The Motivation behind being a ‘Tiger Mom,’ a blog by Cam Tran My ethics students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are required to write a blog on a topic of deep interest illustrating their knowledge of ethical reasoning. The following is a blog by Cam Tran, one of the best blogs I received this term. I was first introduced to the article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior” published in the Wall Street Journal, an excerpt of the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, in my senior year of high school in 2011. While reading this article,... Continue reading

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Hair Color and Workplace Professionalism Every once in a while I read a survey about workplace attributes and behavior that gives me pause. This is the case with a new study from Australia that basically concludes good grooming in the workplace can make the difference between having a successful career... Continue reading

Looking at the Ethics of Whistleblowing Unless you are an ostrich you know that Edward Snowden, a twenty-nine-year-old former C.I.A. employee and government contractor working for Booz Allen Hamilton until he was fired for his actions on June 11, leaked news of National Security Agency (NSA) programs that collect vast amounts of information about the telephone calls made by millions of Americans, as well as e-mails and other files of foreign targets and their American connections. For this, some are hailing him as a hero and a whistle-blower while others, such as Jeffrey Toobin who writes for the New Yorker,... Continue reading

Pump and Dump the Latest Example of a Lack of Business Ethics In its ongoing "Operation Shell Expel" to protect investors from fraud, The Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading last week in the securities of 61 empty shell companies. The initiative is a crackdown against the manipulation of microcap... Continue reading

IRS Official Invokes Ethical Legalism as a Defense A question I got from my students all the time is if I follow all the laws doesn’t that mean I have acted ethically? I explain there is a difference between following the laws and making ethical decisions because the laws can’t cover every situation we encounter in life. If we limit the guidance for our actions to legalities, we are likely to miss the ethical signs that impropriety awaits us when the rules do not address a particular matter. A perfect case in point is Lois Lerner, the IRS official whose... Continue reading

Work Ethic is the Key to Education A few days ago Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant ignited a heated debate by claiming that standards in education have declined in line with women returning to the workplace. Speaking during a televised panel discussion, Republican Governor Bryant quickly realized his controversial remarks would... Continue reading

Was Michelle’s Response Proper? Was Michelle Obama’s reaction to a heckler last week an example of civility or incivility? Did she go too far in talking down a heckler while she was speaking at a private fundraising event in Northwest Washington? In case you haven’t heard, Michelle was interrupted by Ellen Sturtz, who wanted the First Lady to get the President to sign an executive order banning LGBT discrimination. Sturtz's interruption began halfway through Obama's 20-minute speech. Obama, interrupted, paused, and proceeded to confront Sturtz face-to-face: "One of the things I don't do well is this," replied Michelle to loud... Continue reading

Treasury criticizes the IRS on conference overspending We all have heard about the IRS targeting conservative-oriented groups for closer scrutiny and unfair questioning with respect to their application for tax-exempt-status. There is no doubt this was an unethical practice and violated the basic right for all groups to be treated... Continue reading

Rewarding Bad Behavior Numerous states are considering issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants while one state, New Mexico, is struggling to prevent out-of-staters from fraudulently obtaining them. Until recently, undocumented immigrants were able to obtain driver's licenses or permits only from three states: New Mexico, Washington and Utah. But that number is expected to grow. A utilitarian analysis of this issue would examine the harms and benefits of granting driver’s licenses to illegals. Those who favor granting driver’s licenses to illegals claim licenses will make streets safer, since the immigrants must take a driving test. Some police agencies say the... Continue reading

What can Employers do to slow the Rising Tide of Workplace Violence? The issue of workplace violence became a subject of media attention after the series of Post Office murders that occurred throughout the 1980s and 1990s. While such shootings are relatively rare, the impact of non-fatal workplace violence is... Continue reading

The ‘Magical Kingdom’ not Magical for those on Long Lines It's made headlines recently. We all know how frustrating it is, waiting in those long lines at Disney. But now some families are cheating the system. They're hiring disabled tour guides so they can cut right to the front. Two investigative reporters -- Jeff Rossen and Josh Davis -- went undercover and caught it all on tape. Disneyland is "the happiest place on earth" -- except if you're waiting in those long lines, you and your kids, waiting hours in the heat. So how did one family get to skip... Continue reading

