair shows need to tighten Canadian bribery law

March 29th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business Ethics, Corruption

According to the Globe and Mail,”The company’s status makes the murky affair they reported this week a black eye for Canadian business. Worse, the questions it raises – about whether money made it to the hands of a foreign official – underlines a weakness. Canada has a poor reputation for tackling bribery.”

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Another Ethical Breach-A “teaching moment for a Canadian Prime Minister

March 26th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Corruption, Democracy

“Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Industry Minister Christian Paradis have chosen to characterize the finding that the cabinet minister broke conflict of interest rules as a teaching moment”which according to the journalist who wrote this article“…raises the question of whether a federal cabinet minister should be expected to understand ethical issues such as conflict of interest – hardly rocket science – before he is appointed’!

One Response to “Another Ethical Breach-A “teaching moment for a Canadian Prime Minister”

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School ethics course is an opportunity to create peacemakers

March 26th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development, Ethics training

“In 2008, the Quebec Ministry of Education introduced an ethics and religious culture program to replace the moral and religious education curriculum that had been taught previously. The new course covers all major faiths found in Quebec culture, including the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths, and aboriginal world views.

Predictably, some people were upset. This change affects two of our most sensitive areas: our children and our beliefs. Some parents and schools took the government to court, but recently the Supreme Court of Canada pronounced that the new course “does not constitute indoctrination” and that there is no infringement on anyone’s religious rights or freedoms.”

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The First Seven Months of the SEC Dodd Frank Whistleblower Program

March 26th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business Ethics

A good friend of EthicScan Donna Boehme has wriiten a review of the program.As she notes”Now that the SEC has logged at least seven full months of the Dodd Frank whistleblower program, it’s worth taking a moment for a brief status check on what we have learned so far. To do that we might consider two available clues: a public comment from an SEC official and the fate of a GE whistleblower who is suing the company for retaliation.”To see Donna’s views on the general status of whistleblowing and the emerging issues I would suggest you read about that further here.

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New York Times Essay Contest-Calling All Carnivores Tell Us Why It’s Ethical to Eat Meat

March 25th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development

“So today we announce a nationwide contest for the omnivorous readers of The New York Times. We invite you to make the strongest possible case for this most basic of daily practices.
We have assembled a veritable murderer’s row of judges — some of the most influential thinkers to question or condemn the eating of meat: Peter Singer, Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Jonathan Safran Foer and Andrew Light. If you can make it past them, we’ll put your name in lights (or at least in print). So get thinking. And get writing. You have two weeks and 600 words in which to make sense of our species’ entire dietary history. Bon appétit! “

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The Integrity of the Game

March 22nd, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Business Ethics

“The penalties handed out by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to the coaches and executives of the New Orleans Saints organization for the bounty program practiced down on the bayou were perhaps the stiffest in the history of the game.If only those on Wall Street and in Washington overseeing our financial markets had the same principles.”From a posting by Larry Doyle.

One Response to “The Integrity of the Game”

  1. admin says:

    This has resonance not only for Wall Street and hockey, but many other sectors of society. They are all “games” that can do great harm when the “players” are encouraged or not discouraged from active harmful behabiour

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Photos of Attractive Female Job Seekers Stir Up HR Jealousy

March 22nd, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business Ethics

As Bradley J. Ruffle an associate professor of economics at Ben-Gurion University in Israel writes on the HBR Business Blog”You’d certainly stand out from the crowd, and with personal boundaries getting fuzzier and everyone’s pictures on Facebook anyway, what’s the harm of showing an employer what you look like?
The truth is, you could be hurting your chances as well as contributing to a bigger problem: allowing bias to creep into companies’ hiring processes.”

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Fostering a ‘culture of ethics’ within organizations: tips and challenges-a Twitter chat on March 27, at 1 pm EDT

March 20th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Social Media

Chris MacDonald is hosting a Twitter chat on March 27, at 1 pm EDT on behalf of EPAC. He hopes this will be the first in a series of such chats. Participation is open.
The topic: “Fostering a ‘culture of ethics’ within organizations: tips and challenges.”
The recent letter by former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith highlights the importance of organizational culture. In his letter, published in the New York times, Smith wrote:

“…culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients.”

This is a very high-profile example of the crucial role that culture plays in organizational ethics and organizational behaviour more generally.

During this EPAC Twitter Chat, he will discuss questions such as:

What do we mean when we use a term like “ethical organizational culture” or “culture of ethics”?
What are the key markers for determining the presence, or absence, of a culture of ethics?
Is a “culture of ethics” different from a culture that enables ethical behaviour?
What ‘tools’ does your organization use to manage culture?
What ‘tools’ have you found work best?
What can people with ethics/values roles at the middle of the organization do to help manage ‘tone at the top’?

To participate: please head to Twitter at 1 pm (Eastern) on the 27th, and use the hashtag #EPACchat.

