Ethics Articles

Creating an Ethical Culture

The New Digital Divide

In this brief video, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and innovator Kim Polese addresses the new digital divide--between those who have high-speed wired broadband access to the Internet in their homes, and those who don't.
Kim Polese

The Ethical Dilemma of BYOD

As people increasingly bring their own (mostly mobile) devices into the workplace, and use them for both personal and professional activities, new challenges arise--for the employees as well as their employers. Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of VMware, discusses some of the implications of BYOD for data security and personal privacy.
Pat Gelsiger

The Disconnect: Accountability and Consequences Online

A discussion of the breakdown among responsibility, accountability, and consequences in the online world, as demonstrated by some digital media coverage.
Stephen Luczo

Internet Access Is a Privilege

What would our lives be like if we no longer had access to the Internet? How much good would we lose? How much harm would we be spared? In this brief video, one of Apple's co-founders argues that Internet use is a privilege and considers ways to minimize some of the harms associated with it, while fully appreciating its benefits.
A. C. "Mike" Markkula Jr.

Protecting Privacy and Society

Consumer and business data is increasingly moving to the "cloud," and people are clamoring for protection of that data. However, "maximum privacy" is really anonymity, and some people use it as a shield for illegal and unethical behavior. How should cloud service providers deal with this dilemma?
Steve Bennett

Legitimate Role of Whistleblowers in an Organization

Video of a conversation with Hank Shea, former federal prosecutor and professor of law at St. Thomas University
Hank Shea

Investigation: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Against the background of financial scandals and the recent economic collapse, companies are under increasing scrutiny and are facing real risks in terms of regulatory action that can impair their ability to conduct business, according to Craig Martin, a partner at Morrison & Forester. Martin and Catherine Madrid, a partner at Ernst & Young, talk with Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson about the role of internal investigations as one of the affirmative steps companies can take to make sure they are in compliances with the law.
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

What is Business Ethics? A Video Introduction

Markkula Ethics Center Director covers basic concepts in business ethics
Kirk O. Hanson

Role And Responsibilities of Ethics and Compliance Officers

Differences between ethics and compliance and best practices for executives
Patrick Gnazzo and Kirk Hanson

Ethical Collapse: Signs and Cases in Point

The "Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse" in business organizations
Marianne Jennings and Kirk Hanson

Ethical Risk Assessment: Crisis-prone or Crisis-prepared

Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson and SCU Assistant Professor of Management Shawn Berman describe a risk-assessment tool.
Anne Federwisch

Sustaining Ernst & Young's Ethical Culture

Susan Sweet describes EYs process developing their Americas ethics program for more than 35,000 employees in North, Central and South America, Mexico, Israel, and Canada.
Anne Federwisch

Reconstituting the Ethical Culture at Hewlett Packard

Summary of a presentation by Hewlett-Packard Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Jon Hoak on steps the company took to renew their commitment to ethics after the pretexting scandal.
Miriam Schulman

Building a High Performance Team: Creating an Ethical Culture (ppt)

Founder and CEO of Ariba uses that company as a case study for defining key principles in building an organization
Keith Krach

General Counsel's Role in Building an Ethical Organization (video)

Retired Agilent Technologies General Counsel Nordlund talks with Center Director Kirk Hanson
Craig Nordlund

Role of the CFO in the Ethical Culture of an Organization

The CFO can become an ambassador for ethics throughout a corporation.
Miriam Schulman

Internal Audit, Partner in Ethics

Chief legal officer of Millennium Management discusses making internal audit an integral part of an organization's ethical culture
Kirk Hanson, Simon Lorne

Five Ways to Think Ethically

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson reviews five classic approaches to ethics: the greatest good; rights and duties; fairness; virtue; and the common good.
Kirk O. Hanson

Four Strategies for Managing Ethics

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson performs a comparative analysis of strategies companies use to manage ethics: relying on employee values, compliance, ethics exhortation, and managing values.
Kirk O. Hanson

Am I Responsible?

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson offers five tests for business people to determine whether, in any particular case, they are responsible for acting.
Kirk O. Hanson

Creating an Ethical Business Culture: The Role of the Board

Two introductory videos on what boards of directors must to to foster an ethical culture in their organizations
Michael L. Hackworth

What is Business Ethics?

