The etiquette system in Japan is perhaps one of the world’s elaborate. It involves every aspect of one’s life, with its strict codes of behavior governing daily etiquette and manners. Although the Japanese mostly adhere to these codes, it is not expected that people visiting Japan be familiar with them and would not be reprimanded. However, making an effort to be polite and to show at least some understanding of local customs can make life in Japan a bit easier.

Hierarchy and social standings – Japanese etiquette is based on a social ranking. For example, “me-ue-no-hito” (or “person whose eye is above”) are those of higher social standing such as a top ranking corporate executive, government official, or teacher. Meanwhile, “me-shita-no-hito” (or “person whose eye is below”) are those of lower social standing relative to the other person such as a corporate staffer, a government employee, or a student. Older people have higher social standing than younger people, and that the emperor and his royal family are considered “me-ue-no-hito” by all. This hierarchy is evident in speaking, such as the polite speech (keigo), regular speech, and casual speech, as well as male speech and female speech.

The “Giri” – The “giri” refers to one’s innate sense of duty, obligation, morality and the absolute need to return a favor. Everyone in Japan is bound by the giri, like a person’s bond towards his parents or towards his teachers and benefactors. It is also expressed by meeting one’s obligations and responsibilities as best as possible. Meeting the demands of giri is the same as defending one’s personal honor even under the most adverse circumstances, which includes taking suicide (for some Japanese).

Bowing – The practice of bowing is basic to Japanese etiquette. It is the way Japanese people greet each other, say farewell, express thanks, and even apologize. The Japanese can be particularly conscious of his or her personal space, which is why bowing establishes a comfortable and respectful distance between two people. Although modern Japanese have become used to the Western “handshake” as a form of greeting towards foreigners, they are very much appreciative when a westerner shows respect by bowing when meeting. The degree of bowing is determined by social status, bow deeper towards a person of higher authority. Typically, a bow is done at about 15 degrees of bending your body towards the front; the longer the bow is held the more feeling it evokes. When bowing as an apology, it must be as low as 90 degrees.

On the street – It is very common to see packs of tissues being given out on the street for free. Rule of thumb is that you should take one, as using a handkerchief for blowing one’s nose is a definite no-no. You may also notice some people wearing face masks while walking, especially during spring. Do not worry about an unannounced epidemic. It is just that they are protecting themselves against pollen inhalation. Meanwhile, eating on the street is considered impolite, even if you see people doing it these days. Spitting and urinating in public (mainly by middle-aged or drunk men) may seem obnoxious, but these do not necessarily raise eyebrows in Japan.

Basic table manners – A typical Japanese meal involves many different foods and sauces presented in little dishes. It is considered polite to pick up these small dishes and bring them close to your mouth, especially when eating soup and rice. The soup bowl (usually on you right side) is picked up and the broth is directly sipped from the bowl. Chopsticks are used to pick-up tofu, seaweed, vegetables, and other food items in the soup. The rice bowl (usually on your left side) is also picked up and brought near the mouth, using the closed chopsticks as a shovel. When dipping sauces are used, chopsticks are used to pick up the food, dip it into the sauce, and then you place it on the rice before eating it.

Basic restaurant manners – Upon entering a Japanese restaurant, bars, or inns, guests are given a wet face or hand towel called “oshibori,” which is used to freshen-up the face and hands before eating. After using, it is taken away by the hostess. There are no napkins at restaurants in Japan; that is why most Japanese carry handkerchiefs that they use during meals and place it on their laps. If you are having difficulty with using chopsticks, asking for a knife and fork is all right (especially if the restaurant serves Western food). Toothpicks are used in restaurants after eating, and it is all right to pick one’s teeth after a meal as long as it is done discreetly.

Slurping – Slurping is a double-edge sword. It is considered impolite, but if you don’t do it the chef would be insulted. Consider slurping when eating “ramen” (noodle soup), “donburi” (big bowls of rice topped with meat or vegetables), and on “miso” soup.

Saying grace – Before eating, it is important to say “itadakimasu,” which literally means “I shall partake” and serves as a kind of pre-meal grace. You could practice it by quickly saying “eat a duck he must.” Once the dinner is over, remember to say “gochisosama deshita” to show your appreciation for the meal.

Drinking – The Japanese may be quiet and reserved, but not when they are drunk. Drinking with fellow students or coworkers is almost a ritual in Japan, and considered the best way to break the ice as well as solidify relationships. However, the Japanese can get pretty rowdy when drunk, but all is forgiven and forgotten the next day. It is polite to pour other people’s drinks and then hold your own glass while your host or friend fills it. Upon toasting, remember to shout “Kampai,” which literally means “dry glass.” If you are invited out, it is common for your host to pay the bill.

Gift giving – There are many considerations in buying a gift for a Japanese person. In Japan, gift giving etiquette specifies when, to whom, under what circumstances, and what type of gift is appropriate to give. Also you should also take note how much the gift costs and how the gift should be wrapped. Traditionally, the Japanese do not celebrate birthdays or Christmas. Instead, give gifts to people you feel indebted to (like a business owner towards his customers, or a patient towards his doctor) during June’s Obon Festival (in which the gifts are called “oseibo”) and in December before the year ends (in which the gifts are called “ochugen”), not to mention during special occasions like weddings, gradutations among others. When presenting or receiving gifts, it is polite to hold the gift with two hands and bow respectfully at the exchange.

The “Omiage” – Another highly ritualized practice of gift giving is called the “omiage.” This is done by thanking someone for an invitation, paying someone a visit, and before and after taking a long trip. For instance, when visiting a friend or acquaintance in Japan, you should bring food items like a baked cake, rice crackers, or a beautifully-wrapped fresh fruit. Meanwhile, when visiting the office of a client, potential business associate, or government official, the omiage might be in a form of tea cups or laquerware and would be more expensive.

Visiting someone’s home – If you have been invited to someone’s house, remember to bring the omiage. Upon visiting, say to the house owner “Tsumaranai mono desu ga,” which is similar to “This is just a little something for you.” Before entering, take off your shoes by the “genkan” or hallway and put on the slippers provided by the host. If you have to use the toilet, you would have to change slippers again. Upon leaving, the host would usually say “Kondo asobi ni kite kudasai” or “Please come around my place sometime,” but this is only said just out of politeness. Visiting the house unannounced could be embarrassing to both of you.

Business cards – In business meetings, it is customary to exchange “meishi” or business cards but in Japan there is a certain manner of giving and receiving it. Business cards are given and received using both hands and each person bows at the exchange. Take note to present your business card written-side up and facing the person receiving it so that he doesn’t have to turn the card around and read it. After receiving a business card, you should read (or look as though you are reading) the card and make comments about the company or the address (it is some sort of “breaking the ice”). In keeping the card, it should be handled with respect and place in a special “business card holder” and not in your pocket or purse. When meeting new people in a conference or dinner setting, you should place your business cards in front of them on the table so that they can easily refer you by name.

Bathing – Communal bathing in Japan dates back for centuries and visiting one of its thousands of “onsen” (hot springs) or “sento” (public bath houses) can be a highlight of your trip. Like in any bathroom, you should wash yourself outside the bath before getting into the hot water and soak. You would notice that people usually scrub each other’s backs. Remember to bring your own toiletries and put your shoes and clothes in designated lockers. Bath houses are always separated by sex, but these days there are a few mixed bathing places that you could try.

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During a recent business networking event, a colleague told me that the two of us were a dying breed. This comment intrigued me and I asked her why. Remember, that old expression be careful of what you wish because you may receive it? Well, that is exactly what happened.

This colleague was looking for someone to fill a sales position within her organization. First year salary was around $45,000 and that did not include additional incentives or benefits.

I had been approached by two other individuals who were seeking to change positions. Given that I knew both of them and thought them to be professional and understanding of what it takes to be a good sales person, I shared the name of the person and organization seeking a sales person.

Both individuals emailed me back and thanked me for the referral. And both individuals sent me a second mail sharing that they had met with my colleague.
Unfortunately, neither of the individuals sent my colleague a hand written thank you or even an email for the opportunity of the interview.

This demonstration of poor business ethics is what my colleague referred to as us being a dying breed. When we had originally met years ago, I had sent a handwritten note thanking her for the meeting. During the course of time, we would have lunch together. If I paid, I would receive a handwritten thank you note from her and if she paid, I would send a handwritten thank you note.

Would she hire either one of them? Absolutely not! Their inability to acknowledge the opportunity to sell themselves through a simple hand written note of appreciation showed her how they would potentially treat her existing clients and prospective ones. Since she strongly believed in relationship selling, these two both failed her Litmus Test.

In business, the goal is to build authentic relationships. Some now refer to this as relationship selling. Consistently demonstrating high business ethics will help to build that relationship and more importantly sustain that relationship. Conversely, demonstrating poor ethics will have just the opposite affect.