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Business Ethics: Concepts, Cases, and Canadian Perspectives

March 20th, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Business Ethics

“This text draws on the expertise of many of Canada’s leading scholars of business ethics to provide lively and accessible coverage of the issues. Geared specifically to introductory Business Ethics courses, it offers an overview of basic concepts and key debates. Numerous case studies are featured throughout, along with thoughtful analysis of the issues by contributors.”

One Response to “Business Ethics: Concepts, Cases, and Canadian Perspectives”

  1. David Nitkin says:

    I look forward to seeing this forthcoming business ethics classroom resource.
    Two valuable existing ones in Canada are Hard Like Rain by Vince di Norcia, and Business and Professional Ethics by Len Brooks

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Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs

March 20th, 2012 by admin | 2 Comments | Filed in Business Ethics, Decision Making

When you reflect on the reasons Greg Smith chose to leave Goldman Sachs and place yourselves in his shoes,would you be inclined to make the same decision?Have you ever found yourself or know of other people who found themselves in similar circumstances?What were they?What decision did they take?What considerations factored into their decision to stay or leave?

2 Responses to “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs”

  1. Ken Krupat says:

    I have written an article about this from the perspective of Canadian employment law. The gist of my advice was that people have to think very carefully before sending around the scathing missive (or publishing one in a national newspaper) when leaving a place of employment.

    http://joblaw.ca/the-scathing-missive-and-canadian-employment-law-good-idea/

    That is not to say that legal considerations are the only considerations. Certainly, working in an ethically intolerable workplace is horrible and people may feel a duty to speak up about it and to try to take steps when leaving that will hopefully lead to a positive change.

    In doing so however, they should make sure that their allegations are true and supportable, even legally provable. They should also consider how this will affect their personal situation going forward, including the possibility of having to defend against legal action and the impact that this might have on career alternatives.

    In Greg Smith’s case, he may well have all kinds of opportunities, including book deals, speeches and public appearances to speak about the evils of wall street. However, far too often, many departing employees send around scathing emails or public letters that make things very difficult for them economically. And sometimes, these missives are written without careful thought and on the basis of very subjective feelings of alienation – without a supportable basis.

    That may not be the case in Greg Smith’s case – but it is something to carefully consider before following in his footsteps.

  2. NSteinberg says:

    Chris MacDonald wrote on this subject as follows:

    “By now everyone has heard that a guy named Greg Smith wrote a letter this week. Who is Greg Smith and why does anyone care? Why is Greg Smith’s letter getting attention from anyone who isn’t a Goldman Sachs employee, customer, or shareholder? Sure, he’s a mid-level executive at one of the world’s most powerful financial institutions. So he’s certainly not a nobody. And sure, Goldman, like other big financial institutions today, is seen by many as the corporate embodiment of evil, and so people are bound to be fascinated by an insider’s repudiation of the firm — especially accompanied, as it was, by a good dollop of juicy details. But there’s more to it than that, and the “more” here is instructive.

    I think the key to understanding why Smith’s letter caused such an uproar is the fact that Greg Smith’s letter taps into the deep, dark fear that every consumer has, namely the fear that, somewhere out there, someone who is supposed to be looking out for us is instead trying to screw us. Smith’s letter basically said that that is exactly what is going on at Goldman, these days: the employees charged with advising clients about an array of complex financial decisions are, according to Smith, generally more focused on making money than they are on serving clients.

    Now, first a couple of words about the letter. It goes without saying that we should take such a letter with a grain of salt. It’s just one man’s word, after all. Now that doesn’t make Smith’s account of the tone at Goldman implausible. He’s not the first to suggest that there’s something wonky at Goldman. It just means that we should balance his testimony against other evidence, including for example the kinds of large-scale surveys of Goldman employees that the company’s own response to Smith’s letter cites. Then again, such surveys are themselves highly imperfect devices. Either way: buyer beware.

    (Note: one group that must take this stuff seriously is Goldman’s Board of Directors. A loyal employee taking a risk like Smith has is not a good sign, and his story deserves to be investigated thoroughly by the Board.)

    OK, so let’s bracket the reliability of Smith’s account, and ask — if it accurately reflects the tone at Goldman — why that matters.

    It matters because of this awkward fact: in many cases, in business, all that stands between you the customer and getting ripped off is that amorphous something called “corporate culture.” Most of us are susceptible to being ripped off in all kinds of ways by the businesses we interact with. That’s true whether the business in question is my local coffee shop (is that coffee really Fair Trade?) or a financial institution trying to get me to invest in some new-fangled asset-backed security. My best hope in such cases is that the business in question fosters a culture within which employees are expected to tell me the truth and help me get the products I really want.

    Now culture is a notoriously hard thing to define, and harder still to manage. Culture is sometimes explained as “a shared set of practices” or “the way things are done” or “the glue that holds a company together.”

    Why does culture matter? It matters because, other things being equal, the people who work for a company won’t automatically feel inspired to spend their day doing things that benefit either the company or the company’s clients. People need to be convinced to provide loyal service. In part, such loyalty can be had through a combination of rewards and penalties and surveillance. Work hard, and you’ll earn a bonus. And, Treat our customers well, or your fired. And so on.

