Archive for 2022

Mitigating Project Risks – The Under-Discovered Country

Not all organizations have significant project-based compliance and ethics risks. But not all organizations that do  have  such risks have implemented sufficient mitigation measures in this regard. The place to start is with a risk assessment, by which I mean: – An overall assessment of projects, i.e., what are the […]

Hiring ethical employees

In A Behavioural Economics Perspective on Compliance  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3929624  Sheheryar Banuri (of the University of East Anglia) “reviews the behavioural economics perspective on compliance with rules (broadly) and with whistle-blowing and antitrust compliance (more specifically) culminating in a series of recommendations for organizations seeking to improve employee compliance and detection of […]

Behavioral ethics: expanding notions of risk

In Behavioral Ethics Perspective on the Theory of Criminal Law & Punishment Hadar Dancig Rosenberg and Yuval Feldman of Bar-Ilan University identify ways in which behavioral ethics ideas and information can inform an understanding of risk. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4222232   While addressed to the realm of criminal law they are applicable to the […]

Ethics Slobs: the opposite of “ethics champions”

In a recent post I noted that “the various investigations into President Trump and members of his administration and others have focused attention on an age-old debate whether careless wrongdoing is as reprehensible as is the intentional sort.” The answer is, I believe, yes. I further noted that “I do […]

Ethics slobs

The various investigations into President Trump and members of his administration and others has focused attention on an  age-old debate: whether careless wrongdoing is as reprehensible as is  the intentional sort. The answer is Yes. I  do not have data on this.  But I do have  the wise observation of  […]

A very big day

Based on reporting over the past few days it appears to be reasonably likely (but certainly not certain) that Congress will pass and President Biden will soon sign a comprehensive climate change bill. If true, this would be truly great news. Saving the planet is indeed as good as news […]

Does your C&E program do this?

In his Devil’s Dictionary short story writer Ambrose Bierce defined ‘law suit” to mean: ‘A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.” I have always loved this definition, particularly, given that it was made more than a century ago. But does the […]

The Spirit of Liberty – and Ethics and Compliance

Learned Hand – considered by many to be the greatest of all US judges – once famously said:  “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”   This is a spirit which sadly seems as distant from us today as it ever has […]

The full promise of compliance and ethics programs

The full promise of compliance and ethics programs goes beyond the purely business realm to include nurturing habits of mind that address a wider range of challenges than just business-related ones (e.g. those concerning  family/personal life and governmental). Among other things, such habits of mind could include (but would not […]

Ethical standards for Caesar’s children

My most recent posting looks at COI issues that can arise when government officials use their office to benefit their spouses.   “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion,” the great man famously (and allegedly) said. But what about Caesar’s children? Children can, of course, be the source of potent COIs. There […]