Current Events: Medicine, Government, Finance, Disasters, Industry, and Leadership

The first Four of the Five C’s of Corporate ethics: Culture, Change (Especially Climate Change), Codes of Conduct, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are fairly conceptual and cohesive.?The Fifth and Final C of Corporate Ethics is topical and volatile.?The defining concept is that ethical topics are in the news literally every day.?Categories of ethical transgressions include Medicine, Government, Finance, Disasters, Industry, and Leadership.?All of these categories also yield positive role models; however, ethical negativity more frequently dominates the focus of mass media.?These subtopics of ethics will be the focus of this mini-essay.

Medicine

On December 7, 2022 (81 years after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor), the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Theranos, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for defrauding investors.?In January 2022, Elizabeth Holmes the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Theranos was sentenced to 11 years and three months for similar charges (businessinsider.com, 2022).?Elizabeth’s magical blood test with the mystical name of the Edison Test was deemed to be a fake.?Investors such as Rupert Murdoch lost millions and the Edison Test believers did not even have a “bitcoin” or magic wand to show for the loss.

In 2018, Dr. José Baselga resigned as chief medical officer of Sloan Kettering after receiving payments for endorsements from for-profit health care companies. This medical debacle is one of the most significant conflict-of-interest (COI) scandals of the 21st century.?According to Propublica.org (2022), Sloan Kettering quietly gave Baselga a $1.5 million severance package despite his unethical behavior. Medical Ethics are one of the most critical categories of human behavior as they frequently deal directly with life and death situations.

Government

According to the Wall Street Journal, on 7 December 2022 (Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day) – one of many historic but tragic days in the ethical news category, the Trump organization was found guilty of tax fraud. On the same, day, according to msn.com (2022) additional classified documents were found in a Trump storage unit in Florida. According to apnews.com (2022), the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection will be submitting criminal referrals.?Historically, no sitting president or former president has ever been so entangled in legal and ethical turmoil.?According to history.com (2022), Richard Nixon announced his intention to resign the presidency on August 8, 1974.?Nixon’s legal and ethical challenges seem incredibly minor compared to the governmental ethical dilemmas facing the American public every day in 2022 and shaking belief in democracy across the globe.

Finance

All of the examples in the Medicine and Government sections above involve unethical finance dealings except for the January 6th insurrection which involved rampant violence, leading to injuries and death, and vandalism – motivated by politically driven extremists bent on interrupting the lawful validation of the 2020 presidential election.?According to NPR (2022), current estimates of the damages to the U.S. Capitol total over $30 million.?Finance and Leadership seem deeply embedded in all of the identified categories of current events.

Fairly recent and well publicized financial scandals include the Wells Fargo, Enron, and WorldCom cases.?According to Reuters.com (2022), Wells Fargo pressured employees between 2002 and 2016 to open fraudulent accounts by falsifying documents including consent forms to open accounts customers were unaware of.?Similar to Finance overlapping with several of our categories of unethical behavior, failure of leadership seems to be a common thread for all of the subject categories.?Enron fell from financial heights to bankruptcy in December 2001.?Enron’s collapse only a few months after the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001 was indeed a tragic ending to an incredibly tragic year.?In 2002, the WorldCom collapse after several whistleblowers uncovered fraudulent financial practices rocked the world again with mind numbing examples of fraud and misconduct.

Disasters: Natural and Manmade

Disasters can be natural or manmade; however, in both cases they tend to exhibit and extract the best and the worst of human nature.?Heroics and leadership are always needed during and after a disaster and essentially always exhibited.?Unfortunately, ethical and environmental issues almost always arise.?Sadly, some citizens will take advantage of a damaged or destroyed building and scrounge and pillage for possible valuables exposed or left behind.?Meanwhile, first responders and charitable bystanders will do their best to look for and assist or console survivors.?In the cases of manmade disasters, responsible organizations and nations will often do their best to conceal and deny blame until the mass media expose their culpability or wrongdoing.?The Bhopal Gas Leak and the Deepwater Horizon tragedy are two sad examples of manmade disasters worsened by slow and ineffectual follow-up and inadequate recovery efforts.

