
Surveillance Tech Robotizes Employees, Eroding Trust and Well-Being
Blog, Corporate Culture, Trust, Workplace Surveillance
How to Avoid Fueling Affective Polarization
Blog, Corporate Culture, Trust
Straight Talk About the Business Ethics of Workplace Surveillance
Blog, Corporate Culture, Workplace Surveillance
It’s Time to Question Everything About Best-Practice Compliance
Blog, Compliance & Ethics Programs, Corporate Culture, Corruption, Internal Reporting
Can We Have Post-Traumatic Growth After COVID-19?
Blog, Corporate Culture, Leadership, Trust
Values Based Leadership, Northwestern University-Kellogg School of Management, 2015
Corporate Culture, Course Syllabus, Leadership, Professor, Teaching Ethics
Is There a Problem with Meaningful Work?
Blog, Corporate Culture, Fairness
Evolutionary Thinking Can Help Companies Foster More Ethical Culture
Blog, Corporate Culture, Fairness
Company Snapshot: Conscious Capitalism- Core to The Container Store’s Success
Case Study, Corporate Culture, PractitionerThe third of three Company Snapshots, these research-based pieces by guest author Jessica Guo look at aspects of successful companies that can be examined for strategy and information of benefit to both active businesses and the academics that study them. See our first company snapshot examining culture and values at Costco and our second company snapshot looking at how values around sustainability and responsibility drive culture and integrity at Patagonia.
Company Snapshot: Conscious Capitalism- Core to The Container Store’s Success
According to a 2012 study by the global management consulting firm Hay Group, retail stores typically see turnover of 67% in part-time employees. Yet the Container Store, a leading storage and organizational products retailer, boasts an annual store employee turnover rate of only 10%.
The Container Store’s employee satisfaction translates directly into bottom-line success: the company has grown from a founding $35,000 investment in 1978—about $131,000 in today’s currency—to earn over $800 million in net sales in FY 2017. “A good capitalist will see the value of what we’re doing,” co-founder Kip Tindell says. “We would not be as profitable if we did less for our employees and vendors.”

Company Snapshot: “Don’t Buy Our Products” – Ethics at Patagonia
Case Study, Corporate Culture, PractitionerThe second of three Company Snapshots, these research-based pieces by guest author Jessica Guo look at aspects of successful companies that can be examined for strategy and information of benefit to both active businesses and the academics that study them. See our first company snapshot examining culture and values at Costco.
Company Snapshots: “Don’t Buy Our Products” – Ethics at Patagonia
When asked what he thought made a good company, Yvon Chouinard replied with one word: responsibility.
Despite being the founder of a retail consumer brand company Patagonia, Chouinard is also a conservationist who advocates for anti-consumerism. He believes that Patagonia has “made a contract with our customers to make clothing as responsibly as possible.” To that end, Chouinard actively encourages his consumers to “think twice before you buy a product from us. Do you really need it or are you just bored and want to buy something?”