Jim Sinegal talks through a decision to do the right thing for his employees despite an economic cost to the company. Sticking to your word, even beyond what might be reasonably expected of you, reveals true character.
Use the following prompts to facilitate a guided discussion on this installment of Walking the Talk: Insights on Putting Ethics into Practice.
How can we define moral courage? Why is it so important?
What were the elements of Costco’s approach to administering a significant change for their employees – a healthcare cost increase – that helped ensure it was successful? How do these elements relate to the stakeholder concept in ethics?
What is the “business case” for going above what is required of you as an employer? In the example of the employee 401K bonuses, could you argue that it was a smart financial decision for the company?
How does Sinegal define “obligation” in terms of the relationship between employer and employee?
These three qualities can help you thrive and connect—even in a world that’s drowning in distrust.
John Carreyrou is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose work exposed fraud at the blood testing startup, Theranos. He shares lessons from the Theranos saga about what drives dishonesty in business.
As part of our mission to inform, equip, and inspire values-based leaders, the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership and its Faculty Fellows stay on the lookout for new books. In our fifth annual list of Best Books for Ethical Leaders, we share ten books published during the 2021 calendar year that bridge the worlds of business and academia and provide practical insights that can help leaders live and work more ethically.
