Ethics in Business…A Lost Art
While watching Face the Nation one Sunday earlier this year, Bob Schiffer discussed the airline industry, his mother and ethics in business. Like Bob, I think it is a sad commentary today, that we have to police businesses. Whatever happened to going into business to provide a needed service, being loyal to employees, and keeping promises.
It seems like no one today is concerned about doing good business or being ethical in the process. Our forefathers would be ashamed at what this society has come to. I know I am.
Ethics and Business and Government
So often we hear about dishonesty in ethics in business and government. We hear of Democratic Senators and Congressmen who will not listen to you unless you donate money to their campaigns and this goes for citizens and business people alike. It is no wonder that many business people fund political contributions.
It is also no wonder with such a system that Congressmen go beyond the call of duty of listening and intervene in business activity and help one business over another in the competitive market place. Indeed but really didn’t Adam Smith warn us of such? If you own a company and want to move ahead faster, just support your Senator or Congressman and have them call up an bureaucracy or Regulatory body to disrupt your competition. Sure this has been going on for 100s of years.
Cyberethics (Information System Ethics)
In order to examine ethical issues, it is first necessary to define ethics. Today, we regard ethics as a “rational process founded on certain principles.” However, I believe a definition that is more applicable to this project is the ethical theory that existed in ancient Greece. There, ethics was the study of what was good for both the individual and society. We will look at some online issues and how they may be good and/or bad for society. Cyberethics is quite simply the study of ethics on the Internet.
“Ethics begins when elements within a moral system conflict.”
Cyberethics is often called as Information System Ethics. Information System ethics can be defined as “The study of moral, legal, ethical issues involving the use of information and communication technologies“
There are many unique challenges we face in this age of information. They stem from the nature of information itself. Information is the means through which the mind expands and increases its capacity to achieve its goals, often as the result of an input from another mind. Thus, information forms the intellectual capital from which human beings craft their lives and secure dignity.
However, the building of intellectual capital is vulnerable in many ways. For example, people’s intellectual capital is impaired whenever they lose their personal information without being compensated for it, when they are precluded access to information which is of value to them, when they have revealed information they hold intimate, or when they find out that the information upon which their living depends is in error. The social contract among people in the information age must deal with these threats to human dignity. The ethical issues involved are many and varied in Information System Ethics.
Mind Your Own Damn Business Sexcess
You have certainly heard the expression “mind your own damn business” used in a multitude of contexts. The most typical being the don’t kiss and tell type statements, often uttered by responsibly private individuals about their love life.
Then there are the polar opposite, blabbermouth, tell all people (you know who you are) that just can’t keep their preverbal trap shut.
Hispanic Community Victims of Fraud
The Federal Trade Commission says that the Hispanic Community is being targeted by scam artists and are falling victim to fraud. In fact the FTC stated this in their report to congress to ask for more budget money for fiscal year 2007. The FTC is seeking an additional 13 million dollars to add to its war chest to further its ongoing endeavors. They stated in this official on the record report to the US Congress:
“A Consumer Fraud Survey released by FTC staff in FY 2004 found that Hispanic consumers are disproportionately victimized by fraud. In response, the FTC launched a Hispanic Law Enforcement and Outreach Initiative that has had immediate results. During Hispanic Heritage Month in October 2004, the FTC announced a series of law enforcement actions and a new consumer education campaign designed to address consumer fraud in the Hispanic community. Additional cases were announced in 2005 during the Hispanic Law Enforcement and Outreach Forums in Miami, FL, Phoenix, AZ, and Dallas, TX. The FTC’s Hispanic Initiative also includes a significant outreach component that disseminates consumer information in Spanish, provides consumer news to the Spanish language media, and builds partnerships with organizations, businesses, and leaders in the Hispanic community.”
Business Ethics Case Study; Unbelievable Government Credit Card Abuse
In business management classes across the country MBA students study business ethics. In fact, there are now MBA degrees available that are called Ethics MBAs. But in the real world how ethical is the business community? How ethical is our own government?
How many business travelers for their corporations charge personal items to their credit cards of their corporations? Corporations watch this very closely to make sure everyone follows the rules. Not everyone follows the rules and often there are people who go to extreme lengths to hide their misdeeds.
