South Korea Writing Robot Code of Ethics

Even robots have to worry about ethics codes.

An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by the government of South Korea, where millions of dollars are being devoted to robot research. South Korea is one of the world's most high-tech societies and authorities there say that robotics are a key economic driver. The Ministry of Information and Communication has predicted that every South Korean household will have a robot by between 2015 and 2020, according to BBC News.

The new guidelines could reflect the three laws of robotics put forward by author Isaac Asimov in his short story Runaround in 1942.

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Journalism Students Accused of Cheating on Ethics Exam

Cheating on an ethics exam? It sounds like the setup for a joke. But a group of grad students at Columbia University's journalism school are suspected of having done just that, according to the blog, Radar Online

Hey, at least the New York Times credited Radar Online as its source. Now that's pretty ethical.

Study: College Students Spend on Socially Responsible Brands

According to findings released today from Alloy Media + Marketing's 5th annual College Explorer Study, the $200 billion market of 17 million US college students (ages 18-30) prefers an honest and effective social responsibility campaign to celebrity endorsements when it comes to spending. And they'll spend money on companies they believe are ethical.

"Watch for the 'greening' of the college market and their $182 billion in aggregate spending power to have a big effect on brand positioning and campaigns in the coming year."

Ethics, Schmethics! Ask Forgiveness, Not Permission

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue raised an ethical question:

His seven year-old daughter was in a dance recital; the school sells a lousy DVD of the performances; he has a Canon S3 IS digital camera that makes great videos. Could he, ethically, make a surreptitious video highlighting his daughter's performance.

He put the question to Randy Cohen, writer of the Times' Ethicist column. Cohen suggested he offer to make a better video for the school. Nearly 90 people commented on the blog, including one who said:

"Ethics, shmethics–It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission."

So what did Pogue end up doing?

"I wound up illicitly filming a very short clip of my daughter’s number, about 30 seconds, and also I filmed the curtain call. I would have filmed the whole number, but I chickened out."

Moral Liability is Hidden Threat to Corporations: Fortune

Companies will pay a price if they fail to meet society's expectation that they act ethically. Merely obeying the law, or following compliance guidelines to the letter is not enough, writes Marc Gunther in Fortune. Companies need to meet their "moral liability" or face bigger threats from customers than from government or courts.

Sometimes the price will be damage to a brand or reputation. Other times, the cost will be more concrete, in the form of lawsuits, damage awards or lost sale," Gunther says. The good news is that "...all these social issues present opportunities as well as threats... the best way for business to avoid "moral liability" - become part of the solution instead of part of the problem."

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No Wonder There's An Ethics Crisis in Business

What qualifies one to teach ethics? Do these qualifications for a business ethics professor strike you as just a bit vague?

According to the job announcement the ideal candidate for a professorship in business ethics at Belk College of Business and University of North Carolina will have a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Management, Business Administration, or a related field, and a distinguished research record in business ethics that warrants appointment to an endowed professorship.

Politicians and Policy Wonks Attend Ethics Camp. But No S'mores

Politicians have nothing on Ethics Crisis' anonymous ethics confessions. That's why it's refreshing to read that instead of clipboard and whistles, counselors at Ethics and Leadership Camp for politicians and public officials wore "moral compasses" around their necks, in an effort to create "a culture of ethics and accountability," according to Judy Nadler, a former mayor of Santa Clara and a senior fellow at the university's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, the host and sponsor.

The New York Times reports that the two dozen or so campers — including local city council members and ethics officers from Texas and Arizona — were "a veritable optimists' club."

Dean J. Chu, a council member from nearby Sunnyvale, chose to go to camp "as a continuing reminder of how you should behave." Mr. Chu added, "Unfortunately, the kind of people attending are not the ones who need to."

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Mark Cuban Shakes Up Investment Ethics With Sharesleuth

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and seriate entrepreneur has funded a website called sharesleuth, which will focus on "corporate chicanery and securities fraud." The site will initially have a blog format, then, after it proves its worth, go subscription.

Cuban told BusinessWeek.com in an email that he'll buy and sell stocks based on scoops the site uncovers, even before they're published.

"There are a million ugly stories in the financial underground," he wrote. "We plan on finding and sharing and profiting from them." He declined to comment further.

