Tag: Ethics Sage

Steven Mintz Addresses the Issue of Workplace Bullying

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

Steven Mintz writing in his blog, Workplace Ethics Advice, has some things to say about bullying in the workplace. As an attorney I can tell you with authority that he knows his business

If you believe you are the target of a workplace bully, speak to the person doing the bullying. Similar to sexual harassment in the workplace, a topic of a previous blog, the first step with bullying is to make your feelings known that it is unwanted and unwelcome behavior. While you know it can negatively affect workplace performance, I recommend you not mention that to a supervisor because it might be held against you if the matter gets out of control and a workplace demotion or firing needs to be “justified.” While talking to other employees may seem to be a logical step, be careful who you choose to discuss the matter with as that person might be pressured by the bullier down the road to tell the latter’s side of the story. What should you do? Be sure to keep a log to record when each incident occurred; what was said or done in response to it; and your feelings on the matter. It is a good idea to give a copy of the log to a trusted advisor who can independently attest to the facts down the road if that becomes necessary. This is similar to the protective step I recommend for a whistle-blower, the topic of my next blog.

Steven Mintz

Steven Mintz has been blogging for quite some time. He works hard at it and is well informed. His blog posts are backed up by careful research and a well ordered writing style. I recommend you read his blogs, favorite the site and subscribe. He’s one of the best ethics bloggers on the web.

James Pilant

 

Ethics Roundup – July, 28th, 2011 The Heavy Hitters

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

CRISISJONES throws a spotlight on the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. I recommend you have a look at this one.

The invaluable Ethics Sage takes on the definition of reasonable and other aspects of our most lurid recent case. Big News – The Ethics Sage (Steven Mintz) is creating a brand new blog to go with his current. Go to his web site and read about it.

The “Debt Compromise” … Another Pass for the Rich and a Fleecing for Everyone Else. This is from Washington’s Blog.

Rogue Columnist burns up the paper with an acid commentary on American (Chinese) bridges. You should read this. This kind of passion harkens back to another age of American journalism.

Homophilosophicus posts on “Death by Misadventure.” This is some of the best web writing you are likely to see – the man is eloquent. My big complaint is that he has all this talent and I hardly ever see a new post on his blog. When God gives big, you are supposed to share.

 

 

 

KPMG Study Shows Company Bosses Increasingly Commit Fraud (vis Ethics Sage)

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

The invaluable Ethics Sage has a new article.

I, in particular, like this paragraph –

I find it astonishing that corporate fraud continues to increase and top management is leading the way. The increase in the FRP statistic seems to bear out the spread of the cancer that has been attacking the capitalistic system during the past 20 years or so. Remember the “Greed is Good” mantra in Wall Street? Well it’s instructive to look at the entire quote by Gordon Gekko: “The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated…The  point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the            essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the uoward surge of mankind.”

I won’t spoil the article by revealing more. But I promise you if you subscribe and favorite the Ethics Sage, you will have little cause for regret and many reasons to be pleased with your good judgment.

James Pilant

What’s Hot on the Web! (as far as I’m concerned)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Debt talks collapse, Republicans walk out over taxes

From CRISISJONES (who I hope considers me a friend)

 

NEXT – From American politics to the sublime world of philosophy – JP

Proving an Argument Is Logically Valid

From the web site Ethical Realism. This post is by James Grey.

 

Dark Side of Chinese Capitalism

Reverse Mergers, Improper Accounting, a Lack of Transparency and Poor Governance Threaten the Recent Success of Capitalism Chinese Style

From my associate, The Ethics Sage.  (You should subscribe!!)

 

Radioactive Dust From Japan Hit North America Days After Disaster … But Governments “Lied” About Meltdowns and Radiation

 I started warning the day after the Japanese earthquake that radiation from Fukushima could reach North America. See this, this and this.

Mainichi Daily reports today:

Radioactive materials spewed out from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant reached North America soon after the meltdown and were carried all the way to Europe, according to a simulation by university researchers.

The computer simulation by researchers at Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo, among other institutions, calculated dispersal of radioactive dust from the Fukushima plant beginning at 9 p.m. on March 14, when radiation levels around the plant spiked.

The team found that radioactive dust was likely caught by the jet stream and carried across the Pacific Ocean, its concentration dropping as it spread. According to the computer model, radioactive materials at a concentration just one-one hundred millionth of that found around the Fukushima plant hit the west coast of North America three days later, and reached the skies over much of Europe about a week later.

According to the research team, updrafts in a low-pressure system passing over the disaster-stricken Tohoku region on March 14-15 carried some of the radioactive dust that had collected about 1.5 kilometers above the plant to an altitude of about 5 kilometers. The jet stream then caught the dust and diffused it over the Pacific Ocean and beyond.
In the article above I am including the first part of a quite long and well written article. As I have written many times the crisis at the Fukushima plants does not stop no matter how little coverage it gets in the media of the United States.  James Pilant

This next article is from a writer who I very much admire. He writes from the web site: Rogue Columnist, A Pen Warmed Up In Hell. I like it. Please read it. James Pilant (P.S. If you are wondering why this is indented like the article above. It just is. WordPress offers me no button to fix it but it will let me indent it some more!)

