Business Ethics

Is this an oxymoron? Can it even be taught? I am not sure, but I definitely think it belongs in the core courses taught at MBA schools. Even if you aren’t a highly ethical person, just learning about the consequences of unethical decision making should deter you (in some cases 25 years for white collar crime).

We had our Ethics class yesterday. Although it was a long day, we were taught by our B law prof, and he is very entertaining in class, and as a result it did go by rather quickly. We discussed the well known corporate scandals - Enron, Worldcom, Martha Stewart, Hollinger. The prof presented us with an interesting case that I hadn’t heard of at all. David Radler, Conrad Black’s former best friend and co-conspirator had donated $1 million (some through newspaper holding companies) to Queen’s Business School. In gratitude, Queens put up a plaque commemorating his donation. When he was found guilty, Queens decided that they would make a stance and return the funds and take down the plaque. In the end they couldn’t return all the funds due to the fact that some of the companies that had donated the funds in Radler’s name were not in existence. Mr. Radler did accept the return of his contributions. The question that was posed to us was would you return the funds? My group decided to, take down the plaque, and keep the money. It posed an interesting question, do politicians return money when they realize the money that was donated to their campaign was illegally made? The professor told us that Mother Theresa faced similar problems. Her response was that she couldn’t control where the money was coming from, but she could control where it would go. That line of thinking works for me.

One of the more interesting points that stuck with me yesterday was the fact that unethical behaviour doesn’t happen instantly. A person doesn’t actually sit there and think ‘Today I will be unethical’. It is a series of events that lead up to it. They hope that their little actions aren’t caught, and that they can mend it in time. But one lie always leads to a bigger lie and so on.

In concluding this post, a bit of legal advice for you: If you are ever caught in an unethical situation, and are being prosecuted: Be the FIRST to make a deal.......let’s hope you never have to use this advice.