workplace discrimination

One of the most important aspects to keep in mind during the assessment of crises, and the avoidance or minimization of their impact, is the immediate and ongoing impact on the organization's reputation. Decisionmakers can make choices that benefit all stakeholders (at a high cost, though) and often enhance the organizations reputational capital or shorten the period of diminishment.

Texaco's discrimination against black worders ended up costing a $300 million fine and lost respect.

Texaco's response included six steps including visits by senior exectuives to company locations to apologize to employees, expansion of its Diversity club, and a renewed emphasis on company core values. Offending employees were cut off. (Good!)

But why did Lundwall say if he could do it all over again, he would "slip quietly into the night with his benefits and let the system stay as screwed up as it is"? This is why we need to protect our whistleblowers.

Personal Dilemma

I shared a personal ethical dilemma with my class today.

If I had taken this class before the decision was made, I know I would have made a better choice, or gone about my actions in a way to protect the "stakeholders" involved.

I'm uncomfortable posting my specifics of my dilemma on the blog. It was hard enough to share it with my class. Especially since some people in the class probably know who the key players are.

The class really helped me understand different ways to approach the situation.

I felt a little ashamed as I unfolded the story before my peers.

Today was the best day in ethics class so far.

Discussed in class in response to 1986 Challenger explosion:

When you cannot guarantee safety, you shouldn't shift the burden of proof to prove unsafe conditions.

Yet

In court,
When you cannot prove your innocence you should not shift the burden of proof to prove your guilt.

However, NASA is such a huge organization with so many stakeholders that they must assume responsibility to create controls and policies to check for safety. It would be unethical not to. It would be negligent and irresponsible to ignore these protocols.

I believe an organization must hire good people -- good in both skills and ethics -- and implement controls that do not yield like employees might yield under pressure.

Whistleblowing

The "Persons of the Year" honored in 2002 by Time magazine (Dec. 30, 2002) are called whistleblowers. That issue of Time provides comprehensive coverage about those whistleblowers and the organizations they blew the whistle on: Sherron Watkins, Enron; Coleen Rowley, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom.

The fate that awaits whistleblowers is tough. They are unlikely to be called diligent CPAs, but rather "snitches." They will not likely be portrayed as "team players," but rather disgruntled employees. They often lose friends, lose careers, and endure significant personal stress. Some might argue that whistleblowers such as Sherron Watkins, of Enron, have benefited in lucrative speaking engagements and book deals, but Sherron Watkins' situation is atypical.

If CPA employees follow interpretation 102-4, there is a significant possibility that they will be labeled snitches for doing their jobs and will suffer as an employee. But if they choose to be silent, CPAs violate their consciences and the ethical standards of the accounting profession.

The AICPA has provided guidance to whistleblowers in the form of a decision tree. The decision tree is useful in that it gives guidance on what party to talk to next. But providing the current decision tree to a CPA who finds misrepresentations in financial statements is like handing a tourist a map of New York City and wishing him luck. A tourist needs more than a map; he needs practical advice on how to negotiate the city, and warnings of possible pitfalls. Likewise, CPAs need practical advice on how to negotiate the decision tree and how to be alert to the possible dangers, before they begin this monumental task. Their careers and personal lives are at stake.

By providing CPAs with guidance that properly balances their personal welfare with their professional responsibility, and working to change an unfair characterization of loyal employees as whistleblowers, the AICPA would promote fewer ethics violations and encourage more transparent reporting in financial statements.


FindArticles - Professional Responsibility and the Fate of Whistleblowers
CPA Journal, The, Apr 2006, by Gabbin, Alexander L,
Richardson, Robert C

Rededication of the Role of a Professional Accountant

The scandals have made clear that professional accountants owe their primary loyalty to the public. We work in a profession of real value where trust is particularly important. We are resonsile and able to discharge our duties to memers of the public propertly. If we're ont being fair, then the government will step in, and we will lose our ability to manage our affairs efficiently.

SOX. Costs and Benefits

How Much Did Sarbanes-Oxely Impact Markets?

Market Action Leading up to the Legislation's Debate and Passage (1/99-12/02)





Market's Performance Since Sarbanes Oxley (7/02-6/05)


Source:
How Much Is It Really Costing To Comply With Sarbanes-Oxley?
Carl Bialik
WSJ, June 16, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111885041027560378,00.html

Objectivity and Independence

What does it mean to be objective? Is it possible to be truly objective? Or is everything we see, do, or say affected by our values, beliefs, and our preferences for certain outcomes? When someone says, “I’m going to be totally objective …,” how many of you, like me, prepare for an expression of personal feelings, prejudice, or interpretation obviously (at least to us) meant to persuade us to the speaker’s subjective point of view?

