Valuable reading for companies that want to get serious about workplace ethics.
Airbnb chief ethics officer Chesnut debuts with an upbeat book on how to chart a “proactive, ethical course” for business.
The author, a former federal prosecutor, writes, “we are all capable of dishonesty,” recounting workplace ethical issues that have rocked Enron, Volkswagen, and other corporations; headline-making cases of sexual harassment and assault; and everyday instances of bribery, fraud, and conflicts of interest. Yet, he writes, “most companies don’t talk much about integrity.” Many simply distribute a code of ethics template emblazoned with a corporate logo. With little reason to fear consequences, individuals believe they can “get away” with unethical acts, and “even small acts of fraud and deceit, doing work while intoxicated, fudging numbers, violating domestic or international regulations, become compounded over time.” Each poor choice makes the next “easier to make.” In this exhaustive overview, Chesnut argues persuasively that every organization needs a “deliberate, intentional commitment” to ethical rules based on its clearly stated purpose and values. The rules must be widely and constantly disseminated so that they become a company “norm.” The process will generate “business success and positive social value,” helping firms attract the best employees and avoid scandals. Drawing on considerable experience with the nuances and circumstances of integrity violations at Airbnb and, earlier, eBay, Chesnut offers plentiful examples of common integrity issues—e.g., romantic entanglements, selling customer data, social media issues—tips on how to handle them, and ways to create a safe process for reporting lapses. He is especially good on such matters as enforcing consequences and handling situations involving violators who are high-performing employees. The author’s enthusiasm sometimes leads him astray—his anticipated “contagion of integrity” in business seems unlikely—but his rigorous guidelines for lawful behavior should keep employees on their toes and limit federal liabilities. Appendices cover diverse ethical crises.
Valuable reading for companies that want to get serious about workplace ethics. (first printing of 100,000)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-23970-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.
Prolific writer Benedict has long blended two interests—sports and business—and the Patriots are emblematic of both. Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team built a strategic home field between that city and Providence. When original owner Billy Sullivan sold the flailing team in 1988, it was $126 million in the hole, a condition so dire that “Sullivan had to beg the NFL to release emergency funds so he could pay his players.” Victor Kiam, the razor magnate, bought the long since renamed New England Patriots, but rival Robert Kraft bought first the parking lots and then the stadium—and “it rankled Kiam that he bore all the risk as the owner of the team but virtually all of the revenue that the team generated went to Kraft.” Check and mate. Kraft finally took over the team in 1994. Kraft inherited coach Bill Parcells, who in turn brought in star quarterback Drew Bledsoe, “the Patriots’ most prized player.” However, as the book’s nimbly constructed opening recounts, in 2001, Bledsoe got smeared in a hit “so violent that players along the Patriots sideline compared the sound of the collision to a car crash.” After that, it was backup Tom Brady’s team. Gridiron nerds will debate whether Brady is the greatest QB and Bill Belichick the greatest coach the game has ever known, but certainly they’ve had their share of controversy. The infamous “Deflategate” incident of 2015 takes up plenty of space in the late pages of the narrative, and depending on how you read between the lines, Brady was either an accomplice or an unwitting beneficiary. Still, as the author writes, by that point Brady “had started in 223 straight regular-season games,” an enviable record on a team that itself has racked up impressive stats.
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982134-10-5
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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