Don’t give the fox the keys to the henhouse. Government oversight was spotty, at best, and that led to a situation where BP was allowed to override the good judgment of its own engineers. Enforce the rules we’ve enacted to protect our people and our planet.
This is a quote from Shel Horowitz at his web site, Principled Profit. He has a list of six gulf spill lessons. I like this one.
The web site, Engineering Business Ethics, offers a more technical perspective on the Gulf disaster. Good read.
Shel Horowitz at Principled Profit is on vacation until mid July. Hurry back, Shel!
Ethical Houston has a facebook page. Ethical Houston is a web site dealing with ethics from the Sojourners point of view. I want those of you with facebook pages to get to that site and “like” it. Good people and good sites need support. Let’s get our best effort out there!
Gael O’Brien writing in her blog, The Week in Ethics, discusses the concept of Conscious Capitalism. (Conscious Capitalism has its own web site.)
From her blog: Companies that practice conscious capitalism aspire to more than just turning profits; Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, the Container Store and Stonyfield Farms are examples of successful companies that have a higher purpose. Their definition of stakeholder reaches beyond those who benefit directly from the company, to larger social and environmental purposes affecting society.
Chris MacDonald praises a web site from South Africa and its discussion of ethic from a risk management standpoint. I have a reblog of that up on my site.
Lauren Bloom has a post wondering how often British Petroleum has lied.
Gael O’Brien on the website, The Week in Ethics, has another post about British Petroleum, in which she discusses the human toll using an an example the life of William Kruse. This is some fine writing. I’d give it a look if I were you.
David Gebler writing from the web site, Free Management Library, discusses safety and costs from an ethical standpoint. Here’s a nice quote from the article:
“However, as we have seen from the fallout from the Gulf Oil Spill, the recent mine accidents in West Virginia, as well as FAA intervention on airline safety issues, relying on government identification of safety issues may no longer be a viable fall back position for companies that have greater knowledge of the issue than the government.”
Shel Horowitz writing from his blog, Principled Profit, argues against the government guaranteeing loans to private companies to build nuclear power plants. He discusses the dangers of nuclear power plants. I am astonished at the hypocrisy of people who continuously shout “free market” to drown out alternative ideas thinking that the government guaranteeing loans to private industry is anything more than corporate hands in the public till. It’s a complete rejection of capitalism. If private industry and investors are unwilling to bear the risks of building nuclear power plants, should they be built?
I currently follow the postings on the following blogs:
Chris MacDonald – The Business Ethics Blog
Gael O’Brien The Week in Ethics
Jonathon Tasini Working Life
Karen Fraser Ethical Reputations
Julian Friedland Business Ethics Memo
Jeffrey Seglin The Right Thing
Jeffrey Pfeffer Rational Rants
Richard Eskow Night Light
Karl Stephan Engineering Ethics Blog
Shel Horowitz Principled Profit
David Gebler Blog: Business Ethics
Karl Stephan writing on his blog, Engineering Ethics Blog, discusses the flap over facebook and privacy. The article is far more philosophical than you world expect from an engineering blog. He refers to the phrase, digital suicide, which is so mind grabbing and delicious I can barely wait until Monday to try it out on the poor college freshman in Business Law I.
One of the editor’s picks on the web site, Ethical Corporation, is an opinion piece by Mallen Baker discussing BP recent shift to corporate villain.
Timothy Egan writing an opinion piece in the New York Times say that the “millennials” should save us. He might be right. As a 53 year old, I find my generation disappointing.
(I was going to link to an article by The Ethicist, Randy Cohen, but he chose to write about a woman who was 36 but wondered if maybe she should falsify her age on her online dating profile as 34, so you’re getting Timothy Egan.)
I just found a web site called Principled Profit, created by Shel Horowitz. His latest blog entry recommends the Department of Justice get ready for criminal investigation into the British Petroleum catastrophe. One of his subtitles is “award winning blogger.” I can’t claim that one. Maybe someday. (One of the guys who does good work in the Business Ethics field linked to me on his blog just a couple of days ago, so I am moving up in the world!)
Jonathon Tasini writing in his blog, Working Life, has some unkind things to say about Wal-Mart. (He is referring to a New York Times article.)
Loren Steffy of the Houston Chronicle discovers that the federal government’s Minerals Management Service sometimes means no when they say yes.
Chris MacDonald writing on his site, The Business Ethics Blog, has a new post up before I got finished with the last one. (I still have to read the attached paper, An Adversarial Ethic for Business or When Sun-Tzu met the Stakeholder, which he tells me is amazing so you better click on the link.) MacDonald’s new post deals with the issue of alternative medicine and is a “meta blog,” a compendium of the current blog and all previous related blogs. (You watch, one day I will have a meta-blog of my own!)
Jon Talton of the Seattle Times discusses a jobless recovery.
Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun discusses underfunded pensions in a video.
Rod Dreher of BeliefNet offers a simple but moving take on the crisis in the gulf.
The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports that state BP filling stations are starting to feel the discontent.
Sri Sri calls for spiritual values in corporate culture –
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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