Resources on Culture
| Cases and Tools | Articles |
| Commentary | Diversity Dialogues |
| Recaps of Panel Discussions | Other Resources |
Ann Skeet, senior director of Leadership Ethics, interviews a whistleblower in the Theranos case.
As the football season begins, protests on the field have come back into the news. Ethics Center staff, scholars, and SCU professors address some of the key ethical issues in the debate.
Case study explores Kevin Johnson's response to an incident where two African Americans were asked to leave a Philadelphia Starbucks.
Three examples of CEOs whose leadership of their firm has been called into question over matters of their personal integrity and behavior.
- Why culture matters
What should business leaders take away from the disaster?
- A model for exploring an ethical leadership practice
Six ways leaders reinforce ethical practices in their organizations.
Video interview with Greg Coplans, executive vide president of Hitachi Data Systems.
- Why the Character of the CEO is Paramount
A video conversation on tone at the top.
- Sexual Misconduct at the C-Level
A CEO fails to lead leaving another executive in a dilemma.
How to spot moral meltdowns before it's too late.
- Crisis-prone or Crisis-prepared?
A tool for management and boards to evaluate a company's ethical performance.
The events between the declaration of bankruptcy by WoldCom and its acquisition by Verizon.
In many ways, WorldCom is just another case of failed corporate governance, accounting abuses, and outright greed.
- A Guide to Managing Your Culture for Ethics
Six methods for leading an organization to achieve ethical outcomes by making decisions with the consideration of others, meaning various stakeholders, in mind.
- Best Practices for Creating an Inclusive Culture Grounded in Employee Experience
Direction for the development of the workplace virtue known as cultural humility, defining employee experience, and identifying competencies that can be used to cultivate skills in the workforce with suggestions about how these can be woven into the intentional management and integration of corporate culture.
An Aristotelian take on the challenges for corporate boards in the HR arena.
James O'Toole argues that great leaders encourage candor.
What specific social responsibilities should businesses assume?
Leadership in fairness and honesty makes good business sense. A company's culture is defined by what the top executives actually do.
Men can play an important role in supporting women in today’s post-#Metoo workplace.
Boeing has problems that require more than software upgrades.
Alphabet shutting down ethics council raises questions about corporate self-regulation.
What Catholic Church leadership should do now to address sexual abuse by clergy.
- Addressing trust and privacy issues in tech.
How leaders should deal with conflicts of interest.
These 6 questions reveal a company’s true character.
- How company credo can promote healthy culture
Executives and employees need to be on the same page about a company’s ethics and image.
- 6 inquiries leaders can make to strengthen culture
Members of boards and management teams can support healthy corporate cultures.
To lead ethically, one must leave no doubts about expectations and values.
- Sparking Transformative Solutions
The co-founders of the Science of Diversity and Inclusion Initiative (SODI) talk about the implications of D&I research in the workplace.
- Tools for dialogue around challenging topics at work
Academic and industry experts discuss microaggressions, Islamophobia, and freedom of speech in professional settings.
- An investor's perspective
BlackRock Managing Director Michelle Edkins urges diversity for boards of directors.
- The importance of women in government
Retired Ambassador Mary Ann Peters discusses why including women in peace negotiations and politics is the right, fair, and smart thing to do.
- A CEO’s Approach
Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of DreamBox, explains why she uses the agile methodology to manage D&I.
- Creating Dialogue and Finding Solutions
Hackworth Fellow Emily Monroe’s research about the current state of gender inequality in business. Emily worked with Ann Skeet, the senior director of Leadership Ethics, exploring career paths for women and gender inequality in entrepreneurial and STEM spaces.
Panel discussion featuring Radha Basu (SupportSoft), Ken Denman (Openwave Systems), Robert Ewald (SGI), Mark Lonergan (Lonergan Partners)
A discussion on the unique pressures on business ethics in Silicon Valley.
A panel discusses how to create a culture that will encourage employees to withstand the pressure to falsify financial records.
An overview of what companies can do to promote ethics in the workplace by Albert C. Pierce.
James O'Toole describes mindful managers as capitalists who created profitable businesses but also had strong ethical compasses, respected others, and wanted to use their organizations to foster human development.
Summary of a panel featuring Sheridan Tatsuno, Dreamscape Capital; Stanley Kwong, professor, USF; and Jacqueline Fan, Ernst & Young.
- Creating an Ethical Culture is an Everyday Task
Simon Lorne, vice chairman and chief legal officer of Millennium Management LLC,details the steps he takes to make the internal audit function an integral part of a company's ethical culture.
- Characteristics of an Ethical Organization
Former Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson identifies characteristics of an ethical organization.
Susan Sweet describes EY’s process developing their Americas ethics program for more than 35,000 employees in North, Central and South America, Mexico, Israel, and Canada.
Robert Finocchio, former CEO of Informix, offers prescriptions for making ethics part of strategy.
- Corporate Culture Must be Defined by the Board
Board issues that significantly influence corporate culture include independence, committee structure, the nominating process, time dedicated, compensation, and philosophy.
Kirk Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, was interviewed about Enron by Atsushi Nakayama, a reporter for the Japanese newspaper Nikkei.
Other Resources
Cecilia Martinez, Ann Gregg Skeet, Pedro M. Sasia. “Managing Organizational Ehics: How Ethics Becomes Pervasive Within Organizations.” Business Horizons, October 21, 2020,
This study analyzes real experiences of culture management to better understand how ethics permeates organizations. The consistency of findings suggests patterns of organizational conditions, cultural elements, and opportunities that influence the management of organizational cultures centered on core ethical values. We identify three conditions—a sense of responsibility to society, conditions for ethical deliberation, and respect for moral autonomy—coupled with a diverse set of cultural elements that cause ethics to take root in culture when the opportunity arises.
Gardner, Howard, with Fryer, Bronwyn. “The Ethical Mind: A Conversation with Psychologist Howard Gardner." Harvard Business Review, March 2007, pp. 51-56.
Dyck, Alexander, Morse, Adair, Zingales, Luigi, “Who Blows the Whistle on Corporate Fraud?” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Summary of findings from the academic paper of the same title
McLaverty, Christopher and McKee, Annie, “What you Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company” Harvard Business Review, December 29, 2016
Baucus, Melissa S., Beck-Dudley, Caryn L., “Designing Ethical Organizations: Avoiding the Long-Term Negative Effects of Rewards and Punishment,” Journal of Business Ethics 56: 355-370, 2005, Springer.
An academic article co-authored by the Dean of Santa Clara’s Leavey School of Business.
Mak, Yuen Teen, "What the Wirecard and Luckin Coffee Scandals can Teach Asia's Boards" Nikkei Asian Review, August 2020