Ethics in Hiring: How to Combat Personal Bias

Since a world in which employees are hired by impartial computer programs does not seem to be coming any time soon (despite the fact than many companies now rely on computer-administrated suitability and aptitude tests to streamline the hiring process), it seems as though people will still be handling the task of hiring other people to fill vacant jobs.  Unfortunately, this means that applicants are subject to the bias of whomever is conducting the interviews, which could mean that a lot of potentially suitable employees are getting pushed out of the running simply because of their gender, race, religion, or the fact that their hair is dyed blue (although this is not generally acceptable in most corporate settings).  So if you’re the one doing the hiring, how can you combat you’re natural inclination to judge a book by its cover?  Simple: learn to recognize when you’re engaging in such behavior. Read more

Should Businesses Take Responsibility for Employee Morale?

When you think about it, businesses have only one responsibility to employees: to pay them for their work.  On the flip side, the only responsibility of employees is to do the job they’re paid for.  Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way.  Often, people take on various roles that are not covered under the rubric of their job title (especially with layoffs becoming standard practice since the recession started).  Employees are asked to work overtime, to take on projects that aren’t their responsibility, and to make decisions that are above their pay-grade.  And most employees are willing to do this because they want to advance (and they certainly don’t want to get fired).  But what do they get in return?  Most of the time, they don’t receive more pay, a new title, or extra time off to make up for the additional hours they’re away from their outside lives.  What they do get is a heaping load of stress and the familiar feeling that their work is undervalued, which can lead to low morale.  So what are businesses doing to relieve this burden?  Do they have a responsibility to bolster the morale of their employees? Read more

Integrity Leads to Success in Business

Integrity in the business world is defined by a set of values that may mean something a little bit different to each person who attempts to embody them.  It is a quality of character that is hard to define but easy to recognize.  Without it, a good work environment cannot be maintained.  It requires that people make difficult decisions and stand by them.  It cannot be taught; you either have integrity or you don’t.  It is something that people look for in leaders and praise in employees.  Having integrity is not always easy; in fact, it can make you a target and cause jealousy is others.  But it can also earn you respect, devotion, and accolades.  Sadly, integrity is not something that you find often in the corporate world.  In an environment where the bottom line is king, having integrity can be a curse.  But when you change the business model and put the right pieces in place, it can be a recipe for success. Read more

Airport Security: Crossing an Ethical Line?

You may have noticed a lot of recent news stories about citizens angered by increased airport security, particularly in the United States.  Although strict search and seizure policies (along with profiling) have been standard practice in countries throughout the world for years, it seems Americans are the last ones to get to the party, and they’re not too happy about it.  Just when people were starting to get used to random searches of carry-on luggage, the TSA had to throw a wrench in the works and start sending people through scanners (which may emit harmful x-rays and definitely reveal anatomical features better left to the imagination).  Of course, there is the alternative of being patted down, but most Americans find this prospect even more repugnant than the scanner.  The question is, are Americans simply more fussy than the rest of the world (who take such treatment without comment or complaint) or has transportation safety crossed an ethical line across the globe? Read more

Raising the Bar for Insurance Industry Ethics

This is post has been provided by a completeinsurance.ca “Car Insurance for Canadians”

Whether deserved or not, insurance companies across the board, from car insurance to health insurance, often have a terrible reputation in terms of ethics. This reputation is especially widespread in the life insurance industry, where there are far too many stories floating around of people who have had to fight for their rightful insurance claims. In response to this negative image, life insurance companies decided to try to rectify the situation by creating the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA). IMSA exists to promote high standards of ethical conduct in dealings between life insurance companies and consumers. It does this by offering ethical certification to qualified companies. Participation in IMSA is completely voluntary – at this point, there are few ethical governmental standards and even those are inconsistently applied.
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Vittana Helps the Whole World

In most wealthy nations, going to college is something that literally anyone can do.  In Europe, North America, and some parts of the Southern hemisphere, it is expected that children will go on to college once they complete their primary education.  Parents save for it and the government offers assistance to those who can’t quite scrape by.  And pretty much anyone can get a low-interest student loan to help them out with tuition and living expenses while they attend to their secondary education.  In Argentina, college is free to all residents.  But there are parts of the world where it is so difficult and expensive (by local standards) to attend school that only the wealthy elite can manage it.  This is a problem for poor students, who are facing a lifetime of poverty (or near poverty) with no prospect of a better life.  But Vittana.org could provide the answer. Read more

Sex Sells – But How Does it Reflect on Your Company?

