Category: business ethics

Ethical Spying…Google Me Baby! (via Shanti-Janae)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

She’s absolutely right. Using Facebook to judge job applicants is wrong. And it is a foolish practice. The web is where we can be anything. A shy girl can be flamboyant. An unpopular guy can talk to dozens of people on the web and feel a confidence he doesn’t feel at school. Those images, those roles we play are just scenes in our lives. The significance is pretty variable.

I’m foolish enough to believe that good interviewing skills will pick up most problems in job applicants. I believe that these background checks: criminal, medical, credit and now social networking sites have gotten totally out of control. It is time for legal limits on these kinds of background checks.

And I believe that we should have some form of personal lives outside our work where our employer’s inquiring eye should not go.

I like what this web site had to say. I recommend you read it.

James Pilant

Topic of the Week #3 Social networking & the “ethical” spies!  I know my title and first sentence is off the meter, but I just hate this topic! Lately, college students have been warned that their Facebook and any other social media site profiles are being used as reason for them to not get hired. For one, I think that is very petty and unreliable. Not to mention shallow and a very easy way to cover-up discrimination. You might overlook the n … Read More

via Shanti-Janae

Academics on the Inside Job (via 21st Century Scholar)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Can academics (professors) be co-opted by the corporate grants and consultancies? Academia is for most professors not a lucrative field. Beginning salaries of less than thirty thousand dollars are not unknown. My understanding is that the field of economics is considered by some authorities to be the most corrupted.

This posting offers insight into academic corruption as reported in the documentary, Inside Job. I liked what he has to say.

James Pilant

by Bill Tierney “Inside Job” is a well-done documentary about the collapse of the financial industry.  The movie is akin to Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” in tone and style.  The movie is very serious and has little of the fun of a Michael Moore flick.  But the director and writers make a very difficult topic understandable to viewers who may not know their derivatives from their hedge funds. About two-thirds of the way through the movie, however … Read More

via 21st Century Scholar

Does China Force Companies To Move There?

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

In an earlier article I reported that a writer had said that the Chinese used threats to force companies to move to China. At that time, I said I would look into the charge.

I have looked into the charge. This is what I found out.

China will not let some companies do business in their market without moving operations to their country.

Companies that move there are subject to unexpected laws and at least in one case, the arrest of its agents until they signed over their Chinese assets to the Chinese partner.

They are forcing companies to register thier patents in China giving that country a great deal of technology that is patented in other countries, particularly the U.S.

They are forcing auto companies operating in China to consolidate  with other companies to form new companies up to a certain size or lose the right to do business in China.

Corruption in China may be as much as ten percent of the gross national product with bribes and shake downs a normal part of doing business.

China has used threats in its foreign policy to gain access to markets, to force countries to accept its goods and it make sure its dissidents are not supported.

China has been doing industrial espionage on a large-scale for years.

China has developed an enormous cyber warfare apparatus and has used it against other countries, essentially an act of war.

Based on what I have found, there is no direct evidence of China telling a company, “move here or else.”

James Pilant

Football Pain

On By southwerkIn business ethics

From a Salon article called

The NFL: An indictment of America

by Ethan Sherwood Strauss –

True fans possess an enormous capacity to live through their football heroes, but they retain an even greater capacity to do so without empathy. Just last week, Bears quarterback Jay Culter was all but put in stocks for leaving a game due to a torn MCL. Fans burned his jersey as though Cutler “quit” out of feminine frailty, as though this professional QB had concocted some elaborate, cowardly, fan-jobbing conspiracy. The public violently, irrationally demands that a player play, even with knee ligaments dangling. No wonder so many of these athletes gobble painkillers in a manner that would trump a toilet-bound Elvis.

I’ve spent my life wondering what people saw in football. NFL football, I get that. That’s entertainment. What I don’t get is college or high school football. There’s this strange story line that football builds character and teamwork. I imagine there is some development there – “playing fields of Eton” and the other charming and nonsensical tales of our culture. But for almost all colleges, football loses money all the time every year. In high school it is at best a distraction from the real purpose of school and worse, a money drain diverting resources from other programs.

But the author here is right. It is the pain. It is the harm the sport does to the players. And the fans. There is some strangeness there. Many years ago I was in high school and the NFL players went on strike. My fellow students deprived of their television pacifier were outraged. My father subscribed to Sports Illustrated and I read about the strike. I discovered that the average life span of an NFL player was 58 years and the injury rate was 100%. That’s a lot to give up so that people can be entertained.

The author continues –

At a certain point, we are — in part — defined by this tendency. That America endorses the NFL’s pain party starts to say something about the country. Such as: American culture is replete with couch-jockeys who feel more masculine for having watched other people destroy themseves. Or: American culture is fine with perpetuating a system of destruction, so long as a few, mostly poor people are involved. In many ways, our attitudes towards fetishized athletes mirror our attitudes towards those glorious troops whom we only support with platitudes. This is not good.