An introduction to ethical concepts and how they can be applied in a business context.
Kirk O. Hanson

Board Governance and Culture Research Report

A PowerPoint presentation delivered at the April 6-7, 2005 Business and Organizational Partnership Meeting
Vail Leadership Institute

Character Mentoring

A PowerPoint presentation on character formation in a business context keywords, business ethics, character, role model
Dennis Moberg

Understanding Rule Bending

A PowerPoint presentation on the Devaluation of compliance in the DOD
Leslie Sekerka

Speaking Truth to Power: A White Paper

O'Toole, aresearch professor in the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California, explores how to encourage candor within organizations.
James O'Toole

Making the case that your program works (ppt)

The Editor of Ethikos magazine talks about what makes a credible ethics and compliance program
Joe Murphy, CCEP

Zimbardo's Theories Applied to Business

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo proposed 10 traps that organizations inadvertently create to ensnare good people in bad behavior.
Cameron Bilger

Giving Wise Advice

Results of an empirical study on wisdom and ethics
Dennis Moberg

Whistle Blowing: The Good, the Bad, and...

Michael Winston describes his experience as a whistle blower at Countrywide in an interview with Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson
Kirk Hanson

What Really Went Wrong With Enron? A Culture of Evil?

A panel of Santa Clara University Business Ethicists reflect on the reasons behind the Enron scandal.
Business Ethicists Panel

Link Between Moral and Market Values

Market value accounting and fraud.
William K. Black

Encouraging Internal Whistleblowing in Organizations

How can businesses encourage employees to report ethical lapses?
Lilanthi Ravishankar

Board's Role in Ensuring an Ethical Corporate Culture (video)

What role should the Board have in assessing, maintaining and even improving the corporations ethical culture? And exactly what is ethical culture? between ethical culture and performance?
Michael Hackworth

MBA Oath

Podcast discussion of the effort by MBA students to promote a pledge to create value ethically and responsibly
Center Emerging Issues Group

Business Ethics: Why Do Good People Do Bad Things?

Podcast of an interview with Center Executive-in-Residence Jim Balassone.

Ethics and the Middle Manager: Creating "Tone in The Middle"

Specific behaviors middle managers must demonstrate in order for lower level employees to understand that the organization is serious about ethics
Kirk O. Hanson

Roles and Responsibilities of the General Counsel in the Organization

Panel discussion among general counsels of large and small cap companies
Tom McCoy, Craig Nordlund, Martin Collins, Fred Go

Toward an Ethical Culture

Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson identifies characteristics of an ethical organization.
Anne Federwisch

Principles for Building an Ethical Organization

R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, offers five principles for executives.
Miriam Schulman

Speaking Truth to Power: The Role of the Executive

James O'Toole argues that great leaders encourage candor.
Jennifer Pittman

Assessing for Ethics

Dan Pracher, business development manager for Development Dimensions International, explores how to hire employees who mesh with the ethical culture of the organization.
Anne Federwisch

Incorporating Ethics into the Organization's Strategic Plan

Robert Finocchio, former CEO of Informix, offers prescriptions for making ethics part of strategy
Miriam Schulman

Ethical Challenges in Human Resources

A talk given to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership
James O'Toole

CEOs: Setting the Ethical Tone

The role of the CEO in setting a company's ethical culture was the focus of a panel at the April 6 meeting of the Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership, a program of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and 13 corporations.
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Ethics of Human Capital

What specific social responsibilities should businesses assume?
James O'Toole

Silicon Valley Executives Discuss Building an Ethical Organization

These comments are excerpts from presentations at the Ethics Center's third biennial global business Ethics Conference, "The Accountable Corporation," held February 18-19, 2005, on the Santa Clara University campus.
Ned Barnholt, Dan Warmenhoven

Culture Suggests Cheaters Do Prosper

Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson looks at the results of Americans' winner-take-all attitude.
Kirk O. Hanson

Confronting Unethical Conduct

Ethics for associations and nonprofit organizations.
Kirk O. Hanson

Employee Loyalty

A company founder talks about employee loyalty in boom times.
an interview with Cheryl Breetwor

Ethics and Company Folklore

One of the co-founders of Apple Computer talks about instilling ethics into company culture.
A.C.

When Good People Do Bad Things at Work

Rote behavior, distractions, and moral exclusion stymie ethical behavior on the job. Discusses Ford Pinto case.
Dennis J. Moberg

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

In desperate need of a tax break for his company, a CEO contemplates a questionable campaign contribution.
Leon Panetta & Paul Locatelli, S.J.

Nutritional Foods

A company confronts the possibility that its product is causing illness.
Kirk O. Hanson

How Trust is Achieved in Free Markets

A free-market approach to establishing reliability.
Daniel B. Klein

Good Start

How businesses can incorporate ethics from the start-up phase.
Kirk O. Hanson