Capturing the lively discussions, presentations, and other events that make up the daily activities of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
The following postings have been filtered by category Business Ethics. clear filter
Ethics, the study of standards of behavior, is applied to the business world in this presentation by Markkula Ethics Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson. Hanson defines ethics by talking about what it is and what it is not.
Hanson was a pioneer in the business ethics field. He holds the John Courtney Murray S.J. University Professorship of Social Ethics at SCU and is the co-editor of a four-volume series, The Accountable Corporation.
When a Web site collects visitor information so that it can fulfill an order, the visitor understands why he or she is providing data; the company will need contact information to deliver the purchase. But a lot of data is being collected from Web site visitors without their knowledge, and it's being used to market products.
Scott Taylor,chief privacy officer for Hewlett-Packard, talked with Kirk Hanson, Center executive director, about how companies can steward data and provide meaningful choice for Web site visitors about how their data will be used.
Hear from an experienced panel that includes a senior SEC enforcement official; the former Chief Counsel of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and author of the leading treatise on executive and board compensation; the chair of a public company board’s compensation committee; a leading defense litigator; and a Center Executive-in-Residence Jim Balassone.
Center Executive-in-Residence Jim Balassone comments in the Wall Street Journal on a shareholder derivative suit filed against HP over the departure of CEO Mark Hurd. Balassone addressed governance issues for the company.
What ethical challenges do companies face when they do business abroad? Kirk Hanson, Center executive director, interviews Rob Weisberg, global ethics officer for Nokia Siemens Networks, on how to address corruption in the global context. They discuss the challenges of working with middlemen, and managing ethical or reputational risk.
"There is a form of capitalism that is actually virtuous." That, according to Jim O'Toole, Daniels Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics at University of Denver, is the idea behind "conscious capitalism." O'Toole discussed the elements of conscious capitalism with Center Executive Director Kirk Hanson following a presentation to the Center's Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership.
The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics features Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, in its Masters Seminars in Business Ethics. The Institute was established in 2004 as a partnership with the University of Virginia to encourage business and academics to embed ethics into everyday business decision-making.
The National Association of Corporate Directors, Silicon Valley partnered with the Center this June on a panel presentation on the role of corporate boards in assessing, maintaining and even improving the corporation’s ethical culture? Cirrus Logic chair and chair of the Center's Advisory Board Michael Hackworth followed up the presentation with an interview with Center Executive-in-Residence Jim Balassone. Hackworth discusses the importance of tone at the top, and encourages board members always to ask the question, "Is it Ethical?"
Stephan Rothlin, SJ, secretary general of the Center for International Business Ethics in Beijing, gives a qualified yes to the question, "Can a Western company use its existing business ethics code in China?" Talking with Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson, Rothlin talks about how codes need to be adapted for the Chinese environment.
Kirk Hanson, Center executive director, reviews cases that defne" why business ethics and corporate responsibility need to be a constant concern" in an article that appeared in Entrepreneur's Foundation newsletter.
Focusing on BP and the oil spill, Hanson suggests four lessons from the crisis:
1) Corporations must invest adequately in safety.
2) Corporations must take very low probability/very big impact events more seriously.
3) The management of incentives and rewards is central to any control system. Companies cannot preach safety but reward only cost cutting.
4) Companies entering into partnerships must be clear about who is responsible for safety.
