Ethics in the Professions

1. “Ethics has no place in Business”
2. “… ethics isn’t a set of absolute principles, divorced from and imposed on everyday life. A seemingly delicate but in fact very strong tissue of endless adjustments and compromises. It is the awareness that one is an intrinsic part of the social order, in which the interests of others and one’s own interests are inevitably intertwined. And what is business, you ask, if not precisely the awareness of what other people want and need, and how you yourself can prosper by providing it?” (Solomon, It’s Good Business: 11)

“I am absolutely not guilty of the charges brought upon me,” Kozlowski says. “There was no criminal intent here. Nothing was hidden. There were no shredded documents. Nobody was told not to say anything. All the information the prosecutors got was directly off the books and records of the company” (Schorn D., “Dennis Kozlowski: Prisoner 05A4820”, CBS NEWS 22 March 2007).

Read the transcription of the 2007 CBS News clip here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and share your thoughts on Kozlowski’s imprisonment. Was the jury influenced by the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies that preceded Tyco? Do you think Kozlowski’s argument that he simply did what his predecessors did was valid?