I agree.

James Pilant

Has PGE breached its duty of care? (via talklawblog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is an ethical weighing of PGE’s (Pacific Gas and Electric) actions in regard to its pipelines.

If you are interested in business ethics in connection with real events not just theory, this is a great article.

James Pilant

What is the role of regulation?  In the aftermath of the financial melt-down, the theorists who opined that less regulation would create free market expansion are witnessing the effects of Wall Street’s self-policing.  Similarly, with PG&E specifically and other energy companies generally, a permissive regulatory system has created the environment for the San Bruno explosion.  PGE is responsible for inspecting 48,580 miles of natural gas pipe … Read More

via talklawblog

Did The International Monetary Fund Push Tunisia Into Revolution? Yes.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The IMF played  an important role in the Tunisian Revolution

This is from the International Monetary Funds Survey Magazine, an article entitled –

Tunisia Weathers Crisis Well, But Unemployment Persists.

(September 10th, 2010)

Maintaining a stable macroeconomic environment that promotes employment and growth also requires determined expenditure control, the IMF assessment said. Key for success in this area is the reform of the social security system. To this end, the authorities are in discussion with social partners on pension reforms to buttress the pension system’s financial sustainability. The government should also explore ways to contain subsidies of food and fuel products, the report noted.

The authorities are also undertaking reforms to make the tax regime more business friendly. International comparisons with other emerging market economies show that the tax burden on businesses is relatively high in Tunisia and that there is scope to increase the yield from consumption taxes. To promote private investment and employment, the authorities intend to reduce tax rates on businesses and to offset those reductions by increasing the standard VAT rate and expanding the tax base through the elimination of exemptions, the report noted.

Tunisia’s growth-enhancing strategy also includes a package of measures to strengthen the financial sector through consolidating the financial strength of banks, enhancing the role of banks in the economy, restructuring the public banking system, and bolstering the presence of Tunisian banks abroad. The aim, ultimately, is to transform Tunisia into a banking services hub and a regional financial market.

To strengthen the country’s ability to adapt to changes in the global economic environment, the authorities also intend to modernize the monetary policy framework by introducing inflation targeting and to implement convertibility of the dinar and capital account liberalization by 2014. The IMF assessment said that this strategy would require significant preparatory work, particularly further strengthening of the banking system and deepening of the foreign exchange, money, and capital markets. The report also noted that the authorities would need to take additional steps to ensure increased reliance on interest rates as the operational target of monetary policy.

The IMF had been recommending an austerity regime for Tunisia for many years. Being an exceptionally corrupt and kleptocratically ruled nation, the pain of these kinds of “austerity” measures fell on the poor. In Tunisia, the poor is virtually everybody.

The IMF was pushing for a decline in government spending particularly in the areas of food and fuel in a poor population that could rarely afford either. Per capita income is a little over $6,000 but the population is divided into a very small oligarchy of immense wealth and a very large population of the poor. So, I would suspect that income among the average Tunisian was probably far less than half. So, they were recommending cuts in food and fuel in a population just hanging on to the edge, hardly able to make it from day to day.

It could be said that the IMF at all times stands for cuts in social welfare spending, business tax cuts, consumption tax increases (a form of sales tax),  bank consolidation, and declines in government spending. But there is no issue upon which the IMF is more devoted than inflation control. It crops up again and again in report after report. Inflation damages capital because it makes debts less valuable to creditors. Since while inflation can exist by itself, it is also a characteristic of growing and prosperous economies, that kind of economic growth must be avoided. What is wanted instead is stable economic growth with little or no wage pressure. This removes inflationary pressure and assures those loaning money of a full return on their investment.

There is another thread you pick up when you read IMF reports, a fascination with data. They always want more data. Better reporting they call it.

The numbers are everything. People are not.

James Pilant

The costs of suffering in silence about bad work situations (via Minding the Workplace)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

“Don’t cause any trouble.” “It won’t do any good.” “Nothing ever changes.” “You’ll just get fired.” “He’s the boss’ favorite, you’ll get canned.” The litany goes on.

It’s a cultural thing. We are supposed to be tough, supposed to be able to handle it, not be a sissy.

That is empowerment. Definite, hardcore, empowerment. It makes every bully, every wiseass put down artist – well nigh invincible.

If there is anything you should avoid, it’s making some two-bit bullies feel good about themselves.

The article below explains some of the downsides to not speaking out.

Yamada’s work is excellent. I recommend his work.