Industry: Automobile and Airline Examples

The Boeing 737 Max tragedies were largely avoidable; however, profit concerns seemed to eclipse common sense and attention to training and safety needs.?The Ford Pinto Case has become a classic business case as it highlights the negligence that often seems to emerge within large corporations until the media expose the need for accountability and safety being paramount rather than bottom line of Profit.?The more recent Volkswagen Diesel gate debacle highlights the vulnerability of trust and reputation with a well-respected organization.?A stellar reputation for an individual or a corporation can evaporate quickly when a scandal is uncovered.?Consumer confidence and corporate reputation can be much harder to rebuild after dishonorable behavior and much more difficult to gain back once lost compared with building up credibility and trust in the first place.

Leadership and Concluding Thoughts

With so many ethical scandals in the news, strong leadership seems to be sorely lacking in many modern fields of endeavor.?Searching for mentors and role models is a worthy exercise to keep our “eyes on the prize” and the principles of ethical behavior and emulate-able codes of conduct.?Sadly, some of our greatest world leaders and role models have been assassinated or have passed away from natural causes.?Some great national leaders include Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.?Great leaders from the business world include Andrew Carnegie, Steve Jobs, and Thomas Alva Edison.?Environmental leaders include Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson.?No leader is perfect; however, ethics is not about necessarily being the best in every way but in striving to do what is right and just in every case.

After Word

After formulating five Cs for Corporate Ethics, I noticed that Shaw (2017) in his textbook entitled Business Ethics had already identified three Cs for the study of ethics: Compliance, Contributions, and Consequences.?Interestingly, Shaw’s three Cs are different from the 5 Cs I identified.?In essence, we now have eight Cs for Corporate Ethics.?A few comments on the Shaw Cs:

*** Compliance:?Compliance with laws and regulations has become more and more controversial and politicized in recent years.?Ironically, most laws and regulations such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act have been legislated to protect our fragile planet Earth environment.?Many businesses have embraced the triple bottom line of Planet, People, and Prosperity.?Moreover, enlightened businesses have moved along from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to environmental, social, and governance (ESG).?Failing to comply to environmental and other laws and regulations is indeed illegal and unethical.

*** Contributions:?The concept of Contributions puts a positive perspective upon ethical principles.?Most business plan mission and vision statements focus on a meaningful contribution for stakeholders. Complying with laws and regulations as stated above implies adding value to customers without exploiting people or natural resources in the process.?Employees especially are much happier with their jobs and their employers when they feel that their company or organization is making a valuable contribution, without adding undue harm along the way.

*** Consequences:?The concept of Consequences is huge and connects completely with the Consequentialist philosophy.?Shaw’s 9th edition text devotes an entire chapter to the Normative Theory of Ethics, which includes discussion of Consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories. A central point for country, corporate, and individual behavior is to consider the consequences of any action before taking the action.?Unethical behavior can often be described as taking a risk that you will not get caught.?Begging for forgiveness may yield leniency; however, the committed infraction is no less consequential if your authority figure decides to look the other way (this time).?Anticipating consequences and avoiding the risky behavior is of course the more ethical and usually more practical choice.

For additional information on Consequentialist theories, see Moral Issues in Business:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Moral_Issues_in_Business/SIrCBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=business+ethics+shaw&printsec=frontcover

References

apnews.com. (2022). Capitol siege, Donald Trump, Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson. https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-donald-trump-liz-cheney-bennie-thompson-government-and-politics-618aedf38a5d18f4

businessinsider.com. (2022). The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes https://www.businessinsider.com/theranos-founder-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-life-story-bio-2018-4

history.com. (2022). Nixon resigns. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-resigns

msn.com. (2022).?Team hired by Donald Trump finds classified documents. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/team-hired-by-donald-trump-finds-classified-docs-in-strange-place-by-mar-a-lago-estate/ar-AA1525nD?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a1cf018ed5ff4814b7672cd7799de3b5

NPR. (2022). Architect of the Capitol outlines 30 million in damages. npr.org

propublica.org. (2022). Memorial Sloan Kettering Gave Top Doctor $1.5 Million. https://www.propublica.org/article/memorial-sloan-kettering-jose-baselga-severance-package

Reuters.com. (2022). ?Wells Fargo to pay $3 billion. Wells Fargo to pay $3 billion to U.S., admits pressuring workers in fake-accounts scandal | Reuters

Shaw, W. H. & Barry, V. (2015). Moral issues in business. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Moral_Issues_in_Business/SIrCBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=business+ethics+shaw&printsec=frontcover

Link to First of Five-Part Series on Corporate Ethics

Link to First of Six Rs for Corporate Ethics: Human and Animal Rights

Image from Transparency International