156 Posts Found

If you’ve ever been part of a discussion on ethics, in school or elsewhere, chances are you didn’t spend much time talking about your feelings. It’s believed that to live ethically, we must engage our reason, which reins in the whims and follies of emotion. Ethics, then, is heavy on Spock and light on Sally Struthers. But what if unethical behavior is actually spurred, rather … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Ethics

J. Jacobs in her famous book Systems of Survival (1992) distinguishes between two ethical systems that she calls ‘moral syndromes’. The public domain is characterised by the guardian syndrome, the private domain by the commercial syndrome. The guardian syndrome involves values such as avoidance of trade and commerce, pursuit of discipline and loyalty, and respect for tradition and hierarchy. There is also a certain degree … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Erik-Hans Klijn, Geert R. Teisman | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Ethics

One of the root problems with business schools is that too many are infected with assumptions that reinforce and bring out the worst in human-beings. In particular, the logic and discipline of economics usually rules the roost at business schools.

Editor’s Note: The comments add as much or more value as the article itself.

Content: Article | Author: Robert I. Sutton | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subjects: Economics, Ethics

Aine Donovan discusses the responsibility of schools to teach ethics.

Editor’s Note: the main article isn’t that enlightening, but some of the numerous comments posted are.

Content: Article | Author: Aine Donovan | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subject: Ethics

MBA students need more than professed values. They need to know that the world is morally complex and morally dangerous. They need to know that bad deeds can come from good values. They need to know that valuing integrity enough to keep one’s hands off other people’s money is only the beginning, not the end of business ethics.

There are many ethical questions in business life … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James Hoopes | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subjects: Ethics, MBA Related

We’re incredibly good at telling ourselves stories, and these help us feel as if we are honest even when we act dishonestly.

Content: Quotation | Author: Dan Ariely | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Ethics, Integrity

Business literature is replete with stories of unethical behavior in executive suites and board rooms, yet everyone is potentially capable of falling into the same traps. With a little insight into the psychological traps that increase the probability that individuals will behave unethically, perhaps such behavior can be curbed. To date, the authors have delineated a total of 45 traps, including “Obedience to Authority,” “Need … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Paul Hersey EdD, Robert Hoyk PhD | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

In recovering from a crisis, ethical business practice and high performance aren’t opposed.

Content: Article | Author: Art Kleiner | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Ethics

British journalist Jeffreys (Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug) presents a compelling account of the comprehensive collaboration of Germany’s major chemical conglomerate with Adolf Hitler’s genocidal dictatorship. The fourth largest industrial concern in the world, IG Farben was a key element of German foreign policy. Its employees were well treated. Its scientists won Nobel prizes. Its administrators created an international network controlling the … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Diarmuid Jeffreys | Subjects: Ethics, History, Social Responsibility (ESG)

If your company quietly allows employees to break some rules with the tacit approval of management, that’s a moral gray zone. And your company is not alone. When rules are broken but privileges are not abused, such unspoken pacts between workers and management can allow both to achieve their respective goals of expressing professional identity and sustaining efforts in positive ways, says HBS professor Michel … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Martha Lagace, Michel J. Anteby | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

People routinely engage in dishonest acts without feeling guilty about their behavior. When and why does this occur? Across three studies, people justified their dishonest deeds through moral disengagement and exhibited motivated forgetting of information that might otherwise limit their dishonesty. Using hypothetical scenarios (Study 1) and real tasks involving the opportunity to cheat (Studies 2 and 3), we find that dishonest behavior increased moral … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Francesca Gino, Lisa Lixin Shu, Max H. Bazerman | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

Finance professors often get criticised by ethics professors because they tell their students that the goal of the firm is to maximise shareholder value. Financial scandals such as Enron, Tyco and others are regularly blamed on the excessive focus on shareholder value maximisation. Theo Vermaelen, Professor of Finance at INSEAD, says this critique is misplaced and reflects a lack of understanding of what we teach … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Theo Vermaelen | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Ethics, Finance

[Philip Zimbardo’s] observations belie the standard explanation offered by business leaders when people in their organizations are caught misbehaving: Hey, there are a few bad apples in any barrel. Zimbardo argues that, in fact, ethical problems in organizations originate with the “barrel makers” — the leaders who, wittingly or not, create and maintain the systems within which participants are encouraged to do wrong. Hence, instead … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James O’Toole | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

The originator of multiple intelligence theory prescribes a code of ethics for business.

Content: Article | Authors: Howard E. Gardner, Lawrence M. Fisher | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, People

For a personal ethics code to be effective and useful in terms of living a better life and making better decisions, it must pass a test of reciprocity. So if you adopt an ethic, you must be OK with everybody else having this same ethic.

Content: Quotation | Author: Clint Korver | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subject: Ethics

Ethical dilemmas such as selling scanners that can tell the sex of an unborn child or kerosene heaters without U.S.-required safety features were debated during a discussion on “Academic vs. Real World Ethics” led by Stanford Professor David Brady. View the full video.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: David Brady | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Ethics

Too often, workers are evaluated based on results rather than on the quality of the decision. Given that most consequential business decisions involve some uncertainty, the upshot is that organizations wind up rewarding luck rather than wisdom. From a rational decision-making perspective, people’s decisions should be evaluated based on the information the decision maker had available to him or her at the time, and not … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Don A. Moore, Francesca Gino, Max H. Bazerman | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

Profit is a legitimate goal; maximizing profit is not. If it does that, it simply ignores the legitimate claims of all those who do not possess the power to affect its profitability. This would be a breach of the moral principle.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Thorsten Busch, Ulrich Thielemann | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Ethics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

On what basis can we say that bribery is “wrong” or “unethical”? The immorality can be seen in the manner in which it is conducted. First, bribery is done in secret, not because it involves a trade secret, but because it is recognized as violating the explicit and implicit terms of a transaction. As such, bribery is a form of deception used to gain unfair … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Michael Hoffman, Robert E McNulty | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Ethics

Despite the rash of corporate scandals and the resulting rush to address the problem by adding more laws and regulations, seemingly little attention has been paid to how the nature (not the substance) of rules may or may not affect ethical decision-making. Drawing on work in the law, ethics, management, psychology, and other social sciences, this paper explores how several characteristics of rules may interfere … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Michael L. Michael | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subject: Ethics