GRC Blog Roundup: Best Business Ethics Blogs and Ethical Issues at Vivimind

We have a special edition of the GRC Blog Roundup to kick off our week here at CCI. The Online MBA Guide announced its 2009 list of the best business ethics blogs and websites a while back, and a number of the business ethics blogs on the list are ones that we have featured here at CCI.

Taking top honors was a blog that we link out to often. Writing the aptly named The Business Ethics Blog, Chris MacDonald’s daily work has been recognized at the #1 spot, and rightfully so. Chris, an ethics professor at Saint Mary’s University, was also named one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics.

Among the other business ethics blogs (and websites) in the top 50 that we have featured before here at CCI:

• #3 – Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE)
• #16 – The Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG)
• #22 – Knowledge@Wharton
• #37 – Ethical Corp.

What this means, of course, is that the Online MBA Guide has done the great service of alerting us to 45 business blogs and websites that we have not yet featured in our roundups but certainly will in the future, beginning today. Below is your Monday GRC blog roundup, featuring recent stories from some of the top sites on the list of the best business ethics blogs by the Online MBA Guide:

Vivimind, Evidence, and Ethics

I’m constantly amazed by what the sellers of “natural” health products get away with. The pharmaceutical industry, rightly, is subject to considerable scrutiny. But if you’re selling something labelled as “natural,” no one seems to give a second thought to actually examining your claims to be able to work wonders on the human body.

[cites excerpted evidence from other sites]

So, basically, Vivimind is a product that failed as a prescription drug, and is now marketed — without any evidence that it works — to people who don’t know any better. Sound ethical to you?

>>>read the entire post about the ethics of Vivimind from the #1 ranked The Business Ethics Blog by Chris MacDonald

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20 Ways to Win in Business

Former Olympic champion, politician and businessman Sebastian Coe shares the secrets of his success.

I am often asked what motivates me to succeed, and how I apply the skills I learned as a runner to my roles in politics and business. The answers to the first question are a passion for the job in hand and a wish to be the best I can be; the answer to the second is that I apply them daily.

>>>read entire post at the #2 ranked business ethics blog Governance Focus

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Is the Federal Reserve Losing its Independence?

Even in a democracy, it is believed that certain government functions should be placed beyond the control of democratic politics. The usual example is the judiciary (though most state judges in the United States are elected, this is a considerable anomaly). But another example is the central bank, which in the case of the United States is the Federal Reserve.

A central bank has considerable, often decisive, influence over short-term interest rates, and, through them, over long-run interest rates as well. Typically (and to oversimplify), a central bank reduces short-term interest rates by buying short-term government securities, which pumps cash into the economy when the cash is deposited in bank accounts and then withdrawn and spent. Interest is the price that people or firms demand to part with cash–the more cash there is in the economy, the lower that price will be. In addition, by increasing the demand for these securities, the purchase increases their price, which in turn reduces their yield–the interest that they command. The central bank increases short-term interest rates by the reverse operation–selling short-term government securities, which sucks cash out of the economy, since the central bank can retire the cash rather than having to spend it.

>>>read entire post at the #5 ranked business ethics blog The Becker-Posner Blog

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What’s the Point of an Apology?

In the last few years, institutions have been issuing more apologies, according to an Economist article.

And lately there have been calls for quite a few more (from institutions and individuals), including Wall Street to American citizens and Bernard Madoff to the people he allegedly swindled (rather than just his co-op neighbors).

But aside from emotional reparations, what’s the point of publicly saying you’re sorry?

>>>read entire post at the #9 ranked business ethics blog Freakonomics

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Have you updated your company’s gift and entertainment policy?

AIG’s use of federal bailout money to pay lavish bonuses has made the embattled insurer a favorite target for public disgust over corporate excess. It’s not that AIG was doing anything illegal, you understand. It’s just that funding personal luxury with taxpayer funds is in very, very bad taste.

You’d think that other companies would take a lesson from AIG’s travails and scale down their own discretionary spending. And yet, according to a recent survey by the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (of which I’m proud to be a member), almost half of those who responded said that their organizations hadn’t significantly updated their gift and entertainment policy in a year, and 20 percent of that group admitted that it had been three years or more since their policies had been revised. Not smart, folks.

>>>read entire post at the #17 ranked business ethics blog Business Ethics by Lauren Bloom

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Tags: business ethics