Will Whistleblowers Still Come Forward? A new SEC rule interpretation threatens to weaken the incentive for external whistleblowers to come forward with details about potential corporate fraud. The clarification states that a whistleblower’s tip has to offer insight “beyond what would be reasonably apparent” to the agency from publicly available... Read more →

Building an Ethical Workplace Environment By Victoria Delgadillo, September 30, 2020 The following guest blog was written by Victoria Delgadillo, a student at Pepperdine University. The Broken Window Theory has recently been applied to enhance organizational culture in the workplace. It holds that a company should take care of the... Read more →

Fraud: Behavioral Attributes and Detection No one can deny that fraud is increasing in organizations. Most recently, there have been multiple disclosures of fraud in the government's loan program that is designed to help small businesses navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals who are engaged in occupational fraud schemes often... Read more →

Workplace Ethics and Doing the Right Thing I have blogged before about why good people sometimes do bad things in the workplace. Otherwise ethical people make the wrong turn or are influenced by others that are ethically-challenged. Perhaps people take the easy way out and don’t stand up for what... Read more →

ACFE 2020 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse The 2020 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse developed by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners examined 2,504 cases of fraud in 125 countries causing $3.6 billion losses. The results are an eye-opener with respect to... Read more →

Boeing 737 Max Ethical Violations The $ 2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress includes funds for Boeing Corporation. The company had lobbied Congress for at least $60 billion for itself and a large supplier network to cushion against the effects of the pandemic. Boeing is concerned about canceled orders... Read more →

Mental Wellness Promotes Productivity, Happiness and a Meaningful Workplace Experience There are a variety of definitions of mental wellness. In a piece by Mike Nichols posted in Opinion, he addresses one definition by Dr. Jane Myers of the University of North Carolina. Dr. Myers, one of the founders of the... Read more →

Workplace Ethics Advice If an employee knows that a co-worker or supervisor is doing something that is against company policy, the first step is to determine what are the prescribed steps to bring these matters of concern to the proper authorities within the organization. Many organizations have whistle-blowing protocols such... Read more →

Dealing With Ethical Blind Spots and Bounded Awareness Key to Corporate Social Responsibility I’ve come to the conclusion that relying solely on teaching students’ ethical principles using philosophical reasoning methods won’t cut it with respect to enhancing ethical decision-making. We need to go beyond that and recognize there are other... Read more →

Protecting Yourself Against Cyberbullies In my last blog I addressed cyberbullying of young children and teenagers. In today’s blog I look at cyberbullying of employees. This isn’t the first time I’ve addressed the problem of cyberbullying in the workplace. The problem persists and revisiting the issue now will shed additional... Read more →