    But sticks and carrots will only get you so far. Far better if you can get employees to adopt the right behaviours voluntarily, to internalize a set of rules about loyal service and fair treatment. An employee who thinks that diligence and fair treatment just go with the turf is a lot more valuable than one who needs constantly to be cajoled. And, humans being the social animals that we are, getting employees to adopt and internalize a set of rules is a lot easier if you make it part of the ethos of a group of comrades. Once you’ve got the group ethos right, employees don’t act badly because, well, that’s just not the sort of thing we do around here! In the terminology used by economists and management theorists, culture helps solve ‘agency problems.’ Whatever it is that you want employees to be focusing their energies on, corporate culture is the key.

    Of course, there’s still the problem of what exactly employees should be focusing their energies on. Should they be taking direct aim at maximizing profit? Or should they be serving customers well, on the assumption that good service will result in profits in the long run? In any reasonably sane market — one without ‘TBTF‘ financial institutions — the latter strategy would be the way to go, practically every time. And that fact is precisely what makes large-scale commerce practical. Consumers enjoy an enormous amount of protection from everyday wrongdoing due to the simple fact that most businesses promote basic honesty and decency on the part of their employees.

    Unfortunately, it’s far from clear that Goldman operates in a sane market. So it is entirely plausible that the company could have allowed its corporate culture to drift away from seeing customers as partners in long-term value creation, toward seeing them as sources of short-term revenue. I don’t know whether Greg Smith’s tale is true, and representative of the culture at Goldman Sachs. But if it is, that means not just that Goldman isn’t serving its clients well. It means that Goldman embodies a set of values with the potential to undermine the market itself.

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Are Women Better Leaders than Men?

March 15th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Leadership

Do the findings published in this Harvard Business Review article surprise you or are they consistent with your own assumptions?

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On the Passing of Rush Kidder

March 12th, 2012 by NSteinberg | No Comments | Filed in Social Media

It is with great sadness I learned of his death today.Here is one of many tributes to Rush

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Ethics for the Whole World

March 12th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Democracy, Ethical Development

The Dalai Lama will speak in Ottawa on this subject in Ottawa Ontario on April 28th 2012.

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James D. Faubion, An Anthropology of Ethics.

March 5th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Social Media

Through an ambitious and critical revision of Michel Foucault’s investigation of ethics, James D. Faubion develops an original program of empirical inquiry into the ethical domain

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OECD Principles of Corporate Governance

March 3rd, 2012 by admin | 1 Comment | Filed in Business Ethics, CSR

The Principles were last updated in 2004. This booklet contains the text of the 2004 revision of the Principles. Download the different language versions in PDF file format:

One Response to “OECD Principles of Corporate Governance”

  1. I so agree, it\’s a shame for schools not to give focus on having students to learn about ethics. Every school should put this into focus.

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Lessons From the Mississauga Judicial Inquiry

February 27th, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Ethical Development, Ethics training, Social Media

EthicScan President, and Integrity Officer Webzine publisher, David Nitkin offers his opinion on the implications of Justice Cunningham’s Inquiry in the alleged conflict of interest actions of Mayor Hazel McCallion. David reviews the Commission of Inquiry findings, assesses the municipal governance situation in Ontario, and suggests a number of political and technological changes needed to help restore confidence and public trust in municipal government. See http://ethicscan.ca/blog/integrity/

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Quebec students must take ethics-religion course

February 17th, 2012 by admin | 7 Comments | Filed in Ethics training

The title of this article says it all.

7 Responses to “Quebec students must take ethics-religion course”

  1. nice pic. funny. mix of judiciary and education.

  2. Is this a good or bad thing?

    Many people in the UK lack ethics.

    It wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were introduced here.

  3. I didn’t first quite notice the picture, but when I read the first comment, boy I have no choice but to vote yours as the
    best news website on the Internet.

  4. Are they forced to take the course? Never heard of someone being forced to study ethics or religion. Something new for me then. Thanks

  5. I like this blog so much, saved to fav. “Respect for the fragility and importance of an individual life is still the mark of an educated man.” by Norman Cousins.

  6. Android Blog says:

    That’s not good that they’re being forced to study..!!

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Are MBA Programs Are Failing in Ethics?

February 9th, 2012 by admin | 3 Comments | Filed in Business Ethics, Ethical Development, Ethics training

Business schools do a poor job of teaching students business ethics. Pro or con?
Read the debate by guest columnists Michael Beer and Mary Gentile and watch the video with Bloomberg Businessweek.com reporter Joel Stonington

3 Responses to “Are MBA Programs Are Failing in Ethics?”

  1. I am a con! how come you can say that to the institute learnings and knowledge for the students? it depends on the students why they fail their subject and we shouldn\\\’t blame the institute.

  2. Job Hollars says:

    I am in between, I believe that students should study hard in learning what they need to learn. Professors should only act as facilitators, guiding students not spoon-feeding them information.

  3. I believe that MBA professors should act as mentors. It is the students duty to study and succeed.

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