The order is somewhat chronological - most recent at the top. As things age, I remove them if they no longer seem relevant. But some things at the bottom are still very interesting.
- Free Trade / Job Outsourcing
There are lots of "ethical" issues around free trade and off shore job sourcing, but not always in the direction assumed. Most economists think that free trade benefits both sides, even when lower wage jobs are moved to foreign countries. And providing jobs to create a middle class in these developing countries does not hurt the world economy at all - and we are part of the economy. There are certainly some dislocation and adjustment costs, which we do not deal with very well. If jobs move off shore to provide cheaper goods, we need to help the transition of the workers displaced, or we do not really benefit from the cheaper goods. It's like the free air and water that we used to believe in. Free trade is good, with some investment in the tranisition costs.
This is from Steven Landsbug, professor of Economics, in the New York Times.
You can find it online here:
2008.01.16 What to Expect When You're Free Trading.
Or I stored a PDF of it here:
Free Trade pdf.
- Privacy and Terrorism / Security
A recent article (like, today!) on Homeland Security's efforts at detecting terrorists raises some important ethical issues with respect to privacy. You can read this on the web here:
2008.01.14 Computerworld Big Brother Really Is Watching
Or I stored a PDF of it here:
2008.01.14 Computerworld Big Brother Really Is Watching PDF
This technology is a little bit out there, but clearly doable, and it could well move to the business world and the public domain. We already have video cameras virtually everywhere, and places like London have them on every street corner. If a crime happens there, the police can dial up the time and see what was going on.
This technology is progressing to the point where computers can detect lying, recognize faces, profile suspects, etc. How about a hiring interview with one of these cameras running? I know that my police friends would find it invaluable!
But as the editor points out in his comments in the same issue:
"The idea is to create a system that would analyze expressions, gestures and voice patterns, and monitor physiological characteristics such as heart and respiration rates, to basically get inside the person’s head. The aim is to determine whether the person is thinking things he shouldn’t be thinking.
That is the line that must never be crossed. Every human being needs and deserves the sanctuary and refuge of his own thoughts. Track his activity when necessary. Watch him if you must. But don’t mess with what he's thinking. Doing so is as unthinkable as it gets."
We value our privacy, but my sense is that we value our security even more. I think people will be willing to give up some of the privacy for greater security.
- Characteristics of Leaders
There was a very nice piece in The Financial Times on the qualities of leadership that business leaders might emulate - as found in Barack Obama. I thought it was insightful even for an ethics class - if you want people to be ethical, one thing they respond to well is a good leader - it's in the genes. The article can be found here:
Source:
FTimes 2008.01.10 Obama Has Lessons for Business
If that disappears, there is another version here:
2008.01.10 FTimes Obama Lessons For Business.pdf
I thought these items were of note in the article:
- A Skilled Speaker. This seems an essential skill in any leader. If you don't have it, best acquire it.
- Thoughtfulness. He always sounds like he has thought about things a lot - he radiates a sense of good judgment. I think there is only one way to get this - to sit and think a lot about issues and problems. To sound thoughtful, you have to be thoughtful. To have solid ethics, you have to spend some time developing them yourself. This tends to engender trust in a leader. Our genetics are tuned to follow a trusted leader.
- Selflessness. It's not about him, it's about a common cause. Respect for all hands, even competitors.
- He tells a good story. We are genetically tuned to love stories, and a good story carries a lot of weight - especially if it is a personal anecdote.
- He inspires. We are also tuned to want to be engaged in a noble cause - so raise our aspirations, don't lower them, don't frighten us into submission.
- China - International Trade
When we talk about off shore manufacturing, it always strikes me that we are talking more about economic issues than ethical ones. What exactly are the issues? Look at China for example.
- China's Growth and Development
There is no question that China has prospered in the last decade from all of the manufacturing that has moved there from many countries. Even though labor is inexpensive in Central America, a lot of the garment manufacturing has moved from there to China, and also to Vietnam.
- Chinese Labor Standards
At the same time, labor standards in China are way behind those in the West. Child labor, inhumane working conditions, dangerous working conditions are common problems.
2008.01.05 NY Times China Factories.pdf.
- Chinese Ethical Values
Finally, read this excellent piece by Fred Burton and Scott Stewart on the cultural differences that color how any Chinese would see an ethical issue. Companies that do business in China must consider these fundamental differences, or they are in for a world of trouble. It is pretty clear that the normal business relationship practices in China would be subject to legal penalities in most of the West. We can only wonder how they see our cultural values around this stuff.
