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September, 2005

 

Company censures critical director Anchorage Daily News, September 29, 2005 By Paula Dobbyn
	David Masaak Leavitt, elected to the board last year as an independent candidate running on a reform platform, was recently sanctioned for publicly criticizing the company's dividend and executive compensation policies and for granting "an unauthorized media interview." Several experts in business ethics and corporate governance said public sanctions of board members are rare in U.S. corporations. "It's extremely seldom," said George Brenkert, professor of business ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "Certainly boards can be split but this is somewhat unusual." (Also appeared in Hibernia.)
Local businesses hand out comfort to Katrina's victims PilotOnline.com, September 18, 2005 By Georgina Stark
	Nine days ago, Steve Stein, owner of Virginia Beach-based Grand Furniture, joined 11 other local volunteers delivering more than 100 mattresses, furniture and donated food, baby items and cash to Hurricane Katrina victims in the Gulf Coast. “Lots of companies have become more strategic in their corporate giving, which means they’re thinking, 'How can we offer support in a way that makes sense to us and makes best use of our resources?’ ” said Andy Wicks, associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and co-director of its Olssen Center for Applied Ethics.
Blue Security Announces Initial Success of Do Not Intrude Registry; Nearly 30,000 Users Join Public Beta with Reports of More than 50-Percent Reductions in Spam Business Wire, September 14, 2005   Blue Security, Inc. announced today that in two months of operation, the public beta of its Do Not Intrude Registry has attracted nearly 30,000 users. Over 25 percent of members have reported a reduction of at least 50 percent of the amount of spam being received since joining the service. "Internet users have the ethical right to opt-out from receiving spam. Spammers have the ethical obligation to honor requests to opt out. Often, spammers ignore these requests. Blue Security provides an automated and ethical way for internet users to exercise this opt-out right," says Professor David Messick, Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and the Director of the Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship at the Kellogg School.
Bird flu antivirals – enough to go round? Ethical Corporation, September 5, 2005 By Matt Young   As the world’s health officials prepare for a pandemic of fatal bird flu, the Swiss drug giant Roche may have the most important ingredient of all: the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Roche is filling stockpile orders from 25 countries preparing for widespread H5N1 avian influenza, but the supply is relatively small for the number of people that might need treatment. “They need to be prepared to ramp up production,” says Patricia Werhane, professor of business ethics at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. She believes the company is not being “proactive or morally imaginative” and should show more social leadership on the issue.
Firms Weigh Charity Vs. Profit The Dallas Morning News, September 4, 2005 By Angela Shah
	When disaster strikes, corporate America is among the first to offer aid to victims and their families. In the coming weeks and months, as Hurricane Katrina's fallout is addressed, companies will face tension between wanting to do the right thing and needing to do right by shareholders. Employees and customers are important, too, said Patrick Murphy, co-director of the Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide at the University of Notre Dame. "If customers and potential customers have a more favorable view of the company because they went the extra mile, that benefits the company in the long term." (Also appeared in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Hibernia, Accenture News, and on WFAA-TV ABC 8 Dallas - Fort Worth.)
Social responsibility doesn't happen in isolation Manufacturing & Society: Partnering With Others, September 1, 2005 By John S. McClenahen
	The word culture is overused and overworked, especially in the context of companies. Yet corporate culture is a product of people, including a corporate culture that champions social responsibility. It depends upon partnering with others, within a company and with those outside. An initiative that deserves close watching is the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, a partnership launched in January 2004 and housed at the University of Virginia's Darden School in Charlottesville. Its announced mission is to pull together research and the practical to provide hands-on training to current and future business leaders. Its success will be measured by the extent to which CEOs and other leaders in manufacturing avail themselves of the training and make its lessons part of their companies' day-to-day operations.
Is it Unethical for Companies to Fight Unions? Business Ethics Online, September 2005
	It is not unethical for a company to oppose unionizing, which can be costly. It is, however, unethical for company representatives to break the law, to lie or mislead, to threaten or intimidate, or to retaliate before or after the fact. Whether any of this has happened in a particular case is often a judgment call, but ethical people do have to make judgment calls. Workers normally have a moral as well as a legal right to organize if and only if they wish to do so. A majority may fairly decide that everyone or no one in the shop will be a member of a union. An excellent strategy for a company wishing to keep workers from organizing is to treat them so fairly that they don't need a union. A pretty good -- though not always feasible -- strategy for workers frustrated in their attempts to organize is to look elsewhere for employment. -- Edwin M. Hartman, Professor and Director of the Prudential Business Ethics Center, Rutgers Business School; & Academic Advisor, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.

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