An Ethical Systems Highlighted Syllabus BY ETHICAL SYSTEMS Download syllabus for Designing a Good Life, taught at University of Chicago Booth’s School of Business in 2015 by Nick Epley.  Download

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BY ETHICAL SYSTEMS It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one’s own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice. (Buddha, the Dhammapada) Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s…

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BY DAVID DOBOLYI INTRODUCTION Compliance and ethics (“C&E”) programs are organizational policies put in place to promote law abiding and ethical conduct. To be effective, they must be supported by procedures, communications efforts, and cultural attributes. While the principal drivers for such programs are laws and regulations which offer leniency to companies with good C&E programs, there are…

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BY ETHICAL SYSTEMS The ethical culture in an organization can be thought of as a slice of the overall organizational culture. So, if the organizational culture represents “how we do things around here,” the ethical culture represents “how we do things around here in relation to ethics and ethical behavior in the organization.” The ethical culture…

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An Ethical Systems Book Review BY JARED WOLF Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do About It by: Donald L. McCabe, Kenneth D. Butterfield, and Linda K. Treviño John Hopkins University Press (2012) Public Library Summarized by Jared Wolf From one-room elementary schoolhouses to several hundred-person college lecture halls, students have sought loopholes and…

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An Ethical Systems Book Review BY KATHARINA WEGHMANN Margaret Heffernan’s new book “Beyond Measure: The big impact of small changes,” is an original manifesto for business leaders. Creating strong organizational cultures does not require multi-million dollar programs; instead, small actions by each employee- from Custodian to CEO- matter more and have the biggest impact. Heffernan shows…

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BY ETHICAL SYSTEMS Is good ethics really good for business? Crime and sleazy behavior sometimes pay off handsomely. People wouldn’t do such things if they didn’t think they were more profitable than the alternatives.  But lets make two distinctions right up front. First, let’s contrast individual employees with companies. Of course it can benefit individual employees…

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An Ethical Systems Book Review BY JOSHUA ELLE Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Successby Adam GrantPenguin Group (2013) (public library)Summarized by Joshua Elle Overview Adam Grant combines personal accounts and contemporary research, both made readily accessible, to build a case for thinking of people as takers, matchers, and givers. He shows how givers tend…

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BY DAVID DOBOLYI INTRODUCTION  Every organization must confront the challenge of motivating its work force. From research on fairness in organizational contexts (‘organizational justice research’) we know that fairness is one key. Organizational justice research consistently finds that employees are more motivated when they feel that organizational resources are allocated fairly, that organizational decisions are made in fair ways, and…

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An Ethical Systems Book Review BY DAVID NEWMAN Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How To Do It Rightby Linda K. Treviño and Katherine A. NelsonJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., 5th ed. (2011) (public library)Summarized by David Newman Overview Treviño and Nelson present a fresh look at management as an exercise in shaping human behavior. Replete with psychological research on…

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