On Wednesday I posted some questions to consider as an experiment in lateral thinking that relies on creativity in the thought process. I promised to post the answers today, so here they are. man 1. ------------ = man overboard board stand 2. ------------ = I understand i 3. /r/e/a/d/i/n/g/ = reading between the lines 0 4. ------------ = two degrees below zero M.D. Ph.D. 5. knee = neon light light 6. ground -------------------- = six feet underground feet feet feet feet feet feet 7. he's X himself = he’s by himself 8. ecnalg = backward glance 9. death ....... life... Continue reading

The Ethics of Looking for a Job During the past few months I’ve counseled my students on job interviewing and have observed some behavior that concerns me. Most students know an outright lie is wrong such as overstating one’s GPA, making up jobs that do not exist, or falsifying recommendation... Continue reading

Think Creatively to Get A Head* in Life It’s that time of year again – graduation. My students are ready to walk and move their tassels from the right to the left signifying they have officially received the baccalaureate degree. This inspired me to develop the following blog that tests one’s ability to think creatively – out of the box. I find this is a challenge even for the best of students (i.e., high GPAs). Realizing that many of my students read my blogs, I include a puzzle to test their creative thinking skills. I invite all readers to try... Continue reading

NASA Contractor Pleads Guilty To Faking Minority Status Just when I thought I had heard it all, along comes another example of greed in business. This time it is Michael Brian Dunkel of Merritt Island, Florida who pleaded guilty on May 24, 2013, to fraudulently obtaining more than $4.4 million in government contract payments that should have gone to what the U.S. government considers a disadvantaged small business. Congress amended the Small Business Act in 1978 to require that agency heads, in consultation with the SBA, set goals for the percentage of federal contract and subcontract dollars awarded to small... Continue reading

A blog response to Should Quotas be set to Expand Board Opportunities for Women? I have previously blogged about the difficulty women have “Breaking through the Glass Ceiling” and “Should Quotas be set to Expand Board Opportunities for Women?” I recently received a blog comment from a reader named Verity... Continue reading

Yahoo’s CEO extends Family Leave Policy after Giving Birth Last month Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer extended the paid parental leave policy of the company for both new mothers and fathers at Yahoo who can now take eight weeks of paid parental leave, and the mothers can take an additional eight... Continue reading

Bribery and lack of Full Disclosure Evidences Unethical Behavior at Wal-Mart Wal-Mart said last week that it spent $73 million on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) during the first quarter of 2013. It had budgeted $40 million to $45 million. During its prior fiscal year, it spent $157 million for FCPA matters. It expects to spend $65 million to $70 million in the second quarter of 2013. The disclosures came during a conference call from Wal-Mart CFO Charles Holley to reporters. The company has said it can't tell when its internal investigation of fraudulent payments by a... Continue reading

A response to 'Is Whistleblowing an Ethical Practice?' by Ranjana Lal, a student at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand From time to time I receive a blog response that is more in the way of an essay commenting on one of my blogs. Typically, these essays are part of... Continue reading

Lion-meat tacos, with a side of controversy This blog was previously posted but I receieved an important comment that I include below from Megan Knauss from Born Free USA. The original blog follows the comment. Comment by Megan Knauss megan@bornfreeusa.org Ethics Sage: First, thank you for the mention! Second, in response to your question, here are three reasons why eating lion meat is wrong: 1) The lion meat industry is virtually unregulated. Consumers therefore have no assurance that their lion tacos and burgers will not pose a risk to their health. 2) The lion population is quickly disappearing. To place... Continue reading

Loyalty to Others vs. Doing the Right Thing in the Workplace What should you do if you believe an ethical violation has occurred in the workplace? Should you be silent and rationalize the action as a one-time offense? Should you blow the whistle on wrongdoing? Or, what are the middle... Continue reading

Fighting in Schools Has Become all too Common Girl on girl violence; student on teacher violence; teacher on student violence. Where will it all end? It seems these incidents are increasing in number and raise serious questions about our role as a civilized society. Some of you may think I am overstating to make a point. Perhaps so. Nevertheless, those of us who grew up in the 1960s through the end of last decade rarely experienced the kinds of situations that should make all of us stand up and take notice of the decline in time devoted to academic instruction... Continue reading

A True Space Oddity and Inspiration to ALL -- Chris Hadfield Astronaut Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station, is preparing to make the return voyage to Earth after almost five months in orbit. Hadfield, along with flight engineers American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko, have boarded a Soyuz spacecraft for the journey home. It marks the first time Hadfield will come back from space in the Russian capsule — during his previous space missions, in 1995 and 2001, he travelled aboard one of the now retired space shuttles. "Reviewing Soyuz procedures onboard, but I... Continue reading