An Ethical Discussion with Lance Winslow
Have you ever been at work and noticed something highly unethical happen. Did it bother you to the point you almost quit? Well did you know that 38% of all Americans have had the same experience? A recent survey seems to indicate that we have an ethics problem in the United States and it is not just in Government or with cheating spouses. It is also prevalent in the Work Place as well. But if you do quit your job, well who is going to pay the bills?
It is amazing how easy in life it is to become ‘ethically unemployable’, but integrity is something that is becoming more and more scarce in our world. But you know what can you expect from a bunch of humans. The interesting thing about ethics is that it is so perception based. The person at your work who caused this ethical event that you are now thinking about since I brought it up? I bet they had some justification didn’t they?
Vice of Buggery at FTC
At the Federal Trade Commission we have seen attorneys who suffer from the vice of buggery get promoted to higher and more important international divisions. Now then, are these attorneys who have personal sexual problems and are breaking the laws of sodomy not wanted in the main group of Federal Trade Commission Employees? Is the FTC worried about sexual harassment laws? Are they worried about on-the-clock Men’s Restroom “Quickies” and the possibility of the need for an unflattering in-house employee investigation becoming public? Is the Federal Trade Commission afraid to fire these buggerists, for some employee unlawful termination suit? Is buggery so pervasive that the FTC has to invent new titles for these guys so they can be moved up in rank to other divisions? If so why doesn’t the FTC adopt a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy” to prevent special treatment of those who suffer from buggery? Can’t the FTC get psychological help for these men who thrust their penis up another man’s rectum? Obviously these human organs were not set up to do that. We know that the FTC continually screw with the natural order of competition and evolutionary progress of efficient competition and survival of the fittest businesses. But why are they now trying to modify humankind’s evolution?
If Sodomy is against the law, why is the FTC not doing backend checks of their employees; after all if they are breaking the laws behind closed doors at home or in the Men’s Restroom at the Federal Trade Commission, then obviously they do not care about our laws in this country. Several have threatened to move to Canada now that Homosexual Marriage has been legalized, yet to this day have not made good on their personal promises. Additionally an FTC attorney has access to information, secret courts, other agencies and abuse of power is ramped in that agency? In one case we studied an FTC attorney was put on an International Fraud Team, thus going to other nations to represent our nation. This of course is not a very good moral showing for the United States and could get serious if they are spreading their legs and spreading AIDS. If so the FTC is liable for whatever happens to those who contract the disease. Furthermore if a person of strong moral character is needed to curb international fraud, then why allow anyone who has the vice of buggery to represent this great nation or our Justice Department? Let’s face it there are employees in the Federal Trade Commission who need help and if this is the fine folks in government we are suppose to respect as a Free Nation and Free Men, then; well, we have not come very far in our mission to: Truth, Justice and the American Way. How can a man administer and monitor the laws, yet break them on their personal time. We deserve more. The FTC is full of employees who suffer from the vice of buggery. Think about it.
Five Essential Questions: Business Ethics
Ethics are the focus of much discussion and media coverage in the post-Enron and WorldCom scandal tainted world of business. Leadership, always an area of study for organizations of all types and sizes, is receiving even more attention as a result of corporate and other forms of corruption (such as the recent events with Tom Delay in Congress and the “K Street” lobbying investigations of Jack Abramoff and others in Washington, DC). But when it comes to ethics-based leadership, while there is a growing volume of literature there are few role models (at least those who are still living and breathing, rather than in the history books and biographies). Given these circumstances, where can one go for “real world” guidance when it comes to ethics-based leadership?
There are several key questions that leaders at all levels and in any type of organization – be it a large or small business, non-profit, government or the professions can ask oneself and others:
Just a Concept?
Several months back, a guy who authors a popular television technology website posted an article that referred to the fallacious 500-channel universe. As I have stated in some previous posts, there are no cable or satellite systems in the U.S. (that I know of) which will currently allow their customers to subscribe to 500 or more channels. Yet people, including the guy I am referring to, talk about the 500 channel universe as if it has been a reality for over 15 years.
Anyway, I emailed him and challenged his 500-channel assertion. He promptly and sarcastically replied back that everyone knows the reference to 500 channels is “just a concept.” Everyone but me, it seems.