About me: I am a Senior Fellow at the Conference Board and an Adjunct Professor at the NYU-Stern School of Business, where I teach a course called Professional Responsibility: Markets Ethics and Law. I am also working with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management education (PRME) initiative which includes more than 400 business schools world wide to integrate anti-corruption materials into MBA and other degree curricula.
ronald.berenbeim@conference-board.org
My Approach to Ethical Systems:
My work has focused on ethical dilemmas confonted by people working for global business organizations. Three trends during the 35 years in which I have been engaged in this study shape my current approach: (1) significant prevention, detection, and enforcement responsibilities have been transferred from governments to employers; (2) business practice has become professionalized in the sense that it now has conduct as well as performance standards; and (3) the first two trends have created space to discuss ethics in the business curriculum. Business ethics is no longer defined solely by strict adherence to contracts or even pushing further with the talmudic extra level of prudence described as building fences around the law. Business ethics is now a richly textured subject that includes contributions from at least four disciples: (1) law; (2) ethics; (3) economics; and (4) behavioral science.
My Major Relevant Publications:
Books
Contributing author, Interdisciplinary Yearbook of Business Ethics (Vol 1, 2006), Laszlo Zsolnai (ed.), Peter Lang AG, “Finding Space to Discuss Ethics”, in Debate: The Ethics Management Paradox”, pp. 199-222.
“Wittgenstein’s Bedrock–What Business Ethicists Do,” Corporate Integrity & Accountability (George G. Brenkert, ed.), 2004
Fighting Corruption in
Les Relations des sociétés avec les investisseurs institutionnels. Revue D'Economie Financière, 1994.
Contributing author, corporate codes section in Compliance Programs and the Corporate Sentencing Guidelines: Preventing Criminal and Civil Liability, Jeffrey Kaplan, Joseph Murphy, Winthrop Swenson, eds.
Recent Articles
Linking Corruption to Human Rights, Vital Speeches of the Day, February 2011
Ethics and Compliance – Curriculum of the Month, Anticorruption Research News, Transparency International, December 2010
The Next Stages of Business Ethics, Vital Speeches International, August 2010
Utilizing HR and Ethics and Compliance Collaboration to Promote an Ethical Culture, Employment Relations Today, Spring 2010
Navigating the Tensions Between Principles, Rules and Values, Vital Speeches of the Day, February 2010
Talking Business Ethics on Constitution Day. Vital Speeches of the Day, December 2009
Ethics and Compliance Enforcement Decisions – The Information Gap (with Jeffrey M. Kaplan) Wall Street Lawyer, October 2009
“Survey points to Both Risks and Benefits Posed by Third-Party Ethics Program Requirements”,Employment Relations Today, Summer 2008
“The Convergence of Principle and Rule-Based Ethics Programs – an Emerging Global Trend?”, Wall Street Lawyer, May, June 2007
“Meet Ronald Berenbeim, Principal Researcher, Business Ethics at The Conference Board”, Compliance & Ethics Magazine, April 2007
“Universal Conduct: An Ethics and Compliance Benchmarking Survey”, Wall Street Lawyer, December 2006
“Soft Law and Ethics Programs”, Vital Speeches of the Day, November 2006