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Question #1, #2, #3

    #1: Mini-Dilemma

      Dan Smith is an automotive engineer and believes that his company is not
      adequately addressing auto safety issues.  He knows that if a new safety device
      is  installed in the front seats (a $5 steel rod) it can save 40 lives and 10,000
      inquiries per year.  A lending auto safety testing organization has research to
      support this position.  He knows that his auto company strongly opposes the
      $5 rod.  He should:
 
           a.   go public and tell friends and auto safety groups about what he knows. 
      b.   go with the corporate culture and do not buck the system and say anything about his opinion. 
 
      c.   voice internal active concern to both managers and co-workers who will listen to his opinion.
           d.   obtain documents and develop files on how the company
                is addressing this dilemma for future communication.
 
           e.   try to advocate the use of the $5 rod by using all
                acceptable internal communication channels available.

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#2  The Topic: What will be the impacts of the September 11th terrorist 
attacks on the ethical climate of most organizations?  Will these impacts 
be positive or negative?  
	To get you started on this we have posted some discussion that occurred 
	October 25, at the Ethics Officers Association meeting in Nashville.  
	Keep in mind that ethics officers could be overly optimistic or more 
	aware of the issue.  The real question is: Are we really going to see 
	changes in the ethical climate and attitudes among people in organizations?  
	Is this a short term phenomena or will there be long term changes?
 

Fortune 500 business ethics officers discuss the ethical ramification of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

This week in Nashville, Tennessee ethics officers gathered to discuss how companies are responding to employees’ new needs based on the tragedies associated with the September 11th terrorist attacks.  Keith Dorsey of IBJ Whitehall Financial Group indicated that the greatest tragedy would be going back to business as usual.  He indicated at a panel discussion during the meeting of the Ethics Officers Association on October 25, that he saw the second jet airliner through his window as it made a turn and headed into the Twin Towers where he lost a brother.  He indicated that while dealing with his own grief that he is trying to help 250 colleagues recover by offering counseling and stress management sessions. 

            Frank Ashton, in charge of ethics, security, and human resources for the New York Exchange, said that there were many requests for prayer in the work place after the attacks.  The stock exchange even set up a meditations room.

             Frank Daily, Director of Ethics and Business Conduct for Northrop Grumman said that the attacks have accelerated a movement toward a stronger value system in the work place.  Along with greater patriotism there is an enormous hunger for many employees to embrace higher values.  There is an understanding that there is something much more important than just the bottom line. 

             People want to contribute to the cause said John Quinn who spent 32 years as an FBI agent and now works with the environmental systems products.  Craig Decliner, President of a Maryland consulting firm, said companies can help their employees by trying to reestablish their feelings of predictability, control and trust.

             Overall the attendees at the Ethics Officer Association meeting indicated that the world of business ethics had changed and that the ethical climate of most organizations is improving and employees are more open to building a value based system that considers the needs of society. 

 Source:  Abstracted from Karin Miller, “Fortune 500 Leaders Discuss Ethics,” AOL News, October 25, 2001.

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      #3  Federal Sentencing Guidelines:
 
The Organizational Sentencing Guidelines have more effect on business ethics programs than any other influence.  Below are two recent articles about the influence of the guidelines on businesses by respected experts on this topic.  The first article is by Judge Diana E. Murphy.  She reviews some of the recent suggestions for potential amendments to the guidelines.  The second article is by John R.Steer who is Vice Chair of the Unites States Sentencing Commission.  In his article he indicates that the guidelines are having a significant impact on business ethics.  These two articles summarize the long-run effect of the guidelines on your organization.  

The articles can be linked through the following url:
http://www.ussc.gov/orgguide.htm

or visit the following articles by click hyperlink:

Forthcoming article on the organizational sentencing guidelines by Judge Diana E. Murphy, Chair, United States Sentencing Commission:

Diana E. Murphy, The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations: A Decade of Promoting Compliance and Ethics, __ Iowa L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2002). In this article, Judge Diana E. Murphy, Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission and Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, recounts the history behind the sentencing guidelines for organizations, discusses their impact on corporate culture and corporate law, and reviews some recent suggestions regarding potential amendments to them.

Recent conference paper by Vice Chair John R. Steer on the organizational sentencing guidelines.

John R. Steer, Changing Organizational Behavior -- The Federal Sentencing Guidelines Experiment Begins to Bear Fruit (unpublished paper presented at the Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference on Value Inquiry, Tulsa, Oklahoma (Apr. 26, 2001)). In this paper, John R. Steer, Vice Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission, and former General Counsel to the Commission, spotlights the system of sentencing guidelines for organizational defendants and discusses how their application to convicted organizations, as well as their threatened application to other potential law breakers, provides a novel and ambitious approach to punishment. This approach combines the threat of heavy criminal fines for law violators and the likelihood of court-supervised probation (the "sticks"), with the opportunity for very substantial fine mitigation (and perhaps no probation) (the "carrots") for those convicted entities who either have instituted an "effective program to prevent and detect violations of law," or who promptly report their wrongdoing and fully cooperate with law enforcement. 

 
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