Isn't that insider trading? Didn't Martha Stewart go to jail for that? Not necessarily.

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Japan's Top Banker Embroiled in Ethics Scandal

Revelations that the Japanese central bank governor, Toshihiko Fukui, owned $90,000 of a stock fund accused in an insider trading scandal have raised an ethics issues for the bank and helped cause not only the biggest sell-off in Tokyo's stock market since 9/11, but also a political firestorm, according to The New York Times.

A Bank of Japan spokesman, Takashi Yoshimura, denied that there is an ethics issue, saying that the bank's ethics guidelines only required employees, including Mr. Fukui, to report internally any purchases or sales of stocks, and any profits, and did not limit where they could invest their money.

In the most understated comment of the year, Mr. Fukui apologized during a meeting of Cabinet members. "I'm sorry," he said. "I have created a fuss."

"At the very least, it is a warning that the bank needs to tighten its ethical standards," said Naoki Iizuka, chief economist at the Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.

Ethics Awards Nominations Sought

The Ethics Web annual Ethics in Action Awards and Business Ethics Magazine's 2006 Business Ethics Annual Award are accepting nominations of companies that are "out ahead of the pack, showing the way ethically." Ethics compliance champions, start your engines!

No Morals, No Ethics - No Service

Cheap TV Spots, a Tampa ad agency, announced that it will no longer serve clients whose headquarters or advertising territories are located in the state of South Dakota, or in the cities of Omaha, NE and Black Jack, MO.

The move comes after the passage of legislation in those areas that, the company observes, “cast aside American values.”

Our company policy is, ‘No morals, no ethics - no service.’” said agency spokesman, Jeffrey Hilton.

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Companies Tout Their Ethics Compliance in Enron's Wake - But Only in English

"Nothing focuses the mind like the knowledge you will be hanged in a fortnight," said Columbia University business law professor John Coffee.

He's talking about the way corporations are rushing to tout their ethics codes on their websites in the face of the Enron convictions. Unfortunately, they seem to be doing it in English only. Clearly, American companies still have a ways to go toward true globalization.

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Is It Unethical to Make Money From Being Unethical?

Is it unethical to sell t-shirts about an unethical act? You can buy this Ethical Schmethical t-shirt at CafePress. And you can read about the incident that inspired it, "Not Yet in Business School, and Already Flunking Ethics."

Poll: Most students think biz ethics optional

Most Chicago area high school students queried in a business survey revealed they have a dim view of the need for high ethical standards.

The survey results didn't surprise Scott Steward, the teacher of the entrepreneurship class at a local high school.

"I'm fighting the battle of getting my students to not think so much about immediate gratification" and to think instead about how their actions and views can impact the rest of their lives, he said.

Coping with the Compliance Headache

CRMDaily.com reports:

"The truth is, companies cannot afford to have point solutions for the DEA, DoJ, EPA, FDA, OSHA, and SEC, not to mention state and local requirements. If it is true that more and more business will be driven by regulation in the future, then alignment of business and I.T. is more critical than ever. ...The question becomes how to minimize the impact on business operations."

The article does not mention multi-language translation of corporate ethics compliance materials,, says Sloan Friedman President of SRF Global Translations, although corporations are required by Sarbanes-Oxley to translate codes of conduct, ethics codes and other corporate compliance material into the languages of the countries in which they do business and of all of its employees.

John Hagerty, vice president of research at AMR Research, says:

"the 'overlapping requirements' of the individual compliance mandates mean that the enterprise must have in place nine technologies: an integration infrastructure Relevant Products/Services from Insight; business process management and workflow; learning and education management; content and records management; a data warehouse; a rules engine; an alerting engine; identity and security management Relevant Products/Services from ; and management dashboards and analytics."

Better add certified multilanguage translation and make that 10!

AASCB Conference: Ethics in Business Schools

Integrity is Everything: Ethics and Governance Conference of the AACSB presents an opportunity to hear, compare and analyze the critical role of ethical practices in today's modern business schools.

SRF Global Translations' Corporate Ethics and Compliance News Links

Ex-mayor not guilty of ethics violation
Former Mayor Jack Zisa did not violate state law when he voted to pave a city parking lot where his private business leased space, an appellate court ruled Monday.

