July 2009 Archive

Joseph Pabon was arrested last week for the murder of Eridania Rodriguez the “cleaning lady” in Manhattan. She was 46 years old and the mother of two. Her body was found in an air conditioning duct. The police claims that it found DNA on the site of the crime that links Joseph Pabon to the victim. He was charged with second-degree murder and with “extreme indiference.”

I did not know that indiference, be it extreme, could be a crime. Although there are no statutory definition of “extreme indiference’ it has been used in court to prosecute criminals that have shown by their actions extreme contempt for human life such as in a hit and run situation.

Are we not all, to some degree, guilty of indifference to the plight and life-threatening conditions of others? How could we not be? The constant exposure through the media to dramatic situation around us and around the globe can make us less caring and discouraged and maybe even cynical. We can all suffer from compassion fatigue. The gradual lessening of compassion over time is a known phenomenon.

In ethics, doing the right thing often involves making a difference and not being indifferent.

How can we prevent indifference from happening?

1. We should be encouraged by the fact that there are millions of people who care and who make a difference in other people’s lives. We are not alone. There are more than a hundred thousands NGO’s and not for profit organizations in the United States that spend billions of dollars a year improving people lives.

2. We should not disregard that small (and not so small) steps or actions we can take individually to help others. You may only have one cup of water to give when there are millions around you that are thirsty. However that one cup is everything to the person that receives it.

3. We should accept that we have limited resources, both emotional and financial and not feel guilty when we face, as a global citizen what may seem insurmountable tasks and responsibilities.

As Elie Wiesel once said:
“For one who is indifferent, life itself is a prison. Any sense of community is external or, even worse, nonexistent. Thus, indifference means solitude. Those who are indifferent do not see others. They feel nothing for others and are unconcerned with what might happen to them. They are surrounded by a great emptiness. Filled by it, in fact. They are devoid of all hope as well as imagination. In other words, devoid of any future.”

I have asked Tyler Pennock, our Director of Social Media to summarize a recent discussion we had at Ruder Finn on Ethics in Social Media. His text is below:

Maintaining ethics in the hyper-networked world of social media

A couple of weeks ago, Ruder Finn convened a group of approximately 40 employees from all levels of the organization to participate in a lunch discussion on “Ethics in Social Media.” We heard perspectives from our Chairman, David Finn, our summer interns, and everyone in between. While individual use of social media varies from person to person, one thing was clear from our conversation - there is a great deal of uncertainty about the long term implications of the enormous amount of personal information that we’re sharing online. Even for those who have yet to join a social network, their friends, families, and colleagues have already “tagged” them in photos, videos, and other digital content. So does this mean that privacy no longer exists for any of us? What about for companies, institutions, and government agencies?

The quick answer - privacy is gone. While we may not all be hounded by paparazzi like A-list celebrities, our every activity and every word (spoken or written) can easily be documented and posted online for all the web to see. In my own life, I’m now seeing that my social media identity is an amalgamation of content that I’ve created, content uploaded by friends, and coverage I’ve received across various outlets. Certainly, this is what our PR clients have been experiencing for some time now. Their online reputations are being shaped by a world of content and coverage largely created by consumers, mainstream media, and even competitors.

With privacy disappearing, and our online identities now being crowd-sourced, ethical guidelines in social media are crucial for keeping us safe while keeping the internet open for both communication and commerce. Our lunch group settled on six key points that lay the foundation for those guidelines: honesty, transparency, respect, privacy, relevance, and responsibility. These hold true for individuals as well as organizations.

1. Honesty: State only what you know to be true - and be clear about opinion or conjecture vs. fact.
2. Transparency: Be straightforward about who you are - and who you’re representing online.
3. Respect: Respect for yourself, your peers, and even your adversaries.
4. Privacy: Treat the intimate details of others as you would your own personal information.
5. Relevance: Ensure that the content you’re posting is relevant to the audience and the venue where it’s being posted.
6. Responsibility: Take ownership of your online activities, the content you’ve created, and any missteps you’ve made along the way.