2008.01.19 BusSpec Chinese Ethics.
- Ethics Survey Indicates Trend is Not Good
2008.01.05 Ethics Trend Bad. The Athens Banner-Herald comments on the 2007 Ethics survey, that the trend line is not good.
- "The percentage of employees who think their peers are not committed to ethics has risen from 25 percent in 2003 to 34 percent in 2005 and 39 percent in 2007."
- Three major areas show no progress has been made in minimizing misconduct: putting one's own interests above the organization's, lying and e-mail and Internet abuse.
- "In the 2007 study, a number of high-risk offenses occurred frequently and often were not reported. These offenses included Internet abuse, misreporting hours worked, lying to stakeholders, discrimination, safety violations, sexual harassment and improper hiring practices. Less frequent offenses included environmental violations, misuse of confidential information, alteration of documents and paying bribes."
- The number of formal ethics programs has increased, but the data indicates that they are not being successfully implemented.
- "One major element in most ethics programs is some type of hotline employees can report observed wrongdoing. However, the survey found that 42 percent of employees who witnessed misconduct did not report it.
More than half the employees who witnessed but did not report ethical misconduct said they didn't think the reporting would lead to corrective action. More than a third of the respondents said they feared retaliation for reporting. These findings suggest a disconnect of trust between manager's attempting to create such reporting outlets and employees who are reluctant to use them."
- Student Response to Posted Median Grades
2007.12.12 Business Week, Survey of Students Ethical Perception of Self and Cheating
This article starts with an experiment at Cornell, where they posted the median grades for each class on a public web site. Their hope was that students would seek out classes with lower median grades, because their A would be worth more in that class. The medians would also be listed in their permanent transcript. But, what happened was that the classes with higher medians became more in demand, especially among students with lower SAT scores. The "A" is more important than the learning, and more important than its relative value. Interesting.
I always found that in a work environment also. People would want an above average rating, even if it did not result in any additional money. It's part of the innate need that most of us have to be regarded positively by others.
My guess is that they were also trying to persuade the profs to raise their grading criteria, but they don't say that. In fact, it appears that many of the faculty are not even aware of the posted grades.
The second part of the article deals with student cheating and their perception of their ethical values. It turns out that people with self perceived higher ethical standards are the worst at cheating when it appears "justified" to them. People tend to positively regard their own behavior, and in general, need more effort focused on raising their ethical awareness.
-
2007.01.03 Inc.Com What Enron Didn't Teach Us
These are some more interesting comments on the recent survey of employees regarding ethics. Despite all the uproar from Enron and similar cases, the majority of employees continue to witness unethical behavior, and almost half do not report it.
-
2007.12.31 New Issues of the Journal of Business Ethics
I have been reading in this area for a while, but I was still surprised by the number and apparent depth of the articles that appear in this recent issue of this journal.
-
2007.12.27 Birmingham Ethics And Success
From the article: "According to research from the Institute of Business Ethics, companies with an ethics policy are more likely to be commercially successful." It would be nice if the correlation were a bit higher than "more likely", but it's a start.
-
2007.07.01 FTimes Copyright Fair Use
This is a nice piece on the pros and cons of Copyright and the Fair Use exception normally used by reviewers and educators. There is considerable debate about the exact interpretation of the statute. This might be relevant to our context, whether we are copying and distributing articles in class or just pointing to them on the Internet.
- Music Industry Sues for Making Copies of Purchased Songs for Personal Use
2007.12.30 Washington Post- Industry Suit For Copies of Purchased Songs.
While we are on the topic of copyright protection, it is generally known that copying songs without paying for them is illegal. The music industry has been suing individuals to make that point. In this case, they are pursuing a man who had 2,000 songs on his computer which he purchased legally. As the article notes, 70% of the general population does this. It's just handier than shuffling all of the CDs around, especially if you have an iPod.
In this article, it appears that the industry really is trying to reinterpret copyright law to make it illegal to make personal copies of CD's.
2008.01.03 Time Blog on Industry Suit.
- 2005.01.26 Doctors Mistakes
The interesting thing about this article is that although 80% of the doctors saw mistakes made that could jeopardize the health of a patient, only 10% said anything about it.
-
2002.12.23 Forbes Magazine "A Virtuous Cycle"
This is a little old now, but I thought it was a remarkable article when I read it, and you will find it well worth your time to read it also. The author contends that capitalism as a system has always been founded on trust, decency and honesty. It is a tradition that was handed down from the early Quakers who created the transcontinental trade between England and America. Capitalism just doesn't work if the parties are not trusting and basically honest. The cases of Enron and Tyco are destructive of trust in general, and undercut the entire economic system.