About the Institute

March 13, 2010 slrbbu Business Ethics

The mission of the Institute for Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility is to support research and teaching at Saunders that focuses on the interdependent relationship between business and society. We raise awareness of the role of business as a member of society and the importance of ethics as an essential component of decision making. We achieve this through:

  • Offering advice on ethical issues
  • Assisting the integration of ethics into the business curriculum
  • Supporting and conducting research in the area of business ethics and corporate social responsibility
  • Providing a forum for debating issues regarding business and society
  • Offering support and education to the broader community
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Professor Barbato weighs in on Nepotism Concern in the NBA Union

April 25, 2012 slrbbu Business Ethics, Scandal

Our very own Professor Barbato was quoted in Bloomberg regarding the recent concerns regarding potential Nepotism in the National Basketball Players Association.  President Derek Fisher, who raised these concerns and asked for an investigation has been asked to resign.

Click Here to Read the Article and see what Professor Barbato things about it.  You can also see an earlier post on Nepotism.

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Women in Business start a Kiva Account

April 2, 2012 slrbbu CSR

The Women in Business Group was awarded a small grant from the Institute for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility to start a KIVA account, which provides micro-loans world wide. Follow their progress at:

http://wibrit.blogspot.com/p/kiva.html

Other loans made with the KIVA account include:

Rabeea is 29 years old and is married with three daughters and one son from Jordan. She has started a small business selling home products, basically kitchen tools, to help in improving the family living conditions.
Now Rabeea has applied for a loan to buy more home products and expand her business.

Nino Mchedlishv is from a small village near Tbilisi, is 43 years old and lives with her family: husband – Konstantin, 21-year-old daughter, 19-year-old son, son-in-law, and 75-year-old mother.
Nino is leading the agricultural business for her family. She has a milk cow. Nino produces yogurt and sells it locally. Also, the family owns a greenhouse with an area of 250 sq. meters. It is used for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and greens. Nino sells the harvested products in Tbilisi. Nino’s husband is a worker. The total average monthly income for the family is 1000 Laris, including the monthly pension of Nino’s mother.
Nino requested credit to purchase a new milk cow. She will double the production and sales of yogurt and the income of the family will increase. Nino will use increased income to purchase additional household goods to improve her family’s living conditions.

Mercy Mbugua is 30 years old and has four children aged 14, 9, 7 and 4 years old. She has been selling new shoes for the past 10 years and earns a monthly income of KES 60,000. She wants to purchase more shoes for sale and has requested for a loan worth KES 30,000.  The profit earned will assist her to pay school fees for her children as well rent and food. She wants to expand her business and this is her first loan.

 

Belisa Cathy Larico Flores is from Camana, Peru. She sells shoes, and is looking for this loan because she wants to expand the shoe business into the summer shoes, get a variety of products.

Marine Hakobyan is from Yerevan, Armenia. She is a young clothing retailer who lives with her mother, father, and three brothers who are students. The money will help pay for the education of her brothers as well as more clothing for the business and stability for the business.

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Conflict of Interest?

March 20, 2012 slrbbu Ask the Ethics Professor

Question to “Ask the Profs”

Q: I work for an OEM manufacturer and was approached by a Supplier of generic replacement parts for various companies products, including my company. This Supplier asked if I could use my manufacturing knowledge to help source these generic parts – for all the other companies parts except mine – on a Freelance basis. Is this a conflict of Interest?

A (Professor Polanski): It might be a conflict of interest, depending on a) how it might affect your company in the future and b) how it might affect your ability to do your current job.  If you think that there might be a possible conflict of interest, it is always better to disclose the situation to your employer and have a discussion.

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Nepotism in the Workplace

March 13, 2012 slrbbu Ask the Ethics Professor

Question to Ask the Prof

Q:I worked in a small branch of a bank. The only 3 full time employees were , the branch manager, her daughter and myself. (There was 1 other employee who left earlier this year and was not replaced.)I also happen to be the Mother-in Law of the managers daughter. My question is, How ethical is it to have the mother be the manager of the daughter, especially in this small of a workplace? My other co-worker (she left the bank this past March because of the manager and I recently left for the same reason) and I noticed some very preferential treatment towards her daughter. She was allowed to do things that, even though I was the senior employee, I was not allowed to do. She was essentially made the superior over us, was allowed to come and go as she pleased and basically given responsibilities that were not even offered to any one else(made a notary without asking anyone else, given a special chair in the office to put her feet up because she was pregnant, etc.) Being as the manager was in charge of our payroll reporting and review process is this scenario even legal?

