Search Results for “bias”

Compliance & ethics officers in the realm of bias

Bias and conflicts of interest are, of course, related to each other;  but they also differ, in that the former can be based purely on thoughts (or feelings or beliefs) whereas the latter generally requires something truly tangible, such as an economic or familial relationship. Prior postings on bias – […]

Specialty bias

A recurring theme in Doonesbury during the presidency of George W. Bush was that whatever the challenge he was faced with the President would respond by cutting taxes for the wealthy. The reason was not nefarious, according to the comic strip. Cutting taxes was simply what he knew best how […]

How does your compliance and ethics program deal with “conformity bias”?

In his blog on the Ethics Unwrapped website published by the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business,  Prof. Robert Prentice reviews some important recent research on the behavioralist phenomenon of “conformity bias” – “the tendency of people to take their cues as to the proper way to think and […]

Cognitive Bias and the Need for “Behavioral Ethics and Compliance”

The Conflict of Interest Blog is focused not only on traditional COIs but also on what can be called “Conflicts’ Cousins” – other phenomena that, like COIs, can subvert sound ethical (and sometimes legal) decision making.  One of these – “moral hazard” – has been the subject of several posts to […]

A valuable behavioral ethics and compliance resource

The Institute of Business Ethics recently published Using Behavioural Ethics to improve your Ethics Programme, a Business Ethics Briefing. For those interested in “behavioral ethics and compliance” – a frequently addressed topic in this blog – the briefing is a must read. Among the suggestions made in this piece is: “Ethics needs to […]

Synergy – or conflict of interest?

“What used to be a conflict is now a synergy,” said then telecom securities analyst Jack Grubman in an economically frothier time. Conflict of interest aficionados will remember that that story didn’t end well – and not just for Grubman, but the larger industry of which he was a part. […]

Why avoiding conflicts of interest matters in the investment business

By Knut A. Rostad* Introduction. This commentary would never be written in most professional settings today. The reason: avoiding conflicts obviously matters. It’s self-evident. Yet, in many quarters in brokerage and investment advice, it’s not self-evident at all. Instead, in these quarters conflicts are deemed quite acceptable or even beneficial. […]

Join the Citizens’ Climate Lobby

An Op-Ed piece in the NY Times last month  began: One day, ideally in the not-too-distant future, when Congress finally passes major legislation to curb carbon emissions — to reduce the environmental and economic harm caused by climate change — Americans will owe a big thank you to the perseverance […]

Behavioral Ethics and Compliance Index – 2017 Edition

It is that time of year – time to update the Behavioral Ethics and Compliance Index.  As with past editions, I have linked each  post to only one index topic, but most of them are relevant to several topics. Also, in the coming month, Ethical Systems will be publishing an […]

A core value for our behavioral age

Groucho Marx famously said: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” When it comes to companies committing to follow key principles to guide their behavior – what are often called “core values” – there is clearly no shortage of options. Indeed, this posting on […]