Fairness – Ethical Systems

How CEO Pay Shapes Ethical Workplace Culture

Blog, Corporate Culture, Fairness, Leadership

Would there be a benefit to a smaller gap between CEO and employee compensation, in terms of employee perceptions of company culture, motivation, commitment, or other important factors? In 2018, The New York Times ran the headline, “Tesla’s…

The Hot News of Union Battles at Big Corporations Is Good for the Labor Movement

Blog, Corporate Culture, Fairness, Law

We could be on the cusp of a new labor relations order, spurred in large part by increased media and public interest generated by these high-profile campaigns. Union drives have suddenly become hot news. In a closely watched Nov. 29,…

Why Banning Financing for Fossil Fuel Projects in Africa Isn’t a Climate Solution

Blog, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Culture, Fairness, Human Rights, Law

When it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, sub-Saharan Africa is collectively responsible for barely half a percent of all global emissions over time. Today’s global energy inequities are staggering. Video gamers in California…

How the Fair Labor Association Promotes a Living Wage for Workers

Blog, Corruption, Fairness, Human Rights, Law

By using a consistent methodology to measure workers’ compensation, we now have a baseline to understand how far we need to go to reach a living wage. In today’s globalized economy, large companies increasingly outsource production to…

Corporate America Has a Caste Problem

Blog, Compliance & Ethics Programs, Corporate Culture, Fairness, Personality & Personnel

Unwittingly, businesses and civil society in the US may have facilitated the dominant caste practices through preferential hiring of Indians (in reality, they are hiring only higher castes). Silicon Valley's diversity problems are not hidden,…

Disputes Over DEI Depend on How You Define Fairness

Blog, Corporate Culture, Fairness, Teaching Ethics

Each side views the other as favoring unfair practices, making civil discourse between them difficult. Decades after the 1960s civil rights movement, racial inequality persists. In an effort to reduce it, an explosion of diversity, equity,…

An MIT Researcher Watched a Hospital Experiment with Shared Leadership

Blog, Corporate Culture, Decision Making, Fairness, Leadership, Trust

Workers with little power are often at the mercy of more senior employees who benefit from newly introduced tech and pay little mind to how it affects others. The social psychologist Debra Mashek, a self-styled “collaboration maven,”…

Any True ESG Focus on Executive Pay Needs a Link to Employee Engagement

Blog, Corporate Culture, Corporate Governance, Fairness

Too often “of material value to shareholders” is used as the great duck out on fundamental questions of human values. More than half of the 100 Financial Times Stock Exchange CEOs have had their salaries frozen this year. The news comes…

What Pirates Have to Teach Us About Leadership

Blog, Corporate Culture, Fairness, Leadership, Speak-Up and Call-Out Culture, Trust

Pirates, it turns out, were forward-thinking in a number of surprising—and instructive—ways. In the deep heat of an 18th-century summer, a crew of pirates was sailing off the Virginia coast when a lookout spotted a merchant ship to the…

Why Promotion Is a Moral Hazard

Blog, Compliance & Ethics Programs, Corporate Culture, Decision Making, Fairness, Leadership, Personality & Personnel

"When leaders very publicly fail due to ethical lapses, some people are inclined to say, 'See, that’s just how business is,' instead of learning a more inspiring lesson." Jessica Kennedy gets frustrated when people—often academics—try…