James Pilant

Let’s say you’re being bullied or harassed or otherwise mistreated at work. Or maybe you’ve just learned that you’re being horribly underpaid compared to the less-than-stellar fellow in the next office or cubicle. Anger and resentment are natural responses to these situations, but is there any outlet to express your emotions at work? Bottled up Many people — dare I say most people — will keep it bottled up inside them. After all, self-censorshi … Read More

via Minding the Workplace

“Attacking a brand is like attacking a person” (via The Business Ethics Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

“Attacking a brand is like attacking a person.”

So, we can expect Taco Bell to become depressed, suffer anxiety, and need sleeping pills to get rest. Then it will sit up at night staring into the darkness, thinking, “Just a few more sleeping pills and all the pain will go away.” And now, now that it’s too late, we’ll regret the unkind things we said about Taco Bell’s meat content?

Not likely.

I find the idea of corporate personhood difficult to take seriously and then this thing comes along. We are supposed to attribute human like qualities to a brand? What’s the logical end of this? If I drop a bottle of Taco Bell sauce in the supermarket floor, can I be tried for assault? Will it need victim counseling?

Unfortunately and bizarrely, this is a serious matter. The company is staking out a claim that a brand can be defamed in the same sense as a human being. It may be attempting to set up this as a defense but more likely an opportunity for countersuite or future law suits.

Product defamation.

In a world in which the Supreme Court has just discovered that corporate personhood means unlimited political contributions, the idea of “brand” personhood be far behind?

Have you seen one of those web sites entitled (insert company name) sucks.com. How often do you imagine coporate executives and their attorneys are trying to figure out someway to shut them down and then shut down all criticism as illegal or at least something you can sue about?

This all sounds ridiculous, but this is an opening salvo in a new kind of law. It may work. It may not. But I do not think it’s going away.

Please read Chris MacDonald’s more academically nuanced piece on the same subject.

James Pilant

Last week on my Food Ethics Blog, I posed the following question: Fast Food Beef: What Matters? At the heart of that blog posting is a lawsuit that has been filed against Taco Bell, alleging that… …Taco Bell’s “meat mixture”, which it dubs “seasoned beef” contained less than 35 % beef. If these figures are correct, the product would fail to meet minimum requirements, set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to be labeled as “beef”. The othe … Read More

via The Business Ethics Blog

Andrew Comments On My Post, Gasland – The Documentary

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Andrew Gates once again provides his usual intelligent commentary to one of my postings, in this case, Gasland – The Documentary.

These companies will DEFINITELY take advantage of land owners in a second if they can.

My paternal ancestors were coal miners from Kentucky. My great grandfather worked for the mining company for a very long time. When he retired, the company gave him a piece of land on one of the mountains (that they thought was worthless, of course) that they owned. That was sort of a tradition back in that time.

Anyways, about 10 years after he retired, another company comes to him and says that they found more coal on that mountain and that they wanted his permission to mine the coal from under his property. They offered him a fixed amount per month for the rights to mine.

My great grandfather, being a veteran of the mining industry, knew that the company would mine the coal as quickly as possible without regard to his property, so that they would only have to pay him a few thousand dollars for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of coal.

So my great grandfather told them that he would not give them rights to mine unless they paid him a fixed amount per ton of coal that was mined from his property. The company did NOT like those terms and tried everything in the book to get around it, but eventually they caved and accepted his terms. Because the company gave him so much grief about the terms of the mining deal, he also forced them to pay him a fee for every truck that went up and down HIS road to the mountain.

Its always a good story to tell to people who think that one man cant stand up to a large company.

I’m glad for the comment. There is no one in my family that has that kind of experience. (Pilants tend to be ministers, teachers and farmers although on rare occasions they may be found as Internet bloggers.)

Here’s another preview of Gasland:


Gasland – The Documentary

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

From the Huffington Post –

Josh Fox’s home sits in the woods of Milanville, Pennsylvania, near the rushing waters of the Delaware River. In May 2008, a strange letter appeared in his mailbox. A natural gas company was offering him $100,000 if he granted them permission to drill on his property.

Instead of signing, Fox decided to investigate. Armed with a video camera and a banjo, he set off on a journey up and down the Marcellus Shale, a massive reserve of natural gas that stretches 600 miles from Pennsylvania to Maryland, Virginia and into Tennessee. Known as the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas,” the shale contains billions of dollars in untapped fuel.

Fox wanted to know: What happened to other families who agreed to drilling on their property?

What he found was a heartbreaking collection of severely ill families whose aquifers had become so tainted by the gas, they could literally light their tap water on fire. He edited his footage into a modest documentary, Gasland, which was soon embraced by outraged viewers across the country. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the Lennon-Ono Peace Prize, and now has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

I was reading about the Academy Award nominations when I came across this film. I read up on it. I find it compelling, it’s a moving story about real people who lose the right to have clean water.

James Pilant