Ethics Is Serious Business

by Willie D. Jones The Institute, June 2006 In the wake of the well-publicized scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco, many companies are now recommitting themselves to educating their employees about acceptable business practices. That awareness is evident in the ethics programs of organizations that employ large numbers of engineers, such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, N.M., and Tata Sons Ltd., the Indian conglomerate based in Mumbai. Although quite far apart geographically and organizationally, both are exemplars of programs that raise employees’ awareness of ethics. Sandia and Tata have been emphasizing ethics for many years and have successfully woven the concepts into their day-to-day business. Read more