Rules of engagement

Last night, I finished the late Alan Bullock’s magnificent book, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives. It’s a reminder that no matter how much one has studied a topic, he or she can have vast new landscapes opened by the best historians as tour-guides. The book was completed just as the Soviet empire that Stalin built was falling apart, and the moment was marked by the greatest hope. Yet Bullock also reminded us of the bloody paths that contingency can create, particularly when broad social, economic and cultural forces and destabilization (“history from below”) are harnessed by evil genius (“history from above”). The book ends with a deeply moving coda of promise. But that comes after a thousand pages examining the two greatest mass murderers in history; worse, men who could move nations to do their killing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Costs Of Corporate Crime

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism

Steven Mintz
Steven Mintz, the Ethics Sage, has a post on a subject dear to my heart, “How much damage does corporate crime do to the United States?” Each year in my ethics class I ask my students to estimate the damage and comment on it. He has filled out that damage estimate with some new information. I am very appreciative and next Fall my students are going to be reading this post.

Professor Mintz’s post is entitled, Business Fraud. Most of the first paragraph is below but I want you to go to his site and read the whole thing. This subject is a critical factor in whether or not we should do more about business ethics or not. If his figures (or mine) are in anyway correct, our nation is being crippled.

In my last blog I wrote about the ever-increasing cost to society of criminal fraud that targets investors. Fraud in business organizations also seems to be on the rise despite all efforts to reduce it following well-publicized accounting frauds at Enron and WorldCom. According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) in 2008, U.S. organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of annual revenues to fraud. Based on the projected U.S. Gross Domestic Product this percentage indicates a staggering estimate of losses around $994 billion among organizations, despite increased emphasis on anti-fraud controls and recent legislation to combat fraud. Also, the median dollar loss caused by fraud schemes was $175,000. More than one-quarter of the frauds involved losses of at least $1 million. …

The costs may be 994 billion dollars, 7 percent of annual revenues, lost to corporate fraud. That doesn’t include corporate crime like dumping pollutants, evading taxes, killing or maiming workers by evading safety regulations, etc.

Is that enough reason to put business ethics as a primary legal and economic concern in every governing body from the cities to the federal government?

James Pilant

The Ethics Sage Comments On The Post – Who Owns Your Mortgage? Or Anybody’s For That Matter!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Philosophy of Business

By the Ethics Sage –

Dan’s flow chart is both masterful and scary at the same time. It makes you wonder whether anyone really knows who owns a mortgage. When one party sells it to another as a securitized asset, it transfers the risk to that party. Given that the original holder of the mortgage no longer bears the risk of default, it can make unsupportable mortgages to undeserving parties and not worry about the probability of repayment. Multiply that by the number of times a mortgage is sold and you have a chaotic system that encourages bad behavior.



(The “Ethics Sage,” aka Steven Mintz, has been writing, speaking out, and blogging about a lack of ethics in business and society by attacking the decline of moral values in society, a vanishing work ethic, pursuit of self-interests mentality, and a tone at the top of organizations that tolerates and even encourages wrongdoing.

Dr. Mintz enjoys an international reputation for research, teaching, and speaking on ethics in business and accounting. He has published two textbooks and dozens of research papers on business and accounting ethics, and corporate governance. He teaches a course on accounting ethics at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.

Dr. Mintz is a widely sought out speaker at ethics, professional and academic meetings. He has presented at: The Board of Director and Corporate Governance Research Conference in Henley, England; Global Finance & Research Conference in London; The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Trinidad & Tobago; Association of Asian-Pacific Accountants in Bangkok, Thailand; and the Asian International Business Association in Shanghai, China.

Dr. Mintz has his own blog on ethics issues under the name of Ethics Sage. The website address is: http://www.ethicssage.com.)

Steven Mintz AKA Ethics Sage Comments On My Post – The Legacy Of An Inspirational Teacher Is Felt Throughout The Ages.

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Teaching

The post ended on an explanatory note about league tables. These are the English variation of our school rankings under No Child Left Behind (an abomination of a law). Steven Mintz begins his comment at that point.

I couldn’t agree more about “league tables.” Newsweek reported the best high schools in the U.S. in June 2010 and based its selections on how hard school staffs work to challenge students with advanced placement college-level courses and tests. Nowhere in the ranking is the fact that the best high schools are those that serve all of the students not just the very best among them. As a college professor I find it to be disturbing that so many students lack a strong work ethic and motivation to learn for learning sake. How do we measure whether a high school instills these values that are so important to success in college and to create the thirst for lifelong learning? We also should recognize that what a teacher should and does accomplish in the classroom may not be known for years. Perhaps Henry Adams said it best: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell, where his influence stops.”

The Ethics Sage (Steven Mintz) can be found here. I recommend his web site. It is on my blog roll.

(The Ethics Sage’s current post deals with Jeff Skilling (Enron) and his appeal which if successful could release him from prison.)

James Pilant