Capturing the lively discussions, presentations, and other events that make up the daily activities of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
The impact of health care reform on hospitals was the focus of a presentation by Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson to the 2012 Premier Governance Education Conference held Jan. 30 - Feb. 1 in Miami Beach.
Hanson focused on the ethical implications of reform for hospitals as business organizations. Among the considerations he addressed were:
Clear organizational ethics goals – ethical behavior toward all stakeholders; honest reporting; control unethical behavior
Concern for Conflicts of Interest
Greater responsibility for competence and integrity of staff and partners
Adequate policies and procedures to manage incentives to violate
Concern for understanding and adherence to ethical norms throughout organization
David Callahan, bestselling author of The Cheating Culture, gives a lecture for the Commonwealth Club Feb. 14, moderated by David DeCosse, campus ethics director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
Come hear how this epidemic of cheating threatens the level playing field so central to American democracy. The event, at 6 p.m., will be held at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, 595 Market Street, 2nd Floor. Tickets are $7 for students, $20 for standard admission.
“Ethics are a fundamental statement of who you are,” said Franklin “Pitch” Johnson, founding partner of Asset Management Company, at a talk Jan. 25, sponsored by the Ethics Center and the SCU Department of Accounting. Johnson, whose company has made over 250 venture investments during its more than 43 years of operation, spoke on “Ethics and Venture Capital: Reflections of a Silicon Valley Life.”
Johnson counseled an audience of business students, faculty, and members of the community not to separate personal and business standards but to bring honesty and transparency into the workplace. He especially focused on the need for accuracy in representations about investments made by venture funds. “Many people aren’t careful enough in helping investors understand the performance track record of the funds.”
He also stressed the need for honesty in presentations to funders made by start-up companies. “When we interview entrepreneurs we're looking for openness,” he said. “Many people don't want to tell you the downside, but [venture capitalists] have seen the same thing 25 times with different companies, and we may be able to help. It’s kind of a falsehood not to tell important things.”
The entrepreneur’s ethics count in the venture company’s decision whether or not to become involved in a venture. “We think a lot about that,” Johnson said. “If we see things that are misleading or dishonest, it’s a turn-off. We check a person out, look into their experience and standards of behavior. The character of the person is the first thing we ask about. If it’s not there, we don’t go any further.”
Johnson also described how ethics enters into his decisions about what companies to fund. He recounted an opportunity he had to invest in the Mustang Ranch, a brothel in Nevada, where prostitution is legal. “The fact that it’s legal doesn’t mean I want to invest in it,” he said.
Asked if he would invest in a company because it was doing something for the common good even if it wouldn’t make as much money, Johnson indicated that he sees that kind of outlay coming from his charitable foundation rather than his venture funds.
But he also expressed his interest in funding biotech companies, which can take longer to become profitable than other investments. “Everything in biotech is expensive,” he allowed, “but it’s a great feeling when you find a product that can help thousands of people. We don’t go into it for the good we do, but we’re very well aware of that potential. It’s not eleemosynary, but it’s very satisfying.”
Ironically, Johnson said, the worst ethical lapses in business tend to happen when times are good. “People come in without business plans. I wouldn’t say their pitches are dishonest, but they’re not rooted in reality. In good times, people tend to be less careful because no matter what you do, you make money.”
Venture firms then face the ethical dilemma of whether to go into deals without long-term plans because people are making money on them. “Do we owe this to our shareholders?” Johnson asked.
Asset Management, he said, has taken a “more conservative view,” funding such companies as Amgen, Applied Bio Systems, Applied Micro Circuits, Conductus, Hybritech, IDEC Pharmaceuticals, Octel, Qume, Red Brick Systems, Remedy, Sierra Semiconductor, Tandem Computer, Teradyne and Verity.
In a pre-Valentines Day look at love gone wrong, the Ethics Center is sponsoring a poetry slam featuring poems on relationships, Monday, Feb. 13, 9-11 p.m., in the Bronco at the SCU Benson Center.
Part of the Center's Big Q project, which focuses on everyday ethical issues for college students, the event will use the arts to explore how people treat each other.
In three video interviews with Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson, Myron Steele, chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, talks about critical issues in corporate governance, with particular emphasis on fiduciary duty.
Steele, who spoke at a recent meeting of the Center's Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership, traced the origin of the concept of fiduciary duty to common law, stretching back to Roman times. The Delaware court, which is a primary source of corporate law in America, recognizes three components of fiduciary duty, he said: the duty of loyalty, the duty of independence, and the duty of care.
Franklin "Pitch" Johnson, one of the founders of Silicon Valley and one its most highly respected venture capitalists, speaks tomorrow on ethics and venture capital, 3:30-5 p.m. in the Forbes Room, Lucas Hall on the Santa Clara University campus.
In an article today for the National Catholic Reporter, David DeCosse, director of campus ethics at the Center, explores the reaction of American Bishops to last week's decision by the Health and Human Services Department to require religiously-affiliated organizations to provide insurance for their employees that includes birth control:
On Friday, the Federal Department of Health and Human Services announced that religious institutions would have a year before they would be required to make contraception available at no cost to all female employees. In response, the Catholic Health Association both criticized the HHS statement and called for an 'effective national conversation on the appropriate conscience protections in our pluralistic country." Will the Church in the next year enter into such a conversation and possibly find solutions that balance the concerns of religious freedom with the respect for democratic equality? How this question is finally answered may well depend on what conceptual model of the Catholic conscience the Church brings to the table.
DeCosse analyzes that model with reference to Thomas Aquinas' definition of conscience as combining obedience to moral law and the exercise of practical reason.
Join us for "A Conversation With Craig Newmark," January 24, 6:30 p.m. in the Santa Clara University Benson Center, featuring the founder of craigslist, one of the 10 most visited sites on the Internet.
In early 2011 Newmark launched craigconnects, his initiative to link up everyone on the planet using the Internet to bear witness to good efforts and encourage the same behavior in others. Newmark is involved with a variety of community efforts and is particularly interested in organizations promoting public diplomacy, Middle East peace, and new forms of media such as participatory journalism.
Newmark's appearance is the second in this year's Tech Forum, co-sponsored by the Ethics Center, the High Tech Law Institute, and the Center for Science, Technology, and Society.
In a talk yesterday on the engagement of the Catholic conscience with American public life, Robert McElroy of the San Francisco Diocese reviewed three dimensions of conscience that, he argued, should frame our understanding about our role as citiznes:
The Motivational Level: McElroy urged his audience to examine what motivates them in their political lives, to determine whether tribalism or self-interest were at the heart of their motivation or whether they were striving to be an instrument for attaining the common good.
The Directive Level: McElroy identified key social teachings of the Church that should inform conscience, including:
The right to life and the dignity of the human person
The enhancement of family life
human rights
The option for the poor and the vulnerable
The dignity of work and the rights of workers
Solidarity
Caring for God's creation
The Deliberative Level: McElroy pointed out that these key aspects of Catholic social teaching "bisect American politics." Republicans, he said, tend to focus on the right to life and family values; Democrats are in sympathy with the option for the poor and the concern with the environment
To McElroy, voting is a moral act. It's not an endorsement of a candidate's entire platform; it's an assessment, using conscience, of what person will best advance the common good in the particular situation they face.
Conflicts of interest can arise when people holding public office also represent clients whose interests may be affected by government decisions. In a New York Times article on the subject, Center Senior Fellow in Government Ethics Judy Nadler commented, “You’re fooling yourself if you think you can wear those two hats and not have it influence the outcome.”