What bothered me the most, is that I truly believe that both of these individuals were professionals. However, I was wrong because both of them had failed Business Ethics 101 – send a handwritten note and if nothing else send an email.

If you want to increase sales or get that coveted job, please make sure that your behaviors reflect exceptional business ethics which are truly just a reflection of your own personal ethics and beliefs.

Where are you going? The M.A.P. for Success, a FREE email course may help you begin to chart a course of business, professional or personal success. Visit this site.

Do you know what it takes to develop loyal customers? Our FREE customer loyalty self assessment may just help you to answer that question. Follow this link to sign up for your free assessment.

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What has happened to our society over the last few decades? Have we improved our level of understanding of the fundamental principles of life? Have we advanced in technologies that improve the quality of life? Have we increased the expected lifespan of the human race?

Have all the new technologies resulted in the promised leisure time? Look at your own lifetime and ask yourself, “”How far have we really come?”" And I have one additional question: “”Do we know where we are going?”" No ship captain worth his salt would consider leaving port without clearly understanding his destination and charting a course to get him and his cargo there safely and efficiently.

Yet we have seen countless news stories of plans gone wrong when it comes to things like protecting the ecology and the environment. Many large corporations have gone bankrupt, leaving both employees and investors holding the bag while CEO’s and staff members have made personal fortunes. Aid in the form of foodstuffs, clothing and building materials, sent by kind hearted and well meaning people, have been hoarded by gang lords or political leaders for their personal gain, often while their own people starve or die from exposure. Many are now reluctant to contribute to relief efforts because they doubt that the truly needy will benefit.

On a smaller scale, we see whistle blower stories of corruption in local businesses and in local government, where individuals have diverted public funds for personal use, and where confidential information has been sold to competitors or even political enemies. Newspapers and television news programs are likely to show us only those stories that align with their own agendas, and have become very unreliable when it comes to real reporting. Clearly, something has gone wrong, and it is not in isolated areas. Like a disease it has spread throughout society in all parts of the globe.

One survey indicated that only about 14% of respondents place confidence in schoolteachers, 5% in newspaper reporters and journalists, and 3% in corporate CEO’s and political leaders. Why? I believe that the answer is the lack of personal ethics. In my mind there is no line separating personal ethics, business ethics, so called situational ethics, spiritual ethics or any other kind of ethics. One is an ethical, though imperfect, person, or not. We don’t put on a suit of business ethics before we leave for work, and change into our personal ethics attire at 5pm. Just as I have long believed that it is wise to have only one vocabulary, one that you can comfortably use everywhere without fear of embarrassment, I believe that we must also have only one set of ethics.

We live with the same ethical standards every waking moment. Simply stated, ethics is a statement of right and wrong. If a thing is wrong here, it will be wrong there. If it is wrong now, it will be wrong next week or next year. These are rights and wrongs based on principles. Now, a decision whether to buy a car or a truck based on current needs, is not a decision based on ethics. And though we may not need a truck today, next year we may decide that we do. No change in ethics, but a change in conditions. What would be ethical in either case would be to arrange payment and live up to that arrangement, register the vehicle properly, obtain insurance, pay the taxes on personal property, drive carefully, avoid driving while intoxicated, obey traffic laws intended for the protection of everyone, etc. Tons of ethical considerations surround the use of a vehicle.

As John C, Maxwell says in his book “”There’s No Such Thing as Business Ethics”", there is only ONE RULE for making decisions, the Golden Rule. Is it right or is it wrong? Within that framework, we may sometimes have to decide what is right for the greatest number of people involved, but we must do so while carefully considering the effect on ALL of the people. Such decisions will not always be easy. And at times we may be forced to do what is best for someone else, not simply what is best for us.

At times, what is best for another might be inconvenient or even costly for us, but a strong sense of ethics will compel us to make that choice and to live with it. And in the end we become better for it. I recall bidding on a small remodeling job many years ago in the home of an elderly woman. I got the job and didn’t discover until midway through that I had grossly underestimated the time and cost of materials. I completed the work and billed the lady according to our agreement, though I lost money on the job. The result was that I learned to estimate more carefully, and the woman recommended me to all her friends and neighbors, so that I was kept busy that whole season.

Ethical behavior ALWAYS pays off, one way or another. The scales will always balance.

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“Americans and Canadians may share the same continent, but they have differences (as well as similarities) in behavior and etiquette. Here we take a look at the how to deal business in Canada.

They value individualism – Just like any English-speaking citizen, including American, Canadians value individualism highly. For them, success is measured by personal achievement.

They are open about everything except themselves – Canadians are open to discussions about anything. However, they tend to hold their personal privacy off limits to all except for relatives and close friends.

Ethnocentrism is high – A lot of Canadians think highly of their own culture, and every other culture-including that of Americans-are judged according to their perspective. This belief of considering their owns culture as superior to other cultures reflects best in the French province of Quebec.

Plan for a very cold climate – Stuff your travel bags with a lot of fall and winter clothing especially during wintertime when the country is at its coldest. Remember, even its summers are cold.

Dress conservatively – Men should wear a dark conservative business suit with tie, especially if you are dealing business in an urban setting. Your business wardrobe should be based on classic likes such as suits with a traditional lapel width, in colors of either navy, gray, or black, and shirts in white and light blue. Meanwhile, women should wear a conservative business suit or dress, using classic lines and colors in mind. Avoid wearing anything “”trendy”" on a business meeting. If you are dealing business in a rural area, be a little less formal yet sticking to the conservative side.

Dress casually outside the boardroom – If you are not working, or still dealing business during an outdoor activity like playing golf, casual wear works best. The weather and activity will dictate what you would be wearing.

Be careful when doing the “”V”" sign – A “”V for Victory”" hand signal is considered an insult in Canada if your palm is facing yourself. Do this sign with your palm facing away.

Dates are written differently – Americans are used to writing dates in a “”month-day-year”" format, while Canadians write their dates in a “”day-month-year”" manner. For instance, today is 25 August 2007 (spoken as either “”twenty-five August”" or “”twenty-fifth of August”").

Do not eat while walking in public – As much as some of us may be used to the concept of “”street food,”" Canadians prefer taking their snacks in a cafe or a restaurant.

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“Before we even begin to discuss some of the general business practices in the United States, there are two key points in American culture that we need to understand. Individualism and egalitarianism are two important elements in American culture that have significant effects on their business etiquettes.

According to the research and studies of Geert Hofstede, a Professor of International Management at the University of Limburg at Maastricht, the Netherlands and a notable expert on business culture having done comprehensive studies on values in the workplace, the United States has a high level of individualism in its society.

This is the reason behind Americans show more self-reliant behaviors and, aside from themselves and close family members, tend to form loose bonds with other people. American culture emphasizes and practically awards those who take the initiative and those whose goals are towards personal achievements. Status and age doesn’t matter much and what is looked at are one’s personal achievements.

Meanwhile, egalitarianism or the concept of equality is important as well. Americans believe that they should be provided with equal rights, equal social obligations, and equal opportunities. Equality, however, is still based on individual achievements. Americans feel and believe that working hard and doing their best deserve success and better financial gains.

This concept of equality influences how Americans treat people that are richer, older, and authority figure. Americans generally don’t show much respect to people who are financially and/or socially higher in status. Professional titles are very seldom used and people prefer calling each other by their first names.

You’ll find that American business culture is very task centered. Americans are direct and will say “”no”" if they want to. It’s normal for them to criticize work, performance, or persons in public so don’t feel embarrassed if you find yourself in the receiving end.

Furthermore, punctuality is considered sacred in American business culture. People are expected to attend meetings and appointments on time and deadlines are expected to be met on the dot. Failure to do so is often frowned upon and is seen as highly disrespectful. Being punctual and meeting deadlines are further emphasized due to the “”time is money”" philosophy which is practiced by the general business community.

Americans are willing to work long hours and overtime due to their work ethic. Office/business hierarchy is also being practiced with stress being given on company organizational structure. However, because of individualism in American society and business culture, the working environment is highly competitive with emphasis on personal competence, professionalism, and individual accountability.

With regards to some business etiquettes, firm handshakes signal the start and end of business meetings. Show of sincerity and interest is shown by maintaining direct eye contact during the initial greeting and during important parts of a conversation. Exchanging business cards is viewed as an ordinary or casual activity and follows no formal rules.

When you do business in the US, it is important that one pays attention to guidelines and rules dictated by business policies, procedures, and laws. Be careful when giving gifts, since the practice is often discouraged by many companies since the gesture can easily by misinterpreted as a bribe.

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“In the end, integrity is all you’ve got…” this statement succinctly encapsulates the

importance of ethics in the corporate scheme of things, and underscores its role as the
corner stone of business practices today.

Jack Welch, former chairman of GE is a major champion of the supremacy of ethics in
business. Whenever an employee’s actions have put GE on the wrong side of the law, he
has hastened to co-operate with investigators, admit guilt and take prompt corrective
action. Such corporate mea culpa has served the company well.

