Check out my article, "The Seven Biggest Mistakes Companies Make that Erode Ethical Culture and Destroy Reputation", published in the October 2011 Compliance and Ethics Professional, the journal of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE).
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3TNvz45emS5NTdlM2ZkZjYtNmVmZC00YTJlLWJjNjEtOTRlZDI5NmY0Nzkz&hl=en_US
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Los Angeles Area Schools, Teachers Accused Of Cheating
Los Angeles Area Schools, Teachers Accused Of Cheating
I knew it wouldn't be long before the Atlanta school cheating scandal made its way across the country. What we have here is a classic case of teachers and school administrators "rationalizing" their ethical lapses as some kind of legitimate protest against standardized testing. These educators, who serve as models and mentors to the nation's youth, provided answers to standardized tests to the students in advance; changed test answers after the test; and falsified test results in order to make their schools appear to be more successful in educating the children. Although there are certainly legitimate arguments to be made questioning the value of these tests as an indicator of learning, cheating is obviously not the answer. The example these teachers have set for an already ethically-challenged generation of youth has done far more damage than anything the testing process could have accomplished. As the kids see it, this "ends justify the means" approach to life is merely an extension of what they have been seeing in the business world every day. Horrible ethical decisionmaking by dozens of companies in the finance, banking and mortgage industries brought the economy to its knees in 2008, and we have yet to recover. The consequences for many of these companies: record level profits and executive compensation.
There have been tremendous strides within many industries in improving ethical culture and decisionmaking, strengthening ethics and compliance programs, and focusing on integrity as an integral part of doing business. Increased attention by government regulators and law enforcement in areas such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Financial Reform, and Ethics and Compliance provisions of the federal acquisition regulations are beginning to set the right tone and example. Its time we place greater attention on the ethical values of our future employees -- the students.
I knew it wouldn't be long before the Atlanta school cheating scandal made its way across the country. What we have here is a classic case of teachers and school administrators "rationalizing" their ethical lapses as some kind of legitimate protest against standardized testing. These educators, who serve as models and mentors to the nation's youth, provided answers to standardized tests to the students in advance; changed test answers after the test; and falsified test results in order to make their schools appear to be more successful in educating the children. Although there are certainly legitimate arguments to be made questioning the value of these tests as an indicator of learning, cheating is obviously not the answer. The example these teachers have set for an already ethically-challenged generation of youth has done far more damage than anything the testing process could have accomplished. As the kids see it, this "ends justify the means" approach to life is merely an extension of what they have been seeing in the business world every day. Horrible ethical decisionmaking by dozens of companies in the finance, banking and mortgage industries brought the economy to its knees in 2008, and we have yet to recover. The consequences for many of these companies: record level profits and executive compensation.
There have been tremendous strides within many industries in improving ethical culture and decisionmaking, strengthening ethics and compliance programs, and focusing on integrity as an integral part of doing business. Increased attention by government regulators and law enforcement in areas such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Financial Reform, and Ethics and Compliance provisions of the federal acquisition regulations are beginning to set the right tone and example. Its time we place greater attention on the ethical values of our future employees -- the students.
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