Open in iTunes  |   Subscribe via RSS

 

January 29, 2008

Ethics center prepares students for today’s business environment

Download the audio file

[Transcript]

ATLANTA - It was only a few years ago the biggest corporate scandal in history took down an energy giant and its high-powered accounting firm. In its wake, companies from Xerox to Tyco to Merck to Kmart all faced increased scrutiny and even allegations of financial wrongdoing. And questions about ethics, and just who is accountable? started swirling around corporate executives.

But the ethical questions facing corporate executives today are not the same questions faced 20, or even 10, years ago, says John Knapp. He’s director of the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State University. And he says while concerns remain about labor conditions in some sectors, and healthcare and other benefits, workers and the public are also increasingly questioning corporate accounting, executive compensation and even investment portfolios. According to Knapp:

KNAPP: “The biggest challenge for executives in large organizations today, and organizations of all kinds, have to do with the changing environment for business. We live in a time of diminished trust in institutions and a time of increasing demands for accountability and transparency. And I think that presents leadership challenges that many organizations and individuals haven’t faced previously.”(length: 0.38)

Knapp attributes some of those challenges to the changing media dynamic. In today’s world, scandals unfold in an instant, and newspapers, TV stations, cable news outlets, and even bloggers can seize on a story, and hold executives accountable. Knapp is working with the Robinson College of Business, through the center, to teach business students the challenges of working in this ever-changing world, where decisions are continuously put under a microscope.

KNAPP: “Well the communication environment has changed radically in the last decade. The advent of the blogoshphere, the Internet, the 24-hour news cycles, all have brought continuous 24-hour, 24/7 scrutiny of large organizations with real-time demands for accountability in which organizations have to be responsible and responsive, and those are competencies that we are working with students at Robinson to develop. This is not something that many of today’s leaders have been very well prepared for. I call it a climate of hyper-accountability, of having to justify the decisions that you make and the actions that you take in real time on a continuous basis.” (length: 1.00)

Since 1993, the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility has been a leading voice for ethics in the Atlanta, and the Southeastern, business communities. Formerly the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, the center merged with the J. Mack Robinson College of Business one year ago this month. It brought with it an established reputation in the corporate community and a desire to expand beyond the region.

KNAPP: “The center has been given an opportunity to continue to expand its work globally and we’re doing that with programs on several continents and in collaboration with several other colleges at Georgia State. So this is an exciting time in the work of the center as our work expands and our reach is extended through the platform that the Robinson College offers. But I think the college benefits as well not only from the association with the work at the center, but from the resources and expertise that the center brings to the college.” (length: 0:30)

Knapp says the center is unique in that it wasn’t conceived of and founded in the wake of corporate scandal, but it was born from a firm commitment, on the part of executives and local community members, to helping business leaders be better business leaders.

KNAPP: “We have the distinct advantage of being a 15-year-old center. This center is not a reaction to Enron or to any other event. This is a center that was developed by business leaders and community leaders and concerned citizens, who believed that business needed to take seriously its responsibilities in society and believed that bringing people together in an educational setting would contribute positively to that.” (length: 0:37)

Andethics, according to Knapp, isn’t just for powerbrokers. Ethical consideration should be given to everything a business does.  

KNAPP: “A lot of people will ask the question ‘what are the biggest ethical issues facing business today?’ Well, I don’t think that’s the right question. There are ethical issues facing business in every facet of business life every day. And so ethical issues and ethical considerations arise in maintaining every relationship the business has. (length: 0:30)

For Georgia State University Radioline, this is Michael Davis.