Already, companies ranging from Facebook to J&J to Comcast have learned some important lessons about how to apply these ethical guidelines to their own social media activities. At Ruder Finn, we’re creating our own social media policies that will govern our online participation as individuals, as employees, and as agents of our clients. Many of our clients are currently doing the same. Are you following your own set of ethical guidelines when it comes to engaging in social media? Do you have some additional points that haven’t been addressed above? If so, we’d love to hear your perspective.

Pope Benedict XVI just published his third papal encyclical called “Charity in Truth” that is dealing with economical and social matters. The timing of the publication was intended coincide with the G-8 Summit that was held last week in Italy.

The Pope in this text says: “Development is impossible without upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose consciences are finely attuned to the common good. The global dimension of the financial crisis is an expression of the moral failure of greedy financiers and investors, of the lack of oversight by national governments and of a lack of understanding that the global economy required internationally recognized global control.” His message is clear. Business success and profits are not incompatible with social justice.

It is certainly a good idea to reconsider some of the basic principles of capitalism in times of economic crisis and global uncertainty.

The Pope, few would disagree has moral authority, not only for the world’s 1 billion Catholics but for others as well.

What constitutes moral authority? What are some of the elements necessary for someone to have such authority? Let me list a few.

1. A well-defined set of values
2. Courage to face opposition and possible negative consequences when faced with moral issues
3. Experience with a consistent positive track record.
4. Good communication skills.
5. A respectable dose of humility.

We should also aspire to have those qualities and thus have our own moral authority to be an example to others and to be able to give sound advice to our family, friends and colleagues.

Remembering what Gandhi said:

“Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.”

The Financial Times last weekend published an article by Lionel Barber, the Editor, on a conversation he had during lunch with Stephen Green, the Executive Chairman of HSBC, the world’s largest bank. The title of the article was “God’s Banker.”Mr. Green is indeed a very unusual Chairman. He is also an Anglican priest and the author of two books about ethics and business. His second book, “Good Value: Reflection on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World” was published last week by Penguin. His views on banking and business are unconventional but I believe they are true. He says:

“Shareholder value cannot and should not be elevated to the exclusion of all else. It is by-product of providing goods and services. When the by-product becomes the end, then we distort the whole market. The market is necessary but not sufficient.”

It is encouraging to see that one can be both a businessman and have strong ethical values. He is in a way, part of a long tradition of what has been called Calvinist capitalism. John Calvin, the 16th Century protestant reformer and at one time the ruler of Geneva, (Switzerland) not only promoted activities that were for the common good but also valued hard work considering it a religious obligation as opposed to idleness which was considered a sin. He profoundly influenced the Swiss Banking system. Xavier Comtesse, the director of Switzerland’s leading think tank, Avenir Suisse, says that: “Calvin stood for morality in the granting of credit, but also for protection of the personal sphere.” This is the origin of the Swiss Banking secrecy laws. Calvin, according the Mr. Comtesse, “influenced modern-day thinking on both moral and financial matters.”

The question of course is whether Mr. Green’s values make a difference in the way the Bank operates. HSBC has 9,500 offices in 86 countries. Apparently they do. The Ethisphere Institute ranked HSBC No. 1 in its 2008 World’s Most Ethical Companies. To be considered ethical, companies have to “go above and beyond legal minimums, bring about innovative new ideas to expand the public well-being.” Corp-Ethics, an ethics and governance watchdog says that HSBC is the first bank to commit to carbon neutral as it seeks to reduce its environmental impact.

The question for us, of course is how to we implement our own values in our day-to-day professional (and private) life. It is not an easy process. Sometimes we just don’t know what is the right thing to do. Here are some suggestions.

1. Identify your values that ultimately make you who you are.
2. Recognize the ethical aspects of some of the decisions you are about to make.
3. Seek counsel from a trusted and impartial source.
4. Listen to your conscience defined by H.L Mencken as “that little voice inside you that says “someone is watching.”

Even if that someone is you!