My interest in business ethics was forged in the fire of personal experience. In 2004, shortly after commencing my career in the banking and finance industry, I was publicly named as one of the “whistleblowers” in a trading scandal that rocked one of Australia’s largest financial institutions. The fallout was everything you’d expect from a major governance failure: the resignation of the Chair and CEO, large financial losses, significant reputational damage, and criminal charges for the traders involved. The experience caused me to ask, “Why?” Specifically, why do ethical failures happen? And why will they continue to happen? In the years since, I have spent considerable time reflecting deeply on these questions.
I wrote
The Origins of Ethical Failures: Lessons for Leaders
My writing focuses on ethical failure, situations where people, when given the choice between the morally right and the morally wrong, choose the latter. Tackling the thornier “right versus right” ethical dilemmas is far more challenging. To do it requires an individual who is both a masterful thinker and writer. Joseph Badaracco is just that. In this brilliant book, Badaracco takes the reader into the minds of business people, at different levels of seniority, facing right versus right ethical dilemmas of increasing complexity. By doing so Badaracco not only provides insight into how challenging these dilemmas are to navigate, but also how finding a sensible path through is possible. This book is a must-read for business ethics students and practitioners.
When Business and Personal Values Collide "Defining moments" occur when managers face business decisions that trigger conflicts with their personal values. These moments test a person's commitment to those values and ultimately shape their character. But these are also the decisions that can make or break a career. Is there a thoughtful, yet pragmatic, way to make the right choice? Bestselling author Joseph Badaracco shows how to approach these dilemmas using three case examples that, when taken together, represent the escalating responsibilities and personal tests managers face as they advance in their careers. The first story presents a young manager…
Admittedly I don’t read enough fiction. However, good fiction books can be just as (if not more) instructive to business ethics students and practitioners as the best non-fiction works. The best ones provide lessons that are timeless. One example of this is Lord of the Flies. Based on the story of a group of schoolboys who become stranded on a deserted island, the book is a window into the dynamics that emerge when humans form groups – hierarchies naturally emerge, the battle for power is rarely pleasant, and power in the wrong hands invariably corrupts. More importantly, it shows that without the appropriate institutional guardrails to commend the good and condemn the bad, groups (and institutions) ultimately become dysfunctional and decay.
A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive, and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.
First published in 1954, Lord of the Flies is one of the most celebrated and widely read of modern…
This manual addresses the need to ensure that people are at the centre of the organisation. There has never been a timelier reminder of the need to ensure that leading, supporting and developing staff are critical aspects of creating the right organisational culture to grow and develop. Written with sensitivity,…
The more you read the classics, the more you come to realise that the challenges we debate and grapple with today are no different to those that have been debated and grappled with across the eras. Times might change, but human nature is a constant. And for me, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith provides one of the best treatises on human nature. I am sure there have been other attempts made but in my mind nothing I have read comes close to this work. In parts it is clear that the book was written in a different era, but in the main the lessons and the insights it provides are timeless. I have read the book twice and still feel I have only scraped the surface in unearthing and absorbing the lessons it provides. It is that kind of book – it can become a companion and guide.
The foundation for a general system of morals, this 1749 work is a landmark in the history of moral and political thought. Readers familiar with Adam Smith from The Wealth of Nations will find this earlier book a revelation. Although the author is often misrepresented as a calculating rationalist who advises the pursuit of self-interest in the marketplace, regardless of the human cost, he was also interested in the human capacity for benevolence — as The Theory of Moral Sentiments amply demonstrates. The greatest prudence, Smith suggests, may lie in following economic self-interest in order to secure the basic necessities.…
The majority of (if not all) ethical failures in the business world are caused by suboptimal (and at times completely flawed) incentives. If one wants to be a serious business ethics practitioner, then a basic understanding of incentives is a must – they matter. In this book, Jason Murphy provides a whirlwind tour of how incentives operate to drive both positive and perverse outcomes across a range of settings. The book is packed full of stories to illustrate the power of incentives and I think Murphy is onto something with the title – Incentivology should be a compulsory course in any undergraduate business or public policy course. And for Australian-based students and practitioners an extra bonus – Murphy is a local author.
Rewards. Punishments. Prices. The Nobel Prize. Candy Crush. Incentives take more forms than you might expect and they can be hard to spot, but they shape our lives in ways that we rarely examine.
Some incentives are obvious, like for example, publicly committing to doing something you dislike in order to motivate you to do something difficult, like lose weight. But, many of the most powerful incentives are accidental, and invisible even to those who designed them. Some are tame - and some are most definitely not. Whether it's bounties for criminals or Instagrammable meals, training your dog or saving…
Dolça Llull Prat, a wealthy Barcelona woman, is only 15 when she falls in love with an impoverished poet-solder. Theirs is a forbidden relationship, one that overcomes many obstacles until the fledgling writer renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his bestseller.
The contribution Mary Gentile has made to modern-day business ethics education is unparalleled and it is in Giving Voice to Valuesthat the story behind the curriculum she has developed resides. This book outlines the assumptions, research, and principles associated with the unique approach to business ethics education Gentile has developed. But more importantly, it provides the reader with practical guidance and advice on how they can prepare for and engage in those (at times challenging) conversations that aim to address issues with ethical import in their organisations. After reading this book, tools like pre-scripting, practice, and peer coaching will become part of your repertoire, and you will be better for it.
An innovative approach to standing up for your values in the workplace-inspired by a popular program from the Aspen Institute
"In business and in life, we often know what is the right thing to do, but we have trouble implementing it. This book, developed in conjunction with the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, shows how we can all give voice to values and make the right things happen. It is a wonderful guide to help us enter an era of responsibility and of leadership based on values."-Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute
The Origins of Ethical Failure marries a unique professional experience with research from the behavioural sciences to explain why ethical failures occur within institutions. In the largely revised second edition, not only has the research referenced been updated, but the book takes a more targeted approach and uses the Australian banking and finance industry as the case study (an industry that has been the subject of considerable attention over the past decade due to failures in governance). The book illustrates that when the conditions are permissive, humans have a predisposition towards dishonesty, and therefore, to reduce the likelihood of ethical failure, leaders must focus obsessively on putting in place appropriate institutional arrangements.
The Pact is a contemporary fiction novel about Australian sisters, Samantha and Annie, who are doubles tennis champions. This story amplifies the usual sibling issues and explores their professional partnership and personal relationships – similarities, differences, motivation, competition, abandonment, and grief – and how they each respond to the stress…
The Oracle of Spring Garden Road explores the life and singular worldview of “Crazy Eddie,” a brilliant, highly-educated homeless man who panhandles in front of a downtown bank in a coastal town.
Eddie is a local enigma. Who is he? Where did he come from? What brought him to a…
