Ethics & Culture

Anyone looking for a step-by-step approach to conducting lawful corporate investigations can steal some ideas from the Association of Corporate Counsel. The ACC presented a panel discussion on internal investigations during its annual conference in Boston last week, and posed the following hypothetical: One of the company’s office managers has received an anonymous e-mail, where […]

As anti-bribery enforcement goes increasingly global, some companies are opting to ban facilitation payments entirely to avoid the tricky compliance issues they pose. A survey conducted by TRACE International shows some companies are prohibiting facilitation payments—colloquially known also known as “grease payments”—which are given to induce foreign officials to perform routine functions they’re already obligated […]

I’ve been writing about corporate compliance for a long time, and like most executives who use Compliance Week, I’ve become comfortable using the abstract terms we all do when talking about the idea of “compliance.” But two incidents in the news recently remind me that for all our theoretical understanding of how compliance should work, […]

Eric Hinton, currently ethics and compliance manager at Caterpillar, has announced that he will be leaving his position to pursue another opportunity, effective Aug. 3. After 10 years at Caterpillar, Hinton will join Lennox International, based in Richardson, Texas, as director of ethics and compliance and legal counsel. Prior to his current position at Caterpillar, […]

In the latest of our conversations with players in the corporate governance and compliance field, we catch up with Kathleen Edmond, chief ethics officer at retail giant Best Buy. Readers can also visit our archive of Q&A interviews. DETAILS Edmond As chief ethics officer for Best Buy, Kathleen Edmond develops and directs global vision for […]

Amid sinking employee morale and increasing public distrust in corporate leadership, without question maintaining an effective ethics and compliance program is more important than ever. The challenge facing many ethics and compliance professionals is how to do that with tighter budgets and fewer resources. “There’s increasing cynicism and stress in the workplace, hits to budgets […]

Editor’s note: Harvey Pitt recently provided a keynote address at Compliance Week’s 4th annual conference at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., June 3-5. Below is an abridged version of the text of the speech. I’ve been asked to discuss how cultures of integrity, ethics, and compliance can be instilled or maintained in downward-spiraling economies. […]

If your company doesn’t yet have a formal corporate policy on the use of online social media sites, you’re not alone. That said, there are at least three reasons why you should put one in place, pronto: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Most obvious are the publicity risks, made painfully clear by two Domino’s Pizza employees […]