The use of sex in advertising is nothing new.  Scantily clad women looking seductive on the pages of a magazine and couples with their limbs entwined speak to our base needs and attract us on a primal level (which hits home a lot more consistently than intellectual advertising).  And yet, is it really in the best interest of your company to stoop to this level of commercialism?  Certainly you want to reach the largest demographic, and just about everyone will stop and look at a hot chick in a bikini (whether because they find her attractive or offensive on some level).  But using this sort of sleazy, underhanded tactic, while effective, may give your company a certain image that you hadn’t bargained for and result in a public backlash against your brand. Read more

The Code of Ethics in Manufacturing

We would all like to believe that every company out there has the best interest of their customers at heart when they produce goods for public consumption.  And yet, consumer reports, recalls, and class-action lawsuits don’t lie.  Not everyone views customer safety or quality of products as the highest priority when it comes to manufacturing.  In some cases, companies are willing to risk the quality of their merchandise to an alarming degree in order to cut costs, displaying questionable self-preservation skills in their quest for the almighty dollar.  And yet, not all businesses that manufacture products do so with the intent of earning at the expense of quality or safety features.  Some businesses embrace a code of ethics when it comes to manufacturing (many even provide this code to the public as a sign of their devotion to ethical business practices).  For the most part, it goes something like this: Read more

Will a Business Oath Make for Moral Companies?

Dr. Barry Morgan, more commonly known as the Archbishop of Wales, has put out the call for a revolution in the arena of business ethics.  Citing not only the disastrous lending crisis that led to our current global recession, but also expense scandals like the one revolving around the British Parliament’s own members (MPs) in 2009, he ruminated that it might be high time to invoke some kind of oath on the part of business leaders, similar to the one taken by medical professionals, to ensure that they understand the gravity of making unethical decisions (whether they lead to payout or financial ruin).  But will such a bold move make companies take the moral high road, or is it simply putting a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage? Read more

When Giving Is Taking

The Roman philosopher Cicero wrote “In nothing do humans approach so nearly to the gods as doing good to others.”  The human capacity for helping complete strangers is one of the behaviors which truly defines us as humans. Unfortunately, many of us are trapped into a bad mode of thinking where we morally equate the laudable act of helping others with other very different behaviors.

When you give $20 to a homeless person, that is charity.  When you donate $20 to the United Way to get a write-off on your taxes, that is not charity, that is financial planning.  When you vote for the government to take money from one of your neighbors and give it to another of your neighbors, that is not charity, it is using the force of government to take away the right of your neighbor to make her own financial choices.

Giving is a personal choice.  When you choose to give, you receive the good feeling which naturally comes from sharing your strength with others.  When you choose to give as a financial strategy to avoid taxes, you are not really giving anything.  You are simply using government-approved charities as a technique to lower your tax burden.  This does not make you any more or less moral than anyone else, because you are not giving of yourself.  When you choose to use the force of government to take from one neighbor to give to another neighbor, you are not giving anything of yourself and you are stealing two things from your neighbor.  Most obviously you are stealing her money, but more importantly you are stealing her right to make her own decisions.  Your neighbor can no longer decide what to do with the money you have taken from her, because you have taken that decision from her.  She is no longer a free person making her own free decisions, she is now enslaved to your wishes.  You have given nothing and you have taken a persons freedom.

The American President Thomas Jefferson wrote To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’ The next time you think about giving, be sure to differentiate between true giving of yourself and violating the rights of others to make decisions for themselves.

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