The time-card scandal in 1985 was the first significant ethical challenge of Welch’s 25year GE career. GE Re-entry Systems, a GE subsidiary, was making a new nose cone for the Air Force’s Minuteman missile. Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia charged it with 108 counts of criminal fraud. The indictment alleged that GE managers had altered worker’s time cards with improper charges totaling $800,000. Welch’s response and damage control were brilliant, thereby winning the trust of government officials. Welch personally called on Secretary Orr, presenting a comprehensive proposal for cleaning up the mess and preventing such mess from recurring. He created a top-level review board within GE to oversee compliance.

In this time-card case and other similar instances, candor and a determination to ally GE with the forces of law have enabled GE to emerge with more vitality and systematic approaches to ethics. The experiences also underscore the challenge of having to raise employees’ awareness of the need for high ethical standards.

“You can’t audit integrity into a system any more than you can inspect quality into a machine. Where you can make a difference is by changing the culture, by tireless, forceful leadership that won’t tolerate winking, rule-bending or looking the other way.” Welch was quoted as saying. His favourite question to GE employees was: “Can you look in the mirror every day and feel proud of what you are doing.” According to Welch, “In a global business, you can win without bribes. But you better have technology. That’s why we win in business like turbines, because we have the best gas turbine. You have got to be the low-priced supplier, but in almost all cases, if you have quality, price and technology, you win.”

Even the comeback kid, Donald Trump has this advice for businessmen: “Be honest,
even if there are others around you who are not.” In the 1999, he almost wanted to run as

Companies spend a lot of money in selecting its candidates. This is normally based on competence and achievements, which are easier to measure. However, it is equally important to select candidates with high levels of integrity and ethics. Strong ethical practices should pervade across the whole corporate spectrum. It is important that board members need to be more independent. Analysts too need to provide independent views and assessments in their reports on companies. Shareholders and investors need to focus and do their homework rather than merely relying on earnings per share and short term profits. All of these issues have to do with integrity as it is necessary to do what is right
and ethical.

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Dr Mike Teng (DBA, MBA, BEng, FIMechE, FIEE, CEng, PEng, FCMI, FCIM, SMCS) is the author of the best-selling business book “Corporate Turnaround: Nursing a sick company back to health”, in 2002. In 2006, he authored another book entitled, “Corporate Wellness: 101 Principles in Turnaround and Transformation.” Dr Teng is widely recognized as a turnaround CEO in Asia by the news media. He has 27 years of experience in corporate responsibilities in the Asia Pacific region. Of these, he held Chief Executive Officer’s positions for 17 years in multi-national, local and publicly listed companies. He led in the successful turnaround of several troubled companies. He is currently the Managing Director of a business advisory firm, Corporate Turnaround Centre Pte Ltd (Website), which assists companies on a fast track to financial performance. Dr Teng was the President of the Marketing Institute of Singapore (2000 – 2004),

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Everywhere you look there is information on how individuals can protect themselves from credit card fraud. This information can be found at banking institutions, libraries, on TV, on the Internet, its everywhere. However, that isn’t the case for businesses. How can your business protect itself from these fraudulent individuals who make purchases for products or service online or over the phone? Like most business, you may ship the products before discovering that the credit card is stolen. In this case, your company suffers the bill and the true owner of the credit card cannot be held reliable.

Nevertheless, these are the steps to protect your business from fraudulent individuals and avoid this terrifying situation.

1. It is important that you gather all the information associated with the credit card. This can be done by requesting all of the information exactly as it is shown on the card. This information includes: The cardholder’s name (Exactly as shown on the card, including middle name or middle name initial). Request all 16 digits on the credit card. Request the credit card verification number. This number is the last 3 or digits located on the back of the card after the account number. Request the expiration date on the card. Request the billing address for the card which in most cases should not be a P.O. Box. Requesting this information is very important. The fact is that most card thieves only have the card number. They will not have any other information associated with the card. By having all of this information you will be able to utilize address verification services. Address verification service compare the billing address given by the customer to the banks database and alerts the user if the addresses are different.

2. Pay particular attention to customers who list a different billing address and mailing address. In some cases, card thieves may also have the cardholders ID. In this case they will be able to supply the billing address; however, request for the product to be sent to a different address. You may opt to call the bank of the credit card and ask them to call the cardholder to verify the purchase.
It is definitely advised not to ship orders internationally with a different billing and mailing address.

3. In most fraudulent cases, the card thief will request a next day delivery. They want to get the product fast and without being caught. This is a red flag and should be carefully observed. If the order is larger than your typical orders, most definitely question it. Remember, the card thief is not concerned about how much he/she is spending; it is not their money. Most likely, he/she needs a large quantity for resale.

4.As a business owner, you want to do everything it takes to protect your business from fraudulent activity. It may be resourceful to have all the information collected validated by the customer. Since you are not meeting with the customer directly, it is wise to request that the customer fax you a copy of the credit card and photo id. This may seem extreme, but not as extreme as been taken for thousands of dollars in products. This precaution should most definitely be exercised for large orders involving heavy sums of money.

5.If you do find yourself a victim of this fraudulent activity, take immediate action to reduce loss.
a.Immediately inform your local police department. Make sure to answer all the questions the police may ask and give them all the information that you have.

b.Contact the bank of the credit card. Request that the issuing bank calls the customer to inform them of the situation. Make sure to give the issuing bank all the information that you have. Including, the billing and mailing address the card thief submitted. When the cardholder calls your company, explain the importance of the situation and why it is vital that he or she also reports the incident to the police.

By following these steps you are taking the necessary action to protect your business from credit card fraud.

William King is the director of Canada Wholesale, UK Wholesalers and Dropshippers Directory. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

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Wealth in the new regime flows directly from innovation, not optimization; that is, wealth is not gained by perfecting the known, but by imperfectly seizing the unknown.”

Kevin Kelly

One question that comes to mind is “Why should we distinguish organizational values from personal values?” Let’s take a closer look. Over the centuries, philosophers and researchers have examined the various aspects of values and ethics. Our investigation today will take us on an ethical journey that will help understand how to improve the integrity of 21st century organizations as well as leaders.

Are we in a new era of corruption by senior leaders? Have you noticed all of the leadership scandals? You have high profile CEOs. You have government officials. You have celebrities. What are the results of these bad behaviors? People become less trusting of organizations and people. How can organizations exist when the leader-follower relationship is broken? According to one poll, 45% of the people give Congress poor marks for its honesty and ethics. How can intelligent and powerful people get in so much trouble?

In recent history, political strategists have shifted their approach for dealing with political scandals before the public. The most prevalent method is for a political figure to “get in front of the story” by voluntarily disclosing as much information as possible and by projecting an image of total cooperation with legal and media inquiries. This strategy goes along with denouncing questions as politically motivated, providing little information and praying that the storm will pass over.

Ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay took a similar approach when he discovered he was tied to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff scandal. Recently, evidence suggest that politicians are better off just hunkering down until it is over. This strategy is based on the belief that the public has a short attention span or memory. If a politician carries on with his duties, he can overcome any negative baggage. Examples of this approach can be found with prominent Democrats and Republicans as well the White House.

For example, President George Bush and the White House came under investigation in the Plame case in 2003. Senior White House officials faced legal and political scrutiny for leaking the identity of the covert CIA operative. The White House took no personnel actions and said nothing publicly. It appeared to have worked.

During the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal, President Clinton used the hunkered down approach. Polls taken during the time suggested that most Americans concluded that Clinton probably lied; they considered the matter a private one for family.

Clinton knew if he had acknowledged the affair in 1998, the political uproar would have driven him from office. Clinton explained in 2004, “I think the overwhelming likelihood is that I would have been forced from office…” Hunkering down does work. Unfortunately, this unethical behavior will continue unless citizens demand more. Lead, character does count.

References:

Ciulla, J.B. (1998). Ethics: The Heart of Leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Draft (1995). Organization Theory and Design. New York: West Publishing Company.

Harris, J. (April 12, 2005). In recent scandals, a rethinking of capital’s conventional wisdom. Washington Post.

Ethics Quality.com (n.d.). Cultural Management Essentials. Received on October 30, 2006, from http://www.ethicsquality.com/culturemgt.htm.

Kern, C. (2003). Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture, Pepperdine University.

King, S. (2006). The Moral Manager. Public Integrity. 8(2), pp.113-133.

Koch, W. (December 11, 2006). Washington scandal eating up public trust. USA Today.

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2003). Credibility. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Kowert, P. (2001). Leadership and Learning in Political Groups. Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration. 14(2). pp.201-232.

Kurtz, R. (2003). Organizational culture, decision-making, and integrity, Public Integrity. 5(4). Pp.305-317.

Miller, W. (2001). Responsible Leadership: Base Your Leadership on Spiritual Roots. Executive Excellence. 18(5).

