Maintaining and Improving the Ethical Culture of a Business Organization

In business, and most other types of organizations, the job of maintaining the values of the company is not the responsibility of any one department or individual; everyone—officers and board, executives, managers, supervisors, and individual contributors—has a role in fostering ethical behavior.  Each is a role model to others and can encourage and motivate fellow employees to "do the right thing."

The Center's Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership, a group of business ethics scholars and executives with responsibility for ethics and compliance, has long been interested in how various functions in an organization contribute to the company's ethical culture. These materials capture the ongoing conversations in that group.

Videos

The Role of the Board: Michael Hackworth, Michael L. Hackworth, member and chair of numerous corporate boards
Part 1
Part 2

The CFO's Role: Jeff Kuhn, Managing Partner, FLG Partners

The Role of the Audit Committee: Robert Finocchio, audit committee chair, Echelon and Altera

The General Counsel's Role: Craig Nordland, former general counsel, Agilent Technologies

The Role of Internal Audit: Mark Orton, vice president for internal audit, Agilent

The Role of Internal Audit 2: Simon Lorne, vice chairman and chief legal officer, Millennium Management,

Articles

The CEO's Role: Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight Ridder; Russell Howard, CEO, Maxygen; and Keith Krach, former CEO, Ariba

The CEO's Role: Radha Basu, Chair and CEO, Support Staff; Ken Denman, CEO, Openwave Systems; Robert "Bo" Ewald, CEO, Silicon Graphics

The General Counsel's Role: Tom McCoy, executive vice president, Advanced Micro Devices;
Craig Nordlund, general counsel, Agilent Technologies; Martin Collins, general counsel, Novellus; Fred Gonzalez, general counsel, SonicWall