The Antidote for Powerlessness Last week I blogged about the concept of moral distress. Moral distress is defined as knowing what to do in an ethical situation but not being allowed to do it. Moral distress is the feeling that we’ve compromised ourselves due to external forces beyond our control. Powerlessness is at the heart of moral distress. Moral resilience […]
Cultivating Moral Resilience Read More »
Fight or Flight Response There have been events in my life when I have experienced moral distress. It typically leads me to consider whether to fight it or flee the scene. Life’s decisions are not always black or white. Typically, there are shades of gray. This creates uncertainty about what our response should be. I
Coping with Moral Distress Read More »
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh was recently quoted as saying: “What I don’t understand…is how the NCAA, television networks, conferences, universities and coaches can continue to pull in millions—and in some cases billions—of dollars of revenue off the efforts of college student-athletes across the country without providing enough opportunity to share in the ever-increasing revenues.”
NCAA Proposal Addresses “the Elephant in the Room” Read More »
Why We Have Lost Our Way as a Moral Society I’ve never seen the level of divisiveness in America as I have for the past decade. While I have blogged about the decline of civility in America before, nothing has changed, and it has gotten much worse, so I decided to revisit the issue. Incivility has been
Can America Ever Regain Its Civility? Read More »
Is Whistleblowing a Moral Act? Whistleblowers can be seen as heroes, disloyal, or even selfish if, in the latter case, the motivation for blowing the whistle is to gain a financial award, as is available under the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), Federal False Claims Act, IRS, SEC and the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act. Whistleblowers
Considerations in Deciding Whether to Blow the Whistle Read More »
An Example of Hubris, Incompetence, and Greed I always tell my students that the best way to learn about ethics, or the lack thereof, is through a case study. What follows is a mini-case study of the FTX fraud. Last week Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of misappropriating and embezzling billions of dollars of his
The Story of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Read More »
A Mixed Reaction From Students It is becoming clear that ChatGPT is not a fad and will continue to be used increasingly in colleges and universities. The use of ChatGPT and other AI in education can be met with resistance because its use can walk a fine line between questionable integrity and employing a valuable
Words of Caution for Educators Using ChatGPT Read More »
Dealing with Age Discrimination We are facing economically turbulent times, which may include layoffs and companies downsizing. Unfortunately, older workers often bear the brunt of these cutbacks because employers use the opportunity to get rid of older workers who sometimes command the highest salaries or prevent the business from projecting a “younger” image. I have
Senior Rights and Protections in the Workplace Read More »
Independence Standards at Risk Perhaps you are aware that private equity firms have started to acquire a controlling interest in accounting firms, which these days are better referred to as “professional services” firms. The first such acquisition was in August 2022, when Tower Capital Partners purchased the stock of Eisner Amper LLP, a majority-owned CPA
Does Private Equity Ownership of CPA Firms Violate Audit Independence Read More »
Ethics in the Age of AI: Addressing Moral Challenges in the Era of Automation I have previously blogged about the problem of creating an ethical framework and processes for AI. AI can improve human decision-making, but it has its limits. The possibility exists that bias in algorithms can create an ethical risk that brings into question the
Ethics & AI: Unanswered Questions Read More »