The Ethics of Compartmentalization and the Undoing of Rep. Anthony Weiner
The Week in Ethics
The Ethics of Compartmentalization and the Undoing of Rep. Anthony Weiner
The resignation June 16, 2011 of former Rep. Anthony D. Weiner (D-NY) sounded more like a political stump speech than an understanding of what happens when a leader loses trust. He commented that “the middle class story of New York is my story,” and expressed appreciation to his parents “who instilled values that have carried […]
read more »Memorial Day: Veterans, Natural Disaster Victims, and Massey’s Victims
Memorial Day in the United States honors those we have lost, who have fought for their country – and whether they died in battle or decades later – we honor their service. I think of the flag moving in the breeze beside my dad’s grave, and those of millions of other men and women. But, […]
read more »Ethical Leadership and How it Mitigates Risk
Problems are inevitable. Crises aren’t. The best way to prevent problems from escalating into a crisis? Ethical Leadership; it is one of the most effective risk mitigation strategies. Ethical leadership draws on a high level of emotional intelligence (EQ) and the capacity to own an organization’s values as well as one’s own, linking the means […]
read more »Deutsche Bank Sued as a Slumlord
Deutsche, was sued this week by the City of Los Angeles who called the world’s fourth largest bank one of the city’s largest slumlords. Deutsche foreclosed on more than 2,000 properties throughout Los Angeles in a four-year period; the suit alleges that many tenants were evicted illegally, water and power shut off, and the bank […]
read more »The Ethics of Being Wrong: Ghosn, Greenspan, and Dodger Owners
A recent short video of a TED conference presentation by Kathryn Schulz talked about being wrong. Schulz, who wrote Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, said at TED that we hate to be wrong; we do all we can to avoid thinking about our being wrong. We think that getting something wrong means […]
read more »The Ethics of Willful Blindness
Corporate meltdowns, says Princeton psychologist John Darley, require thousands of people all failing to see the moral implications of their work. “You become blind…to yourself…to your better self.” As long as everything is framed as an economic argument, we don’t have to confront the moral and social effects of our decisions, according to Stanford psychologist […]
read more »Alexandra Wallace, UCLA, and the Ethics of “American Manners”
Social media has the capacity to hold us accountable globally in seconds for our biases, poor judgment, racist comments, and stereotypic generalities; the consequences of which can change lives as dramatically as plowing through a crowded sidewalk in a speeding Ford F-150 truck. But once racism is thrust out of the closet in such a […]
read more »American Apparel and the Ethics of a Sexually Charged Workplace
Update October 1,2014: American Apparel has appointed a new interim CEO and CFO with turnaround and restructuring expertise in specialty retail. Update July 26, 2014: American Apparel appointed a new board without Dov Charney on it. He was ousted last month as CEO, see “American Apparel: Sex, Power and Terrible Corporate Governance.” Update: On March […]
read more »BYU’s Brandon Davies and the Ethics of Playing Through a Mistake
This week the dismissal of sophomore Brandon Davies from the third ranking college basketball team in the nation – Brigham Young University’s Cougars – for admitting he violated BYU’s honor code prohibiting premarital sex raises important questions about how we reconcile ourselves to living with high standards. While a study released yesterday by the National […]
read more »Dimitrios Biller and Toyota
When Dimitrios Biller, former National Managing Counsel of Toyota’s National Rollover Program, filed a lawsuit against Toyota in July 2009, he positioned himself as a whistleblower. Among other things, he accused Toyota of withholding and destroying product safety information. However, three things didn’t add up then. If Biller believed Toyota had committed fraud, why did […]
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Gael O’Brien has worked as a speaker coach for TEDxNatick speakers for the past four years. She is fantastic! …. In every situation, Gael brings passion, compassion, and expertise as the speakers develop their talk content and delivery. She helps them find their story and give voice to it…. If you have the chance to work with Gael, take it!