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The Promise of Ethical Systems for C&E Professionals

Jeffrey Kaplan (resident expert in law and compliance) has a new post on Conflict of Interest Blog about the potential for Ethical Systems to improve corporate compliance: "my hope is that through the Eth Sys platform social science researchers…
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What an ethical culture is and isn’t

There was an interesting exchange at ECOA Connects blog last week, about what are the key components of an ethical culture. (ECOA is the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association.) The authors were two men with a great deal of experience working…
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Ameliorating Conflicts of Interest and Corruption in Auditing

Image: Chester Higgins, via Wikimedia Commons. Negative externalities such as pollution can be controlled, but only if all stakeholders are working together instead of at cross purposes. Auditors are usually hired and paid by the firms…
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Finance Tackling Ethical Conduct, But Issues Remain

  Image: The Economist Insights An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by CFA Institute "examines the role of integrity and knowledge in restoring culture in the financial services industry and in building a more resilient…
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High-Status, Successful Employees More Likely to Use Deception

A working paper at Harvard Business School reports that successful, higher-status employees are more likely to react to unfavorable comparisons with peers by engaging in deception designed to make the comparisons less unfavorable. The authors…
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Compliance Trends Show Room for Improvement

WSJ's Risk and Compliance Journal reported today on In Focus: Compliance Trends Survey 2013, a collaboration by Deloitte and Compliance Week. They found, among other things, that companies focus on different kinds of compliance issues depending…
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Fair Leadership is Good Business

The Guardian reported earlier this week on a new study showing a strong connection between whether employees perceive their leaders as fair and those leaders' ability to effect positive change in their organizations.   Fairness impacts…
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Cheating May Cause Boost in Happiness

Citing a 2013 study by several ethics researchers, including EthSys contributor Francesca Gino, The New York Times reports that people experience an elevated mood after cheating, as long as they do not believe anyone was harmed…
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Trust Within and Between Groups with Different Missions

A manuscript currently in press from the University of Zurich reports that subjects who strongly identify themselves with a non-profit mission are more trustworthy in a minimal group setting (i.e., when grouped by artistic preference for…
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Week That Was in Ethical Systems, 9/30-10/6

SEC Gives Whistleblower More Than $14 Million In Record Award​, in The Wall Street Journal The SEC said it awarded more than $14 million to a whistleblower who gave the agency information that led to an enforcement action “that recovered…