Nelson, M. (1994). Why Americans hate Politics and Politicians. Virginia Quarterly Review. 70(4), p.636, 18p.

Psychology Today. (1993). Decision making: How presidents think. Pg 8.

Reave, L. (2005). Spiritual values and practices related to leadership effectiveness. The Leadership Quarterly. 16(5), pp. 655-687.

Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in Organizations. Delhi, India: Pearson Education, Inc.

© 2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of four books, including More than a Conqueror: Achieving Personal Fulfillment in Government Service. Do you want to improve your life? Do you want to make better decisions? If you answer “”yes,”" then go to the ‘master decision-making’ website

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Have you ever thought what makes one manager better than another? It might start with his or her credibility. Good values give leaders credibility. Today’s politicians argue about God’s political affiliation. Politicians promote values like they were Nike shoes. As a result, Americans are now cynical their leaders.

Let’s examine this matter closer. In 1998, President Clinton was caught in a vicious sex scandal. Clearly, it was a national disgrace. There was a circle of low character issues, including adultery, lies, and betrayal. His opponents gleamed at the possible political advantages. However, the results were different than expected.

A character train wreck pursued. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich resigned, and his replacement Bob Livingston resigned after his adulterous scandal. As a result of these personal shames among politicians, voices grew quieter about these unethical deeds. No one was discussing good family values during this scandalous timeframe. However, people want to think highly about their leaders. Leadership gurus Kouzer and Posner explain that most individuals admire leaders who are honest, inspiring, and competent.

I wonder why these powerful people don’t get it. Why do some politicians feel they can short circuit good character in their offices? People do care about character. Clearly, effective leaders need to understand that character does count and is valued among followers. Therefore, more politicians need to listen closer.

References:
BBC.co.uk (1998). Received on October 5, 2006,

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2003). Credibility. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

© 2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of two acclaimed books, Awakening the Talents Within and My Cup Runneth Over. He is a columnist, lecturer, professor, and management consultant. Mr. Green has a BS in engineering and a MA in organizational management. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate in strategic leadership.

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Tags: article, business, code, ethical, issues

With all of the political campaigning, a report released this fall by the Josephson Institute received very little attention and unfortunately should have been both front page news and the lead story for every major media outlet. This annual report of over 36,000 students revealed poor work ethics where 60% of American high school students in order to improve their performance cheated on a test with 28% said that they stole from a store.

What is even more incredible is the disconnect between these students’ behaviors and their personal beliefs. Ninety-two percent of these students believed that their personal characters were satisfactory with a whopping 74% agreeing to the statement: “”When it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know.”" From the sound of these findings, no wonder we have politicians who believe that their misleading to false ads are O.K. and that they did nothing wrong.

The results of this survey confirmed earlier surveys. In 2005, Donald McCabe at Rutgers University published a survey where more than 70% of students admitted to cheating at least once on a test. Cheating is not just reserved for highs school students. McCabe also surveyed graduate students and discovered cheating attitudes for:

The ramifications from this research are far reaching. For example, business ethics has been the talk of many with the Enron executives and various other business executives being indicted. With over 1 out of 2 believing that cheating is OK, can this be part of the reason? Capitalism does not make people unethical. People are unethical before they enter the business marketplace.

In education, more and more is written about how parents are responsible for the conduct of their children. Yet, when almost 1 out of every 2 teachers cheated at some time indicates that the issue of work ethics or what I call attitudes of performance is just as much about teachers as the parents.

And in our society where many of the laws are written by lawyers who have been elected to office, is it a wonder that there is an attitude of going around the law when almost 1 out of 2 have an acceptable attitude about cheating?

Ethics is critical to any society not only surviving, but thriving. These surveys indicate that the U.S. business, education and future are at risk. When young people to adult U.S. citizens can hear and see their leadership including:

Should we be surprised when 2 out of 3 young people feel that their behavior is better than everyone else’s even though almost 2 out of 3 young people have cheated on a test?

One quick question,if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack holding you back from success, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give Leanne Hoagland-Smith a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.

Visit this site and explore everything from free articles to connecting with Leanne.

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Tags: work, ethics, article, work, good, business

Believing in what one does is important to make the work successful. If the person involved in a work does not have enough faith & confidence on the work then the probability of that work not being successful is more. Any system no matter how big the system is & how flawless it is if it does not have people involved in it who have faith on the system.

A set of people not so confident about the system is a force good enough to make the system totally inefficient & imperfect & eventually fail it. Now this is an important issue because every one of them who are designing a system must consider this.

A system & it’s success depends on the acceptance that it receives from the people involved in the system. If a company is willing to establish a new project then it should involve the people in the system, who are eventually going to be the user of the project. This will allow the company to asses their project & estimate the errors & thereby make it a success.

If people like these are involved in the formation of the system then they can suggest the modification that the system requires. These modifications will increase the chances of their acceptance of the system.
The fact that human being though pretend to like changes but really does not prevent them from accepting a new system replacing an age old one even if the new system is far better than the existing one.

This issue of human acceptance has been a very under rated one but eventually it’s the people that a system is made for. So if it does not convince them then there is no point in even thinking about a new system. So if you are planning to introduce a new system you better consider the issue seriously.

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Tags: ethic, cases, business, issues, article

Poor work ethics can be heard from the boardroom to the shipping dock. Employees pointing the finger at their fellow employees who do not consistently demonstrate the same beliefs about working hard or even just working.

How to change these poor work ethics is a question that stymies the best leadership or management. What makes one employee hard working going the extra mile? Why do we have so many who are just here to earn a paycheck? And let us not forget the few who make a business work day a miserable experience for everyone around them.

Small Business Coaching Tip: Identify your explores (25%), vacationers (50%) and prisoners (25%). Then put together an action plan to convert more vacationers into explorers and terminate the prisoners.

First, there needs to be some clarity around what is a behavior and what is an ethic. A behavior is what someone does, a physical action that is observable from body language to actual performance. An ethic is a belief about what is important to that individual.

For example, an employee comes to work at clocks in at 8:50 am and is on the floor ready to begin a day’s work. Another employee comes to work clocks in at 8:59am and is still not on the floor. The behaviors of these two individuals demonstrate their work ethics.

Since an ethic is really a belief, then to change the behaviors begin by changing the beliefs. Unfortunately, most training only looks at the behaviors and fails to identify the beliefs.

Small Business Coaching Tip: Negative results are reflected through negative actions. However, negative beliefs drive negative actions.

Additionally, within the K-12 educational system, there has been several decades where hard work has not been rewarded consistently. Too many parents do not want their children to be considered failures or losers so rewarding the top two performers has been replaced. After all, it is not fair that the student who was just .5% behind number two students did not receive any recognition.

Conditioning also plays an important part in the development of work ethics. Remember being in class and how the other students treated the over-performers? Very few students wanted to be the “smart person” or the teacher’s pet. Staying unnoticed was a far better way to get recognition from your peers.

The lack of having a personal values statement can contribute to poor work ethics. In a society that now frowns on judging behavior, the wink and the nod belief takes over. What this belief suggests that “Sure I believe in honesty unless I get caught.”

Several months ago, I observed the wink and the nod behavior when I saw one business person pay for a newspaper from a vending machine and then give a second unpaid paper to his colleague. Both believed this was OK until I deposited $.50 and paid for the paper that was stolen. Then their behaviors changed because they were caught.

Businesses, as well as other organizations, also suffer from the wink and the nod belief. Executive management talks about conserving resources and then spends excessive profits on marketing junkets to the now famous golden parachutes.

To change poor work ethics requires a multidimensional approach that infuses the executive team leadership actions and beliefs identification through effective communication of current goals and strategies. When alignment of all behaviors is not present in any organization, one of the outcomes can be poor work ethics as demonstrated through poor work behaviors.

Chicago Sales Coach Leanne Hoagland-Smith helps to quickly increase profits & increase productivity for individuals & organizations involved in service industries of health care, real estate and regional railroads; distribution industry of new car sales and manufacturing. Process coaching and development works because my clients quickly double their results.

Sign up to read Leanne’s weekly business coaching training column. Visit to discover the value added articles, e books and other tools. Call me at 219.759.5601 to schedule a free coaching or business strategy session.

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Tags: work, ethics, article, workplace, social

How in the world did I get scammed by a 100% satisfaction or your money back guarantee offer? You’ll probably be a bit surprised, if you haven’t fallen victim to this scam as of yet. Check this out!

I’m attending what I felt was a relatively expensive seminar when the orator goes into his sales pitch to sell another one of his seminars.

“$4,000.00! Is he kidding me?” I thought to myself.

I knew for certain that there was no way anyone could convince me to pay $4,000.00 to go to a seminar knowing what my bank statement looked like during that period.

