Current factory inspections programs are flawed, with deliberate mis-labelling and corruption in factories in China, resulting in shoddy and unsafe products on shelves of retailers like WalMart, says a New York Times investigation story. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/business/global/superficial-visits-and-trickery-undermine-foreign-factory-inspections.html?pagewanted=all
Some observers concede that the Bangladesh government and local manufacturers have been lax on safety issues, but note the countervailing ethical conundrum: that boycotts or cutting of ties with the impoverished nation will only move the problem somewhere else and further drive Bangladesh into wrenching poverty. http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/2013/05/06/clothing-retailers/
CSR falls short in practice because it is still often a staff, not line, responsibility. As such there is over-emphasis on PR and the sponsorship of good deeds and an under-emphasis on issues integral to the business itself. There is also too much of a focus on compliance sign-offs on shiny codes of conduct and
A story that underscores why efficiency should never come at the expense of humanity.
Haidt, Jonathan, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (Pantheon; 2012) The full review, by David Nitkin at EthicScan, can be found in the Ethics in Integrity Webzine: At first glance a book on moral psychology would seem to be of limited interest to elected government officials, but first impressions
“On-the-job stress leading to sleepless nights and thoughts of quitting work MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — At a time when the public’s attention is focused on the need for greater corporate integrity, the majority of compliance and ethics professionals report that they often wake during the middle of the night with job-related worries and
“Canada needs to set ground rules for a new “moral contract” between ministers, public servants and Parliament because the existing rules are too weak to stop the partisan exploitation of the bureaucracy, says a former senior bureaucrat who helped write some of those rules.”
I suggest you read the transcript from this year’s Gordon Osbaldeston Lecture given by Allan Gregg Gregg’s thesis can be summed up as civil society (elected officials, public servants, and citizens) need to be more authentic.His lecture “On Authenticity: How the Truth can Restore Faith in Politics and Government” provides a perspective on the relationship
“Economists have been paying increasing attention to the role that culture plays in a firm’s overall performance. This paper focuses on how trust—a key cultural factor—affects firms’ decision-making process, size, and productivity. Research was conducted by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Rafaella Sadun of the Harvard Business School, and John Van Reenen of the London
A Forbes article considers the lessons to be learned from this sad episode