Ethics Newsline? ? News ? Business-Ethics Stories Are The Focus ...

Feb 25th, 2013 ? Posted in: News

Business groups want clarification of anti-bribery laws; University of Pennsylvania Health System says it won?t hire smokers, prompting critics to cry foul; U.K. business schools seem to be leaning toward trend of integrating ethics into all classes

VARIOUS DATELINES

Last week?s business news included several stories with ethics angles. Among the coverage:

• Several U.S. business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, are asking for changes in the 1970s-era laws that bar U.S. companies from paying bribes overseas, saying the measures are too vague. One request of the groups is for a company to not be held criminally liable for the actions of an employee if the firm has strong anti-bribery safeguards and compliance programs, reports the Reuters news agency. The Justice Department said it welcomed the request and would continue a dialogue. Various law enforcement agencies, according to Reuters, have attempted to address the complexities and nuances of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, but business groups still maintain that there is too much gray area in enforcement.
• The University of Pennsylvania Health System says it will not hire smokers starting in July, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The hospital says it wants to improve the health of its workers and cut down on insurance costs. But critics, including the director of the university?s smoking treatment program, say such a penalty is likely to induce smokers to lie, hide their habit, and fail to seek treatment, reports Philadelphia-based online site Newsworks. Others argue that an employer has no right to govern off-workplace behavior.
• The London Telegraph reports that there is growing sentiment in U.K. business schools to make ethics an integral part of the curriculum rather than compartmentalizing it in discrete courses. ?If you think back to the economic crisis, there was a lot of comment about how business schools were to some extent implicated, in that they had taught a lot of the models that the bankers were implementing. To a degree, I think there?s merit in that view,? Simon Learmount, director of the MBA program at Cambridge Judge Business School tells the Telegraph. ?The way we have taught business in the past is to split it into functional areas such as strategy, marketing, and finance,? he says. ?That militates against having a societal or ethical view of business as a whole ? it?s a systemic problem.?

Sources: Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 19 ? Reuters, Feb. 19 ? Telegraph, Feb. 18.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Feb. 18 ? Related Newsline story, Feb. 18 ? Related Newsline story, Feb. 11 ? Related Newsline story, Feb. 11 ? Related Newsline story, Feb. 4.

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Source: http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/2013/02/25/business-ethics-51/

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