But guess what? This particular salesman said some magic words:

“If you are not a millionaire in one year using the skills I will teach you at this seminar, you will get 100% of your money back!”

“Whoa! Wait a minute! How can I lose with an offer like that?” I thought.

I thought either one or two things would happen.

1. I would become a millionaire in a year! (Yeah, Baby!)

or

2. I would get 100% of my money back. (Not a bad investment!) I didn’t see anyway there was to lose! “I’ll take it!” I ecstatically thought.

While digging in my purse for a couple of credit cards to pay for this “much too expensive” seminar, I pictured myself enjoying my million dollars. I was overly excited!

I was passionate, very ambitious, an extremely hard worker and had specialized skills. All I needed was that last piece of the puzzle of how to turn my skills and passions into a means of supporting myself. I was ready!

“Teach me how to turn my skills into millions!” I thought.

Well, I soon discovered on my first day at this “make me a millionaire” seminar that my eyes weren’t able to “see” this million dollar picture very clearly. Here’s the Deal:

1. The offer wasn’t made in writing. There was no way to really prove the orator made such an outstanding offer stating these magnificent 100% guaranteed results.
2. When I got to the seminar, he stated a long list of “impossible” tasks that must be completed in order to get a refund.
3. I say “impossible” because he did everything possible to make sure no one would be eligible to request a refund.
4. The seminar did not deliver on its promise. Instead of teaching success skills, we were bombarded with offers to purchase other programs that “promised” to get us to that million dollar mark.
5. I lost $4,000.00 (plus hotel and plane fare) and a lot of time attending what turned out to be a huge lot of infomercials and a scam.

I learned an important and expensive lesson. Here are some “How to Avoid The 100% Guarantee Scam” tips I will share with you:

1. Before falling for the 100% guarantee or your money back offer, get the terms of the offer in writing.
2. Find out exactly what needs to be done to get your money back and how long it will take to get the refund.
3. Find out how the money will be refunded (as a credit for future purchases or your money back.) When we know better, we do better!

Self-Empowerment is the key to never getting scammed again!

YOUR LIFE really can be as beautiful and as bountiful as YOU create it to be! Self Empowerment is the Key!

Karen E. Smith is the author of Energy Diet, a self empowerment eBook. She is also a book reviewer for AnimatedBookReviews, a book review web site featuring reviews of empowerment books that motivate, inspire and educate.

Please visit The Energy Diet Book Web site to learn how you can empower your life here

AND Please visit The Animated Book Reviews web site for some empowering books for
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Tags: business, ethics, code, society, article

If two parties are on opposite sides of a contract and they want to reach a win-win resolution, that means that they must observe the Golden Rule during negotiations. Specifically, both parties must treat each other fairly and be completely honest. They also need to communicate openly and not withhold relevant information. There should be full disclosure of any facts relevant to the transaction.

Respect is one of the most important elements of treating people well. Both parties must respect each other’s time, needs, finances, family situation, and any other circumstance that may affect the negotiations. As part of showing respect, each party should treat the other party professionally and conduct themselves professionally. There should never be anger or raised voices.

Both parties should be committed to a resolution that will be agreeable to both of them. Neither party should ever look for ways to take advantage of the other party. Before the negotiations start, they should both agree to a method of resolving an impasse on an important issue. To avoid the expense and delay of litigation, they should agree to have the issue decided by a mediator. They should also agree to abide by the mediator’s decision.

Both parties should greet other with courtesy, and they should be on time for meetings. They should also abide by any time limits set for the meetings, but agree to schedule a follow-up meeting if they still have issues to resolve. They should keep confident any information that either party wants to keep confident. Once they reach an agreement, they should reduce the agreement with complete accuracy.

At the end of the meeting, they should shake hands and thank the other person for their time and courtesy. The Golden Rule is so simple. It is also appropriate in any situation, even in business.

About the author

Jo Ann Joy, Esq., MBA, CEO
Copyright 2006 Indigo Business Solutions. All rights reserved.
The future of your business starts here.

Jo Ann Joy is the CEO and owner of Indigo Business Solutions, a legal and business consulting firm. Indigo Business Solutions is a “one stop shop” for small businesses. We differ from other business consulting firms, because we offer comprehensive legal and business counseling. We can offer most of the professional services that a business requires. We work with our clients to develop strategies that create value and competitive advantage.

Jo Ann has a law degree, an MBA, and a degree in Economics, but she is not a traditional attorney. Rather, she is a strategic business attorney who works closely with clients to create and implement strategies that will greatly improve their performance and chance of success. Her background includes commercial and real estate law, accounting, financial planning, mortgages, marketing, product development, banking, and business strategies. She ran a successful business for 10 years, and she has written and given presentations on many different legal and business subjects.

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Tags:ethics, article, business, medical, marketing

There are many parasites of the Business World and they range from Lawyers to Professors to the Bureaucratic Scum of over-regulation. If we could eliminate many of these folks via some new type of high-heat, high-energy Laser Weapon then the business community would be a better place you see?

Some of the Business Professors are so arrogant and assign their students projects in different industries and those student bother businesses for information to do meaningless, crappy and BS papers. Oh the kids think they are all brilliant and a bunch of smarty pants, but they give themselves away by asking the dumbest questions in the World.

The only thing worse than academia is the BS regulators wasting the time of business owners pretending to be industry professionals and buyers, they should all be deported with the illegal aliens to Zimbabwe as farmers, screw em. It is amazing their BS entrapment techniques, playing games and they have never done anything in their lives, never made a payroll or created a single job. Scum of the Earth really, except for lawyers, although sometimes they are both. Death is not an option, but put them to work in Africa as farmers so they can produce something. Make em’ work. HA.

If you are a student then well, good luck on your class project, and re-read this several times, it is probably worth more than your entire MBA class. If you are the Professor assigning such crap, get a life and stop wasting businesses time. If you are regulator go shoot yourself and help humanity. If you are a Lawyer, well you have already been told where to go. Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; WorldThinkTank. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

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Tags:work, ethics, article, workplace, social

To say that we as human beings have ethical values implies something quite profound. It literally means that we are, in a manner of speaking “hardwired” with such values. If we were not we would not have the ability to ever gauge when something was “right” or “wrong”.

You see, before you can make such an assessment you need to have an “internal measuring stick” by which to make such measurements.

So where does this internal reference or “measuring stick” live inside of us? Well many would say that it is something we learn through our lives say from our families, religion, courses on ethics, involvement with or awareness of the legal system and so on. In other words that the “ethical measuring stick” is just a set of rules we have acquired and is represented by the many beliefs we have about what is considered “good behavior”.

If this were the case then that ethical measuring stick would be quite vulnerable to being altered the next time some new rule was espoused by some “authority”. In other words the whole foundation of what is or is not ethical would be again on very shaky ground. This of course might also bring into question the reason we have ethical values at all as they would have no place from which to originally germinate.

Now if you consider for a moment a situation that you would consider transcends your ethical values notice where within you you make such an assessment. If you notice it closely I think you will ultimately agree that apart from any beliefs you may have about the matter deeper down inside you also have some feelings about it.

For a moment notice these feelings. Notice where you feel them most intensely as you consider the situation that I asked you to focus on. Now do you “think” that these feelings were generated by you or did they just happen to emerge spontaneously without you having to do anything other than hold the situation in mind?

The next time you return to “thinking” about the situation at hand do you think that these feelings will “feel” any different? Likely not because the situation is what it is and you being human will “always” feel the way you do about it and nothing can change that.

So here we’ve come to an awareness of something inside you that appears immutable i.e. your feelings about the situation at hand.

Unlike one’s beliefs these are unchanging and hence hardwired in each human being. Isn’t this what we have been calling the “internal ethical measuring stick”, that which we rely on to guide us to the ethical high ground.

So if we all have this ethical hardwiring then why is it that we have any ethical problems to deal with at all on this planet? Shouldn’t we all automatically be in alignment with them and living the good ethical life? Well if you look around it’s clear that this is not the case so something must be seriously wrong.

What do you know is this problem here? Well when you look at what we rely on to guide us in life it has very little to do with this internal wisdom. Feelings in fact have been maligned for too long and the “mind” and what we have chosen to “store” there through learning has attained predominant mastery over our lives. How does that feel to you?

The whole idea of ethics is supposed to be about what is right and what is wrong, but for whom? Well for you! In other words this inner wisdom is the repository of information and guidance about what is right for you. That is what will lead you to a happy, successful, fulfilling life. What are the consequences to you of discarding or even denying this inner wisdom?

Well it means that you will feel lost, alone, confused, vulnerable to being manipulated and exploited, and therefore unhappy and unfulfilled. In other words your life and your success will be stolen from you.

If all that education of yours has left you feeling this way and you would like to find your way back to some clarity then kindly visit the web link below where you can download a free audio from me with a special message that will permanently alter your life.

Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called “Spirituality And Science” (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.

His personal site here.