We must protect the public first because doing so protects the reputation of our profession.

Whether working internally as an accountant or externally as an auditor, an individual’s most powerful potential incentive to be objective and independent, as well as the most powerful potential protector of such an individual when exercising objectivity and independence, is a strong profession. A strong profession, however, thrives only when membership in it outweighs the demands and rewards of current employment.

Integrity, Honesty, Wholeness

I thought about how integrity, honesty, and wholeness could be applied in my life.

-- respect the confidentiality and professionalism of the accounting industry by not blogging negative things about my future employer.

Integrity believes in wholeness, goodness, and excellence, and is willing to serve as a praiseworthy example for others.

Leadership experts Dr. Gay Hendricks and Dr. Kate Ludeman cite in their book The Corporate Mystic, "the mastery of integrity comes down to three things: being authentic with yourself, being authentic with others, and doing the things you have said you would do." (The Corporate Mystic: A Guidebook for Visionaries with their Feet on the Ground, 1996, Bantam Books)

CODES

So this is the Canadian Curlers' Association Code of Ethics

Curler’s Code of Ethics
> I will play the game with a spirit of good sportsmanship
> I will conduct myself in an honorable manner both on and off the ice.
> I will never knowingly break a rule, but if I do, I will divulge the breach.
> I will take no action that could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate or demean my opponents, teammates or officials.
> I will interpret the rules in an impartial manner, always keeping in mind that the purpose of the rules is to ensure that the game is played in an orderly and fair manner.
> I will humble accept any penalty that the governing body at any level of curling deems appropriate, if I am found in violation of the Code of Ethics or rules of the game.

Couldn't we substitute it for the AICPA (accounting) code?

Can you imagine this one > I will never knowingly break a rule, but if I do, I will divulge the breach.

Analysis schemas

Ethical investors are asking, Do Investee companies make a profit in excess of appropriate hurdle rates, and do they earn that profit in an ethical manner?

Usually, the maximization of profit in a longer than one-year time frame requiresharmonious relationships with most stakeholder groups and their interests.

Corporations are finding that in the past they have been legally and pragmatically accountable to shareholders, but they are also ecoming increasingly accountable to stakeholders (Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Media, Lenders, Creditors, Governments, Activists).

If I'm ever in a corporate situation where I have to decide if we spend money on pollution control, I'm going to do it. It's always a positive net benefit in the long-run. And no one can really criticize you for saving the environment. Decision is made.

Parable of the Sadhu

McCoy argues that the "lesson" of the sadhu lies in understanding how the "individual" ethics failed (both him and Stephan) in their response to the sadhu because they had no leader and no collective ethic to guide them in making a decision.

"Not every ethical dilemma has a right solution. Reasonable people often disagree; otherwise there would be no dilemma. In a business context, however, it is essential that managers agree on a process of dealing with dilemmas."

Questions to think about:

What are the pracdtical limits of moral imagination and vision?
Is there a collective or institutional ethic beyond the ethics of the individual?
At what level of effort or commitment can one discharge one's ethical responsibilities?

The lesson to be learned is a complex corporate situation, the individual requires and deserves the support of the group. If people cannot find such support from their organization, they don't know how to act. If such support is forthcoming, a person has a stake in the success of the group, and can add much to the process of establishing and maintaining a corporate culture. It is management's challenge to be sensitive to individual needs, to shape them, and to direct and focus them for the benefit of the group as a whole.

Martha Stewart

Did Martha Stewart do anything morally or ethically wrong?

Look at this opinion I found online

The bottom line is that insider trading is not wrong, actually, not if it doesn’t involve failure to perform one’s fiduciary duty or stealing information. If one learns of something from a friend or overhears a conversation or obtains the knowledge via a psychic, there is nothing wrong with making a profitable move that others hadn’t had the chance to make. Or, to quote the Wall Street Journal, "Presumably a scrap of paper could blow into your pocket and if it contained material nonpublic information, you could be charged with insider trading for acting on it."

I guess Martha was performing her fiduciary responsibility, and she didn't solicit the information from her close pals.

I'm so conflicted! It smells wrong, but she was passive in this! How was she to know how many other people were aware of the bad news? When does insider trading become outsider trading?

Overhead in class.

A good universal principle is "the golden rule", right? So do what you'd have others do unto you. or Don't do what you wouldn't have others do to you.

The year is 1942. You are a German citizen hiding Jews. You answer the knock on the door. The gestapo demands to know if you are hiding Jews. How do you answer?
"Yes. They're in the back," telling the truth?

This is where the Golden Rule doesn't really seem moral.


Kant's Categorical Imperative. Act as if the principle guiding your action were to become a universal law (i.e. tell the truth to the Gestapo because everyone should tell the truth).