DirectTV Techs: Policy Makes Lying Part Of Job
A group of DirectTV satellite technicians who have installed systems in homes across Central Florida say company policy creates an environment where lying to customers is part of the job, according to an investigation.

Shareholders let Central Equity go

Australian property developer Central Equity will be privatised by the end of next month after shareholders supported a push by three of the directors to have it removed from the Australian Stock Exchange.
Financial adviser Graham Middleton, who led the campaign against the company, said the directors were paid far too much for a company of its size. "Their management salaries are not in line with corporate ethics."

Crime Stoppers Multi-Language Translation Tip Taking Service Now Available throughout British Columbia
British Columbia citizens with information about criminal activity will now be able to provide anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers in any one of 115 different languages.

A Titillating Ethics Transgression Gets Charity Exec Six Years

In a titillating tale that sounds more like a Hollywood script than a business story, an executive at the charitable organization, Manhattan Cardiovascular Research Foundation, admitted to stealing $237,162 and spending most of it on services provided by a Columbus, Ohio-based dominatrix called Lady Sage He was sentenced to six years in jail and his wife has filed for divorce. (What? You thought business ethics stories were going to be boring?)

According to the Sidney Australia Herald, Sage lists her services at $US250 for the first hour and $US200 for each additional hour. Lady Sage also commands $US1,000 a day in travel expenses if she has to beat a customer on his own turf.

Chris MacDonald at Business Ethics Blog says:

"his story also shows that the term "business ethics" needs to be interpreted broadly, as referring to ethical issues that arise in all sorts of organizations (not just for-profit corporations)."

Ventura Paper Uproar: Ethical Lapse or Business as Usual?

The newsroom at the Ventura County Star is in an uproar about an ethics violation by Managing Editor Richard Luna, The issue forced a mass meeting with the publisher--and prompted the paper to bring in parent company E.W. Scripps' human resources director.

Luna's ethics transgression?

"He put pressure on a sports reporter to obtain press credentials for him to attend two Final Four college basketball tournament games. He did not report on the games, and would not ordinarily have qualified for the credentials."

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Business Ethics Magazine Lists '100 Best Corporate Citizens' for 2006

Business Ethics Magazine has released its annual survey of the "100 Best Corporate Citizens". The closely-watched survey has gained national recognition as an indicator of best practices in the area of corporate social responsibility.

The top 10 companies are:
* Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Waterbury, Vermont, which has been among the top 10 companies on Business Ethics' list for four years running.

* Hewlett-Packard (No. 2) is enjoying its seventh time in the top 10,
* Advanced Micro Devices (No. 3) makes its first appearance on the list.
* Motorola (No. 4) is enjoying its third time in the top 10,
* Agilent Technologies (No. 5) its second time.

Others in the top 10 are list newcomers:
* Salesforce.com (No. 7)
* Cisco Systems (No. 8). Dell (No. 9) leaped from No. 71 last year,
* Texas Instruments (No. 10) moved up from No. 50.

Dupont Requires Vendors to Follow WOMMA Code of Ethics

Dupont has become the first Fortune 100 marketer to require its employees and vendors worldwide to follow the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's (WOMMA) Code of Ethics

The WOMMA code demands that consumers disclose their relationship with marketers; that they be allowed to form their own honest opinions; and that everyone discloses their true identity.

Gary Spangler, DuPont's representative to WOMMA, said, "DuPont's proactive adoption of this ethics code is a leading example of self-regulation in this emerging field."

via MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog

House Ethics Committee Investigates Itself

The top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, Alan Mollohan, will leave the panel - at least temporarily - while he defends his own financial conduct, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday.

The House Ethics Committee, which has been unable to agree on what to investigate for the past year and a half, will now investigate itself.

Since the beginning of last year, the leaders fought over internal rules and staffing, and in a recent meeting discussed - but were unable to agree - on launching any new investigations.

New Ethics for Tech Journalists in the New Economy?

Salon reports that, more and more, tech journalists invest in companies they write about, thereby "reinterpreting the traditional rules governing conflict of interest. What was once a matter of black-and-white ethics has lately turned a murky shade of gray."

David Yarnold, the executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News, recently wrote in an editorial:

"It's only human for a journalist covering technology to be tempted by the vast wealth in this valley, and that's an argument for ongoing and clear discussion about what's permissible and what's not."

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