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Tags: ethics, questions, morality, professional, article

As a business owner and coach, I come across the issue of building integrity and reputation on a daily basis. It is something I feel strongly about, as who can build a business without integrity and a good reputation. As business owners, we know that if we want repeat business and referrals (both of which are the foundation of growing our business) then we need to include integrity and reputation in everything we do. Now, this may sound like common sense, but sometimes business owners forget these 2 important key concepts and make a mistake. That one mistake, let’s call it a step forward, can take their business back 20 steps. From time to time, it may take them so far back that they won’t be able to recover and their business will fold. So how can we, as business owners ensure that we are continually moving forward in building our integrity and reputation in a positive light? Actually, if we remember a few simple “rules,” then we can continue to build and grow.

Rule 1- Always be timely.

I know, this sounds like common sense, but how many times have you been told something, and it has not been carried through. For example, you ordered a birthday present and it was promised you would receive it in 2 days (1 day before the birthday), and then not received it for 4 days. Now you don’t have the gift to give because someone was not timely. This is a simple example but I as a business owner live by this rule. In fact, if I tell someone I will have their project to them by a certain time, I shoot for 24 hours before. Why do I do this? What happens if I plan to send it to them when it is due, but oops, my hard drive crashes? They don’t get the project on time-even though it was finished in advance, and it puts them behind. This does not help my integrity or reputation, and it will probably affect if the client will do business with me again, or not.

Now, all of us understand that acts of God can interfere with our work or we can make a mistake (after all, we are all human). It’s bound to happen sometime. So what do we do?

Rule 2- Always be honest.

This is a hard rule to live by, because sometimes you are so ashamed of your mistake, you don’t want to admit your foolishness. Let me share a horrifying mistake I made that could have destroyed my business. I was creating an e-book for a client. I found beautiful pictures which I designed the cover with and added throughout the book. I sent the book to her and she was delighted. The day before she was to send it to her webmaster to get it added to her site, I happened to realize that the pictures were not royalty free, which means we did not have permission to use them. I could have pretended I didn’t know and let the book go on the market and hoped that no one said anything about the pictures and my client didn’t get in trouble. I didn’t do this. I embarrassingly relayed my mistake to my client as soon as I discovered it (who is by the way, still my client). Because I was honest, she was understanding. Now, do you think I charged her to fix this mistake? See the next rule.

Rule 3- Always fix your mistakes immediately.

Do you charge for your mistakes to be fixed? Absolutely not! It is not your client/customers fault that there was a mistake! How did I fix my big mistake? I went and bought royalty free pictures (with my money). I then redid the whole book (on my own time). I stayed up late that night and got the book fixed and ready to go. My client did not have to pay out a dime for my mistake. I took full blame and then went the extra step to fix the mistake. This client has been with me for a year now, and continues to refer me to everyone she comes across. We have a wonderful relationship, that could have been ruined had I not followed Rule #2 and #3.

Now these are just 3 rules to help you along the way in your business. There are many more things we must do to build our integrity and reputation, but if you follow these 3 rules, you will not take those 20 steps backwards, but go 20 steps forward.

If you would like to see the book I did for my client, Kimberly Chastain, you may visit her at www.kimberlychastain.com and check out her newest book “Help, My Preteen/Teenager is Driving Me Nuts!” If you have preteens/teenagers or children who will eventually hit these stages, this is a fabulous book!

In the meantime, take the extra steps to grow your business by being an honest, timely, and committed business owner!

© 2005 JERPAT

You have permission to reprint this article electronically or in print, as long as the text and byline remain unedited. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Patty Benton is the owner of JERPAT Virtual Assistants and JERPAT Web Design, which provides affordable administrative and web design support to coaches, small businesses, religious organizations, and realtors. Additionally, Patty is a coach for new entrepreneurs interested in venturing into the virtual assistance industry. She has developed a program that is affordable for all. Get program details and great business resources. If you would like to receive Patty’s articles and other tips in your mailbox every month, you can sign up at JERPAT .

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An ethical dilemma is when an incident arises that causes you to question how you should react based on your beliefs and deciding how to choose between right and wrong.

Sometimes, an ethical dilemma might be easily solved once you have had a bit of time to think about it but in other cases, it might not be as easy.

Perhaps you have been put into a bad position where you need to make a decision that will most likely have consequences regardless of what you decide.

An example of an ethical dilemma is when a salesperson is guaranteed to make a big sale if they offer a kickback (ie. an illegal payment) to someone.

If they agree to the kickback, they get the sale but risk getting caught and getting into big trouble.

If they don’t agree to the kickback, they don’t get the sale and might end up looking bad in the eyes of their employer.

Also, should they even tell their employer about the situation or should they simply make a decision and live with the consequences?

Clearly, this is an ethical dilemma and although it’s easy to say you would do the right thing, when you are actually in such a position and are feeling pressure to act, you might not always be able to think as clearly as you would otherwise like to think you would.

Depending on the situation, how you react to an ethical dilemma might differ but at the end of the day, here are some things to keep in mind:

* Use common sense. If it’s clearly wrong or illegal, you know the consequences of doing something that could cost you dearly.
* Don’t let your self-interest get in the way and allow it to cloud your judgment. A short-term gain could be a long-term pain if you make the wrong decision and get caught.
* Don’t assume that your employer will back you up if you do something wrong and get caught. Referring to the above example of the kickback, don’t assume that if you decide to pay the kickback that this is what your employer would approve of. If you acted alone and get caught, don’t expect your employer to defend you because they may distance themselves from you to avoid further embarrassment or legal trouble.
* Don’t risk your credibility. It can take many good deeds to build credibility but only one seemingly simple indiscretion for it to vanish.

Depending on the specific situation, when an ethical dilemma arises, use common sense and think things through clearly before making a decision you may later regret. Not every decision is cut and dry and sometimes the grey area – the area that is somewhere between right and wrong – may not be as clear as you’d like.

Where possible, try to speak with your manager or someone else you trust when in doubt especially if the decision you have to make affects the company. Don’t assume your employer will tolerate you doing something wrong even if it benefits them.

Remember to treat others as you’d expect to be treated and don’t do anything wrong in anticipation of a short-term gain that could end up costing you in the long-term.

Carl Mueller is an Internet entrepreneur and professional recruiter who wants to help you find your dream career.

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If you are in a car accident and suffer an injury, you should consult with an attorney. Although most people would like to do the right thing and compensate your for your injury, it is rarely up to the person which caused the injury. In fact, it will more than likely be at the discretion of the other person’s insurance company. In addition, as we all know, insurance companies will do everything in their power not to offer compensation for your injury or offer a settlement to you way below what you would receive if you had hired a lawyer. If you did not know, insurance companies profit from this type of under compensation.

An experienced car accident or personal injury lawyer will know how to negotiate with the insurance company, build your case, and take your case to trial if necessary. It is not advisable for you to meet personally with the insurance company without your lawyer present. Insurance companies will do everything they can to take advantage of you and will obtain statements from you that could jeopardize your case if you should decide to sue.

Find the right lawyer can be a time consuming and challenging task. Usually people begin their search when they are in need of one immediately. A lawyer should be selected for their expertise and experience in car accident cases. The right lawyer will have experience in cases such as yours and will be able to take action immediately. The right lawyer will know what to do immediately without having to “research your case” or check court decisions, as he/she should be familiar with your type of case. Selecting the right lawyer will save you time and money in the long run.

Begin your search for your lawyer as soon as possible. A critical deadline called “statue of limitations” and other deadlines may give you a limited amount of time to take legal action.
Do no rely on advice from friends and family in choosing your lawyer, doing so will limit your search for the “right lawyer”. However, if a family member or friend can recommend a lawyer that has work experiences in a case similar to yours, then act on their recommendation and make the appointment to meet him or her.

The most important factor in selecting your lawyer is that you are comfortable speaking with him or her and that you feel that a working relationship can develop. A good working relationship and communication can be a vital key to the success of your case.

For more information, visit this site.

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Tags: ethics, legal, article, attorney, law

Executive summary

Its revenues made up US $139($184) billion, assets equaled $62($82) billion, and the number of employees reached more than 30,000 people in 20 countries around the world.

While Enron Corporation was so highly praised by the outside observers, internally it had highly decentralized financial control and decision-making structure, which made it practically impossible to get coherent and clear view on corporations’ activities and operations. Of course, the problem was not exclusively due to poor managerial performance, all the departments of the corporation were involved in the ruining corporate ethical values and principles, but executives and managers bear primary responsibility for the absence of corporate culture, clear accountability and transparence of the company. If operations management worked properly, in its full force, and if it was given possibility to work in such a way, there could be a chance of escaping the tragedy.

Enron Corp brief history

Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy, services and commodities company. Before it filed bankruptcy under chapter 11, it sold natural gas and electricity, delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection, and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world.

