One of the great questions that haunts ethics and compliance officers is whether, when the time comes, they will be able to exercise ethical leadership under great pressure.
I hear compliance executives explore that question—that fear, really—whenever their guards are down. At one Compliance Week executive forum last year, a general counsel quipped, “How many times have you seen a whistleblower step forward and then not end up leaving the company?” Heads all around the table nodded. In private phone conversations I’ve heard senior executives talk about boards that never want to hear unpleasant truths, and about misconduct covered up rather than disclosed because nobody wants to face the reckoning that would come. You see the plight of peers such as Michael Roseman, the chief risk officer at MF Global fired for speaking out, and ask yourself, “Would I really risk my career for something like that too?”
