Ethics - Centro

Advice For Would Be Whistleblowers

They say no good deed goes unpunished and sadly that is the truth in the world of the whistleblower. The theory on 'whistle blowing' is that the individual is helping the community, and following their ethics, by reporting the offending person or company. The risk of recrimination is very high and usually results in a long and difficult fight for the whistleblower. This battle will likely including legal threats and character assassination.

So what can you do to protect yourself when you do blow the whistle? Having been through this process I have gain some insight on how best to handle the situation.

1. Documentation :: Once you suspect that something is wrong you should begin documenting. Start by taking notes in a log book or note pad. This information will be helpful when you need to tell your story and will provide the detail needed to track down further evidence of wrong d ... Read more »

Category: Ethics | Views: 306 | Added by: ratu | Date: 11.23.2010 | Comments (0)

Technology and the Whistleblower

As the meeting comes to a close, your boss smirks with an self assured arrogance. He then says that you should seriously consider his offer, because he has it on good authority, that there may be a very localized downsizing in your department. Wouldn't it be nice to smirk back and just say "no thanks".

This scenario plays out more often then most people realize. With all of the recent business and government scandals there were a lot of people who knew that books were being cooked, laws being broken and the health of the public being put at risk, just to keep profits high and investors content. Many people felt that there was nothing they could do against powerful executives and corrupt bureaucrats. The credibility of a low level employee compared to that of a 'successful' corporate executive is a huge hurdle to overcome. Also, corporate lawyers are there to defend the company, even from internal hazards. So, once ... Read more »

Category: Ethics | Views: 329 | Added by: ratu | Date: 11.23.2010 | Comments (0)

32 Words That Can Change Your Life

We all have ways of testing opportunities that enter our lives. Some of us just dive right in based on feeling, others walk straight into what they know is right by a gut feeling or intuition. And if it's not gut feelings or emotions that are the tests of opportunities, it is the logical mind persuading us to ignore those feelings and emotions and test it with our reality of reason.

Most of us do not have a predetermined strategy for testing opportunities, or even more generally to test the actions we take and the choices we make in our lives.

There is an easier way to determine if our choices we make and the opportunities we receive 'pass the test'. This simple 32 word statement of business ethics was first created in the 1930s and used to turn around a failing company. These four questions were applied by each employee to each and to every minute detail of the company's workin ... Read more »

Category: Ethics | Views: 251 | Added by: ratu | Date: 11.23.2010 | Comments (0)

Ethical Aspects of 6 Sigma Methodology

The entire concept of 6-σ (Six Sigma) is based on satisfying customers. Although the methodology is said to have been first proposed by Bill Smith of Motorola company (Wiki, 2006), statisticians have been aware of this concept long ago. Smith only was the first to apply it in production processes in 80's. Since then, the methodology has been used in many organizations and had saved millions (Wiki, 2006).

The principle revolves around putting the stress on measuring and harnessing dispersion in the production process (opposed to stressing the importance of mean average) since dispersion is the determinant of the number of defective outcomes. (I would not delve into statistical aspect since it is irrelevant to the scope of this paper, but I will have to mention some though.) Thus, the methodology is aimed at increasing the number of standard deviations (generally marked σ) so that 6 these standard deviations fall wit ... Read more »

Category: Ethics | Views: 276 | Added by: ratu | Date: 11.23.2010 | Comments (0)