Enron was based in Houston, Texas, and was founded in July 1985 (though company with Enron name emerged still in 1930 (Swatz, Watkins, 2003)) by the merger of InterNorth of Omaha in Nebraska, and Houston Natural Gas. Enron Company quickly developed from merely delivering energy to brokering energy futures contracts on deregulated energy markets. In 1994, the company started to sell electricity, and in 1995, it entered European energy market. By the middle 2001, Enron employed about 30,000 people globally (McLEan, Elkind,2003).

Questionable accounting methods and techniques provided Enron with possibility to be listed as seventh largest United States company and was expected to dominate the market which the company virtually invented in the communications, weather and power securities (Bryce, 2002). But instead the corporation became the largest corporate failure in the global history and an example of well-planned and institutionalized corporate fraud. Enron became wealthy due to its pioneering marketing and promotion of power and communications bandwidth services and risk management derivatives, including such innovative and exotic items as weather derivatives.

In 1999, Enron launched an initiative of buying and selling access to high-speed Internet bandwidth, and also Enron Online was launched as a Web-based trading site, making Enron e-commerce company. In 2000, the reported revenues of the company made $101 billion. It had stakes in almost 30,000 miles of gas pipelines, either owned or accessed 15,000 miles of fiber-optic network and had stakes in global operations on generating electricity (Thomas, 2002).

In the result, for five years in a row, from 1996 to 2000, Enron was named “America’s most innovative Company” by Fortune magazine, and headed the list of Fortune’s “100 best companies to Work for in America” in 2000. Enron reputation was undermined by rumors on bribery and political pressure with the objective of securing contacts in South and Central America, Philippines and Africa. The Enron was blamed to use its connections with Clinton and Bush administrations to express pressure in their contracts. The events were followed by a series of scandals involving irregular accounting methods bordering on fraud which involved Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting firm and led Enron on the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in economic history in November 2001 (Emshwiller, Smith, 2001).

Since Enron was always considered a blue chip stock, the bankruptcy was a disastrous and unprecedented event in the global financial world. Enron’s downfall was definite when it was found out that a considerable share of its profits resulted from deals with so-called special-purpose entities, limited partnership under control of Enron. It resulted in the possibility of not reporting many of the company’s losses in its financial statements. The final plan of Enron’s bankruptcy included creation of three new businesses which would be spun off the company.

The reorganization process started in 2003 with the creation of three companies – CrossCountry Energy, Prisma Energy International, and Portland General Electric. CrossCountry Energy was sold to CCE Holdings L.L.C., with the money to be used for the repayment of the debts, while Prisma Energy International and Portland General Electric should emerge as independent companies descendant of Enron (Swatz, 2003).

Operations management scope of functions

To understand the reasons of this bankruptcy and the level of managerial implication in the quality performance of the company, particularly that of operations management, it is necessary to outline the main functions of operations management and impact it should have of functioning of the organization.

The principal task of operations management is effective transformation of inputs into “desired outputs” of the company (Shafer, 1997). The outputs are traditionally understood in manufacturing and profit-making context within the organizations. But recently it has been recognized that operations management is a discipline which is not limited with such narrow functions; it can be deployed in practically any area where the organization aims at achieving its objectives (Barnett, 1996). For instance, non-profit or public sectors have to learn to optimize their internal operations and processes in the situation of limited resources; service companies come to conclusion that by reappraising their delivery process they can revolutionize and significantly improve their approach to manufacturing companies and their marketplace. Robin Wood (2001) gives the example of such operations management implication in Daewoo company, which understood that it can specialize and differentiate its product by adding definite bundle of benefits to its product which includes additional supporting services. Operations sector is the heart of these changes that are made by leading companies to improve their performance and increase customer base.

The survival of commercial company depends on ability of the organization to focus and shape its operational resources to meet the expectations of its stakeholders: customers, employees and shareholders, expressed in organizational strategy (Russel, 1995) . Irrespective of economic sectors the company operates in, the ability of operations management of this company to fulfill those above-mentioned tasks depends on their understanding that it is necessary to make trade-offs. They cannot avoid the situation of working under constraints and have to understand their capabilities and constraints to provide significant inputs into strategic decision-making process involving further resources of the organization.

Operations managers in the organizations are not empowered to make strategic decisions, but they play important role in shaping the organization’s strategy and contribute to the strategic thinking ( Pasternack, Viscio, 1998). Operations managers should be able to translate strategic aims and objectives into clear operational objectives and actions and to implement, design and improve the products of the company themselves and the processes of their delivery. They have to know how changes incorporated to external factors influence the operation and how changes in one aspect of the operating system influence other aspects.

Also, operations managers need to know how technological changes impact organization’s capability of delivery, and to incorporate their conclusions into strategic process (Peters, Waterman, 1982). Therefore, the heart of operations thinking includes the ability to think dynamically and systematically across time and space (Miller, 1998). Besides traditional tasks of operation management, new perspectives and objectives emerge connected with the emergence of new trends and developments of operations management, such as total quality management, shop floor control, global supply chain management, manufacturing planning software, and others.

Total quality management has become one of the most important developments of the operations management. The quest for higher level of products and services quality is caused by the globalization of markets, on the one hand, and increasing litigation over service or product failure. The relationship between quality and market share performance is doubtless. Those firms that fail to understand the issue of quality find themselves on the bottom of their industry hierarchy. A significant share of the responsibility for quality standards rests on the operations manager. Global supply chain management is another very important component of operations management. The world economy is becoming more global than ever. Looking for lower production costs, more flexibility and local risk reduction, companies are seeking to outsource and produce services and products on global scale (Heizer, 2004). Operation managers are responsible for fulfilling the task. Project management is yet another task of the operations management department. Operation managers bear responsibility for numerous projects which range from considerable capital projects to specific ones such as installation of new information system.

Effectively managing projects involves fulfillment and delivery them in timely manner and within the budget (Stevens, 2001). In a word, operations management is indispensable component of the organization, since it fulfills numerous important functions of the company. Operations manager handles daily running and functioning of the organization.

The implication of poor managerial performance for the collapse of Enron Corporation

Now it is necessary to find out and analyze whether operations management of Enron Corp performed all the functions mentioned above and what was the quality of their activity.

The Enron did have operations management department, which, according to their official source, fulfilled the following functions: setup accounts and notify utilities, agency agreement from customer, verify the format of invoice, setup invoice data transfer, test algorithms of invoice and file transfer to the customer, determine the reporting requirements of the customer (Enron Energy Services, 2000). As it is seen from the source, the functions of very operations management department are very limited. There are other management departments which perform the functions of operations management stated above: operations facility management, commodity management, energy asset management, financial operations, and capital management. Though, most of functions performed by these departments, according to the source, are purely executive and lack integration, systematic vision, responsibility, control and creative aspect. Besides limited scope of functions assigned to operations management in Enron Corporation, another important point concerns the quality of their performance and overall corporate culture and atmosphere created within corporation. As it was mentioned above, ideally, the functions of operations management include creating ethic values, integrity, competence and clear accountability within the organization. Enron’s management failed to comply with these tasks.

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Tags: ethics, article, issues, management, strategic

Sales training and marketing tips based on reality selling becomes almost obselete when you enter the world of online marketing and selling. The average marketing person stands amazed at the millions of advertisments, listings, promises of success and money.

This is something every online marketeer will experience. Be careful of the undercurrents of being drawn in to such excitement, if you do not keep your wits about you. I am not going to scare you away. but I do want you to listen. This can prevent you losing a lot of money because the REST of the package seems geniune.

After spending lots of time and money, seeing some results but not having the time or patience that is needed to drive a proper marketing project for business or product, one tends to turn to the one that says: I am a millionnaire and I will show you the shortcuts to get there.

Very easy writing, very clever words, lots of things that make sense. Nothing wrong with that.
I am even able to identify that it is similar to doing magic.

You visualize, you use tools, you get manifestation into reality. Watching the results are really exciting, when you see that this different strategy makes your hard work visible to the millions using search engines.

Tempted further, you make use of the massmailing program underwritten by such an advertising guru. They too seem very geniune. Speaking of legal opt in e-mails etc.

And you make the mistake to sit back and relax. And Believe. Nothing wrong with that either, except never to let your guard down. You are afterall a “protege” of this big, sucessful man with his empire.

Let your alarmbells go off when the phone rings. You had to submit your telephone information when you made the purchase for the book, or when you subscribed to the program.

Listen, LISTEN when that call comes. At first your heart races, when you are told that this is the time to act NOW. Not tomorrow, not waiting for the hardcopy document. Careful, clever questions are asked about your budget, how much money you would have available on your cards, whether they via/mastercard. You are smoothly being told that you will be assisted by a professional to drive your business to ultimate sucess. Brilliant initial sales pitch.

The executive will be insistant. Grab your creditcard and give out the information over the phone! Along with the little 3 digit key at the back. Yes, now over the phone! And to agree to give away thousands of the big US dollar because unless you act NOW, this chance will be gone forever!

