Where's the Line ?

Boston College: Corporate Citizenship at a Crossroads

Michael Mattis — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:14:37 +0000

Writing on the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship website, Executive Director, Bradley K. Googins, finds that, what with the meltdown in finance, corporate social responsibility is at a crossroads. “It is clear the failure of an unregulated financial system that almost brought the house down will no doubt be followed by aggressive legislation and regulation [...]

Is Craigslist Right to Charge for "Erotic Services" Ads But Not Others?

Michael Mattis — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:02:39 +0000

Those familiar with the online classified ads site, Craigslist, know that you can get just about anything you want on it. Even naughty things. The site has a whole section dedicated to those advertising “erotic services.” These include escorts, erotic dancers, dominatrixes and sometimes even outright prostitutes. Until Thursday, Nov. 6, advertising erotic services on Craigslist [...]

Nike Marathon Swindle Update

Michael Mattis — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:17:08 +0000

A couple weeks ago we reported that at the Nike Women’s Marathon, held October 19 in San Francisco, the training shoe company awarded the first place prize to Nora Colligan of Austin, TX, even though Arien O’Connell, a school teacher from Brooklyn, ran the best time. Nike explained that Colligan was part of its [...]

50 U.S. Companies Ranked by Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility

Michael Mattis — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:36:49 +0000

Working with the Reputation Institute, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship has released a ranking of the top 50 companies in the U.S. “that the public distinguishes for corporate social responsibility.” The rankings were based on data from the Reputation Institute’s 2008 Global Pulse study, which Where’s the Line? wrote up yesterday. “Although the survey [...]

Toyota, Google, Lead List of Top 10 Companies by Reputation

Michael Mattis — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:02:25 +0000

The Reputation Institute, a New York-based corporate reputation consultancy, has released its list of the world’s “most reputable” companies. The Reputation Institute surveyed 600 companies in 27 countries and rated each according to its RepTrak reputation methodology. The 60,000 people who participated in the study answered questions about a company’s perceived corporate citizenship, its governance [...]

Nike Did It: Steals Woman Marathoner's Victory

Michael Mattis — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:20:47 +0000

On Oct. 19, Nike ran its fifth annual Nike Women’s Marathon, in San Francisco. Runners raised some $18 million for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The official winner of this year’s run was announced as Nora Colligan, of Austin, TX. Her time? 3:06. But wait a second. Arien O’Connell, a 24-year-old school teacher from New York [...]

Ethics of Beauty: L'Oreal Funds Business Ethics Program

Michael Mattis — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:56:49 +0000

L’Oreal is sponsoring a new master’s degree program in “law and business ethics” at the University of Cergy-Pontoise in France, according to a recent posting in EthicsWorld. According the the post, the international cosmetics giant has developed the new graduate degree course in association with France’s ESSEC Business School, the U.K. Institute of Business Ethics and [...]

The 7 Steps of Ethical Organizations

Michael Mattis — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:27:11 +0000

After reading our two posts soliciting readers to share their ethical lapses, BNETer Trish Harris wrote to “Where’s the Line?” noting that a couple scenarios dealt with the lapser not wanting to appear as a “snitch” or a “rat.” She writes: “Sometimes and in some professions, being a snitch is the ethical thing to do.” Of [...]

BNET Readers Share Their Ethical Lapses

Michael Mattis — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:33:53 +0000

Last week we asked BNET readers to share their ethical lapses and what they learned them. To our surprise, several folks were offended by the very nature of the question, as if we thought ethical lapses were something to be glorified. Writes jwood: What were you thinking? Having your readers gloat over their unethical exploits? And [...]

Poll: How Effective is Your Company's Ethics Training?

Michael Mattis — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:19:12 +0000

Is your ethics training effective? That’s the question that my confrere, Lauren Bloom, an ethics trainer and the author of the eponymous blog, “Lauren Bloom’s Blog,” asks. She says: In the wake of the subprime mortgage mess, a lot of companies will probably decide that it’s time to offer ethics training to their employees. Here’s hoping that [...]