Holmen at all times expects its workers to act responsibly and ethically in the company’s operations. As my colleague Wayne Norman ( Duke College ) and I have argued in print , the true problem with conflict of curiosity isn’t just that this choice maker will make bad choices this time, or even that this choice maker will make unhealthy choices all the time.
Accenture has adopted a framework designed to achieve these aims, which incorporates (i) visible help of our senior leadership, (ii) common and periodic risk assessments, (iii) written requirements and controls, (iv) ongoing training and communications, and (v) auditing, monitoring, and response procedures.
People — including, importantly, the college’s professors — can’t quite trust McGill the best way they used to. And that loss sits not with a single professor who wrote one thing rash, but with the tutorial leaders who sought to guard the university’s title in the brief run, without ample regard for what that may imply to the brand, in the longer run.
But in business as in politics, with energy comes responsibility, and if ever there have been a question of public policy that represented both a humanitarian and a business subject, that is it. So a great case could be made for an obligation on the part of business leaders to speak up. If nothing else, leaders have a transparent obligation to specific solidarity with their own beleaguered workers, even when they find themselves unable or unwilling to denounce the ban outright.
The letter is technically addressed to the top of the World Well being Group, urging WHO to conduct a a recent, proof-based assessment” of the risks that Zika poses, and asking WHO to use its powers of persuasion (and its close connection to the Worldwide Olympic Committee) to get the IOC to rethink issues.