DO NOT do that. Ever. This is when your alarmbells should be ringing so loud, that you make an excuse. You play for time. You get a reprieve for delay from the executive of this marketing giant.

This is the time surf the Web and use the right keywords. They are : Scam + the Company name.

Dear marketeer, so eager and so keen, be prepared for the shock when you see tens, even hundreds of listings of people who have been caught. Because nine out of ten times, THAT phone call IS a scam.

You can report it, you can mail the relevant company and ask for an explanation. Chances are that you will get an automated reply telling you that they will come back in 24 hours. Which they do not.

Suddenly all the companies that are so heavily promoted by the guru, this saviour of online advertising and marketing, send out urgent emails that they not in any way associated with this company. They agree that you should NEVER give out this information on the phone!

Your emails from the mother company will remain unanswered. The phone number will be different.

You came away from a huge scam. Scared out of your wits perhaps, but intact. Never, NEVER work with a company that calls and just asks for your credit details over the phone. Do not think that just because the owner shows off his new car, and pictures with his boat and throws around huge names, that they are 100% geniune.

For if you do, you are easy prey to scam.

The emails to you will stop after your queries, no more advertising emails sent to you. And no, even if you insist, you will not even get a remote explanation of why they need to do this.

I have been a sales and marketing manager for many years. I am not blind to opportunity and chances to grow. I am not adverse to new strategy. I give motivational talks to business people and it works. The reason for this warning is clear. If they can ALMOST get me, would they succeed in taking your money?

Listen to your instinct. ASK for more detail, whether by fax or email. Request references.

Search the internet and check if maybe, just maybe this is a scam.

Just a word of warning.

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From the middle of last century until today we have become the “throw away society”. Buzz words like “disposable” and “one-use” have been commonplace. Where we used to “make do and mend” in the war years we now simply replace items that are no longer functioning or are no longer wanted. Now this is great if we have an everlasting supply of clean energy to make replacement goods and bottomless land fill sites. But we have neither.

In poorer countries this problem is negligible as most spending goes on food and essential items, leaving very little to be thrown away. More affluent societies, however, are at last beginning to wake up to the fact that the throw away lifestyle is not sustainable.

How did we get here? Several factors have conspired to bring about our disposable disposition. The main one is affluence. As western societies became richer, the demand for goods rose. Also, our salaries rose. Manufacturing needed to be faster at pumping out goods. Product design and work practices needed to be changed to accommodate increased volumes and in an affluent society it is hard to recruit and maintain the staff needed to keep these places going. As a result, the factories were located in poorer states at increasing distances from the end user. Electrical and mechanical goods were made with ever fewer serviceable parts to the point where some goods these days are totally sealed and repair is just not possible.

In days gone by a factory would produce finish goods and do a good side business in supplying parts to customers or repair shops. In affluent countries those days are gone taking with them the watch repairer, the radio (and tv) repair man, the cobbler etc etc. Even replacing the battery in an electric wrist watch is often virtually impossible.

Many authorities around the world are now trying to put the brakes on this trend and even trying to reverse it. They are asking for products to be designed to allow repair and parts replacement. In some areas – take Europe for example – they are introducing legislation that will force companies to take back (or at least take responsibility for) goods at the end of their life.

I am firmly of the opinion that, as this sentiment takes hold – and surely it will, we will be slowly warped back to the old days of repair shops and an increasing trade in spare parts. I am also convinced that this mini revolution is nearly upon us.

So have a walk down your local high street or shopping centre because it may look a little different in coming years with cobblers, watch menders and tv repair shops making a come back.

Of course, there have been some companies that bucked the throw away trend. Insect-o-Cutor have always provided spare parts for their fly killer machines. An Insectocutor fly killer can often go many years without needing any special servicing (they are guaranteed for 5 years in any case). If, however, they do need a spare part, then these are readily available from Arkay Hygiene at www.eeeee.co.uk. This availability is partly explains why it is common to see Insect-o-Cutor products working after 20 or even 30 years. In fact some Insect-o-Cutor fly killers from the 1960′s are still around and doing and excellent job.

Replacement parts for Insectocutor fly killers – such as the lamp cover for the F1 Fly Killer Model – can be purchased at this site.

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Tags: ethics, sales, marketing, training, article

This is for those who don’t believe me when I talk about the dangers of “mystery money” schemes.

The terms “pyramid scheme” and “Ponzi scheme” are used almost interchangeably. However, the scheme for which Charles Ponzi is most remembered was not a pyramid.

If you aren’t aware of the story of Ponzi, you’ll likely find it familiar. This man promised to double your money in 90 days, and he kept his promise — until the day he was arrested for fraud. He had created such a personal mystique that he continued to receive money from new investors while in prison.

How could someone with so many satisfied customers end up in prison? Because fraud is fraud no matter the results. Ponzi claimed to be investing peoples’ money and giving them the proceeds. What he was actually doing was giving peoples’ money to people who had previously “invested” in order to make it seem like everything was OK. Meanwhile, he was living a lavish lifestyle while he was millions of dollars in debt.

He had no trouble getting the ever-increasing numbers of opportunity-seekers necessary to fund his business. He probably would have kept it up for many years if the government hadn’t stepped in. Therefore, the lessons learned by those who wished (and wish) to follow in Ponzi’s footsteps are…

* Hide the money trail better.

* Improve the illusion of selling a real product or service.

* Don’t promise anything.

It’s very difficult to prove that a chain letter originated with a certain person. Many pyramid schemes are organized in such a way as to conceal who is at the top. If there is an actual product or service being sold, it’s difficult to prove that the main purpose of being in an organization is to recruit others (and their money). Finally, hype it up, but don’t get too specific. You can’t get sued for disappointing someone.

Are these the lessons that should be learned from Ponzi? No. If Ponzi was good at anything it was lying. A lesser con artist trying to do what he did would have been run out of town long before millionaire mode set in.

Also, things are different now. If you want to set up your own Ponzi operation, you have a lot of competition and a very savvy audience for your sales pitch if you choose to do it online. A simple Google-based investigation of your Internet trail can allow a scambuster to publish your entire history of crime on his home page for the world to see.

Also, the Internet provides ways of making Ponzi amounts of money legally and with less effort. Let’s all just stop giving out money to the scammers and trying to emulate them. Make the Web a better place.

Mike Jolley is a writer and programmer who recently turned to Internet marketing and publishing full time, with a big focus on business ethics. Find him and his other articles at this site.

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Tags: ethics, issues, business, research, article

“Eliot Spitzer, Ethics and a “”Note to Self”"

By George F Franks III Platinum Quality Author

George F Franks III

Level: Platinum

George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group – a Bethesda, Maryland based management consulting and leadership coaching. Franks Consulting … …

Article Word Count: 425 [View Summary] Comments (0).

The latest ethics scandal involves soon to be former-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. This is on top of news over the past several years about students’ cheating, Congressmen lying, CEO back-dating stock options and executives spying on their boards – among other things. The question is often asked “”why do smart people do dumb things?”" Let me put it a different way, people who are smart – or not so smart – need to do the RIGHT thing. So what does that mean?

The Right Things…

Do not lie, cheat or steal. Ever. No excuses. “”But everyone else is doing it”" should have stopped before junior high school.

Treat others the way you would want to be treated. This applies to customers, employees, suppliers and family members.

There are no short cuts to success. Success is the result of hard work over time. Anything less is luck.

Communication. Say what you mean and mean what you say. We are all caught up in double talk, buzz words and spin. Think about what you say – whether it is one on one, to a small meeting, to the board or to an auditorium of people. Put is out there in plain English.

Walk the talk. If you say something – others look to you to live it too. If you expect something from others then you must live it and lead by example.

No secrets. Whether it is over the phone, e-mail, conversation – or even “”IM”" – there are NO secrets. If you would not say something to your mother – then do not say it to others in the “”privacy”" of conversation, e-mail or other communication vehicles.

Visibility works both ways. PR is great when you want everybody to know about something wonderful you have done. How about when you do something that is not so wonderful? Think about it. Would you want your actions on the front page of the newspaper or on the 10 O’clock news report?

Don’t forget…

Whether you are in the mail room – or the corner office – or anywhere in between, the way you act every day – in and out of the office – speaks volumes about you. Live your life as an open book. Follow the simple principles outlined about. You may not become a Fortune 500 CEO or achieve FORBES list of the wealthiest people – but you will be able to sleep at night, look your colleagues in the eye and leave a wonderful legacy for all of those you have touched during your life.

George F. Franks, III is the President of Franks Consulting Group – a Bethesda, Maryland management consulting and success coaching practice. George is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants USA). His web site is: http://franksconsultinggroup.com His free quarterly e-zine on career and leadership topics is: http://careerandleadership.com

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Tags: legal, ethics, article, confidentiality, attorney