I try to recommend no more than one site a day. Today, I make an exception. There is an intriguing web site I found called Ethical Houston. It deals with ethics, often business ethics, in the context of Christianity. I hold that business ethics as taught in the Protestant and Catholic faith are legitimate moral systems for making business decisions. I’m going to keep an eye on this site and see what happens.

James Pilant

  Last week we had our Food  For Thought luncheon meeting on ethics at Christ Church Cathedral.  Treebeard’s food is great and even though we didn’t have a big crowd, we had some great conversation on covenant and business ethics. (by the way you’re invited)  Bob Thurmond the program director of the Cathedral Justice Project was talking about how American business seems to have evolved to companies trying to make contracts so onerous that the bes … Read More

via Ethical Houston

I was telling one of my students on Friday how awful it is to write about business ethics. What’s wrong with it? It’s the sheer weight of the wrong doing. You get up in the morning and you scan any news channel and there is business ethical mis-conduct and a lot of it. It’s a daily sometimes hourly, evidence of an ethics catastrophe.

That’s exactly what we have, an ethics catastrophe, a disaster. How did we get here? Obviously there has been business crime in the past. From the Boeing bribery scandal of the mid-60’s to ITT’s offer to finance the Republican National Convention in 1972. But the scale, the continuous bombardment of wrong doing simply wasn’t there. But we have it now, a daily demoralizing drumbeat of ethical lapse.

The business world is trapped in a downward spiral of behavior. First, there is a relativistic view of ethics in which what is right or wrong is a point of view. There is also a similar view that is, that is if an action makes money, it must be good. Further, there is a tendency to think of morals and ethics as only a legal construct – if it’s not illegal, it’s okay to do it. Second, the ability to operate in nations all over the world has dissolved the ties of nationalism, patriotism and brotherhood that commonly tie individuals together in self interest. If you can’t do something legally in one country, you can look around and find a place that will let you do it.

There is no countervailing force. Even after a series of debacles in the financial industry that came a razor’s edge distance from collapsing the world economy, there is no soul searching. In fact, two years later, there is a common perception in the financial industry that there is no need to change anything, not regulations, not personnel, not business structures and definitely, not attitudes.

I, of course, cry out. But I’m pretty far out in the wilderness (way out). But you can rest assured, that the “malefactors of great wealth” are not reading this. (“Malefactors of great wealth” is Franklin Roosevelt’s name for the wall street barons.)

I’m proud that there are others who share my views. I write about them on this blog and on occasion exchange e-mails. It gives me a feeling of participating in a larger movement. I want you to be part of the movement to restore ethics and honor to the business sector.

James Pilant

I know that many of my readers are students. I don’t know of any way you can graduate from college without from time to time doing a presentation. Lee Andrew Hilyer, MLIS, M.Ed. has written a book about making presentations. This article contains two links to brief expositions of his ideas.

I looked at his stuff. It’s good. It’s easy to understand and use. (This is gold, guys! Most teachers do not know how to communicate. This guy is an exception.)

James Pilant

Good evening! My apologies for the lack of posts over the Spring and early Summer. I'm kicking things off with something new: a guest post! I give a number of short talks on the UH campus each year on presentation skills and I am always glad to hear "success stories," when students are able to take the rules and create successful and effective presentations. This guest post is from Mr. Harold Arnold, a student in the Bauer College of Business at … Read More

via Presentations for Librarians