 

A (Professor Barbato): I’m assuming that the branch manager was not an owner of the bank and that she was an employee who was acting as an agent for the bank.  If the manager gives preferential treatment to her daughter, then this would be unfair and unethical.

Having said that, it is clear to me that the correspondent is coloring the information in such a way so as to convince anyone that the manager is acting unethically.  Giving a pregnant woman a special chair does not seem like preferential treatment to me, and I’m surprised that this would make it onto the list of grievances against the manager.  The other grievances are vague (she was allowed to come and go as she pleased).  One of the important steps in ethical reasoning is to make sure we have all the facts, and during this step it is important to check ourselves for any biases that would lead us to a wrong conclusion.

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Darden Video Contest

January 22, 2012 slrbbu Uncategorized

The Olsson Center for Applied Ethics would like to hear from you! Students from around the world are invited to contribute to the conversation about the role of ethics in modern society through the “Building an Ethical World” video contest. This video contest opportunity allows students to express their views creatively on relevant ethical issues that impact our everyday lives.

For more information watch the following clip: “Building an Ethical World” Video Contest

 

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Financial Scandal Rocks Olympus, Japan

November 9, 2011 slrbbu Business Ethics, Scandal

“Olympus: We Hid Investment Losses for Decades“, The camera maker has confessed to a decade’s long cover up of investments losses. Wall Street Journal’s reporter Daisuke Wakabayashi shares details of Olympus’s admission that it covered up investment losses for decades and used acquisitions to clean up its books.

 

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Business Skills for a Changing World

November 9, 2011 slrbbu Education, Sustainability

The World Environment Center and Net Impact partnered in order to assess what global companies need from business schools and business students alike. In the report it is proposed that companies’ ability to demonstrate resilience and adaptability to marketplace and societal changes has become a strategic imperative. These entities recognize sustainability as a major source of value creation for the preparation of future business leaders. The opinions of senior executives from 33 different companies across several industries were sought, and these were some of the findings:

  • Business school students need to develop skills that focus their attention both inside the company, towards daily operations and core competencies,and outside the company, towards the wider ramifications of business decisions
  • There are skills that traverse inside-outside boundaries (systems thinking, improved interpersonal skills; and negotiation skills)
  • Sustainability is not a stand-alone function within the corporation, nor should it be an isolated part of the business school curriculum.
  • etc.

For more information you can download the full report by clicking here

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Using Corporate Social Responsibility to Win the War for Talent

November 3, 2011 slrbbu CSR

In a MIT Sloan Management article, C.B. Bhattacharya, Sankar Sen and Daniel Korschun look further into the relationship between a company’s CSR initiatives and its ability to attract and retain high quality employees. The authors discuss the growing evidence that there is a strong relationship between these two. They also state that CSR initiatives can help reveal company values, further the company’s talent management practices and it even serves as a genuine point of differentiation for the company.

For more information regarding this study please follow this link

 

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Congratulations to our Xtranormal Ethics Contest Winners!

November 3, 2011 slrbbu Contest

Congratulations to the winners of the 2nd Annual xtranormal ethics contest.

First Place goes to:

Inappropriate Sign Language by James Flakes, Veronica Raco, Maxwell Shea

 

 

 

 

 

THE WINNING TEAM:  James Flakes, Veronica Raco, Maxwell Shea

Second place went to: Dilemma Dilemma by Sanchit Khera

 

 

 

 

 

The judges all agreed that this was a tough call since all the entries were strong this year! Please see all of our entries – and vote on your favorite here.

 

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The videos are in!

November 1, 2011 slrbbu Uncategorized

Contest entries are in and its time to vote!

Title Topics Contestants
Conrad has an ethical dilemma Worker Behavior, Theft John Paeglow, Lindsay Kuzara
Inappropriate Sign Language Employee relationships James Flakes, Veronica Raco, Maxwell Shea
Beigez Movie Bribes, Culture R&D Nicole Benziger, Chris Tarantino
Corporation’s Right and Ethic Hiring, Human capital, HR Chi-Wai Kwong-Sito, Sarah Fearon, Cherri Frejuste
Uranium Mine Stakeholders, Local communities, Mining Industry Amina Mobasher, Bettina Burleigh
Dilemma Dilemma Sexual harassment, Employee relations Sanchit Khera
Whistleblower’s Quandary Whistleblowers, Accounting scandal Arun Thakar, Prakash Kandasamy, Mike Juchniewicz

http://centers.scb.rit.edu/ethics/ethics-vignettes/

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