In today’s rapidly shifting global marketplace, it is clear that businesses struggle to know their boundaries, uphold integrity, abide by government regulations and remain accountable for their actions on all fronts. To explore these practices and challenges in business ethics, Bentley will host its 9th Annual Global Business Ethics Symposium sponsored by State Street Foundation on Monday, May 20.
This year’s program theme will focus on “Responsibility and Accountability in Managing Organizational Integrity” and will feature keynote speaker Fredrik Gjerstad, senior vice president and head of investment risk at State Street Global Advisors, and luncheon speaker Patricia Harned, president of the Ethics Resource Center. The day-long program will include panel discussions focused on challenges that all organizations face when establishing standards and creating cultures that that support and facilitate integrity-based practice.
The symposium, which is open to the public, will be followed by the annual Faculty Development Business Ethics Teaching Workshop, running from Tuesday, May 21 through Friday, May 24. The four-day teaching workshop involves 20 professors from around the globe. This year, faculty hailing internationally from Abu Dhabi, Canada, Egypt, Ghana, Italy, Libya, Morocco, New Zealand, and Tunisia, and from the U.S. California, Colorado, New York and Wisconsin, will join Bentley faculty in uncovering the ways in which ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability can be incorporated into their discipline-based courses.
Panel details for Monday’s symposium are as follows:
Enhancing Organizational Integrity moderated by W. Michael Hoffman, founding executive director, Center for Business Ethics, and Hieken Professor of Business and Professional Ethics, Bentley University. Panelists include:
- Jeffrey Oak, senior vice president, corporate responsibility and development, Bon Secours Health System, Inc.
- Lynn Paine, John G. McLean Professor and senior associate dean for faculty development, Harvard Business School
- S. Prakash Sethi, university distinguished professor of management, Baruch College, City University of New York
Whistleblowing, Retaliation and Organizational Systems moderated by Robert Frederick, professor and chair of philosophy and chair, Bentley University. Panelists include:
- Janet P. Near, Dale M. Coleman Chair of Management, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
- Mark Rowe, advisory services leader, LRN
- Mark Schwartz, associate professor and area coordinator, law, governance and ethics, York University
The Role of Government and the Regulatory Process moderated by Will O’Brien, visiting lecturer, Clark University. Panelists include:
- Marta Geletkanycz, associate professor of strategic management, Carroll School of Management, Boston College
- Jeanne Logsdon, Jack and Donna Rust Professor of Business Ethics, University of New Mexico
- Wayne Norman, Mackowski Professor of Ethics, Duke University
Accountability Standards in a Global Economy moderated by John P. Hansen, corporate ethics officer, RBS Citizens Financial Group, and Executive Fellow, Center for Business Ethics, Bentley University. Panelists include:
- Michael Behnam, associate dean and professor of strategy and international business, Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University
- Anil Chopra, former Tata consultant, India
- James Weber, professor of business ethics and management, and senior fellow and founding director of the Beard Center for Leadership in Ethics, Duquesne University
The Business of Peace – Business and the Arab Spring: Delivering on Aspiration or Creating Obstacles? Moderated by Robert E. McNulty, director of programs, Center for Business Ethics, Bentley University and founder and executive director, Applied Ethics, Inc. Panelists include:
- Wafa ElGarah, dean and associate professor of management information systems, School of Business Administration Al Akhawayn University, Morocco
- Tarek Hatem, professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship, American University in Cairo, Egypt
- Noômen Lahimer, associate professor of economics, SMU – Mediterranean School of Business, Tunisia
- Tarek Mahmoud Tantoush, associate professor of management and engineering, Libyan Academy of Postgraduate Studies, Libya
Cleaning Up Organizational Messes: Principles, Practices and Possibilities – Where Do We Go From Here? Moderated by Cynthia Clark, assistant professor of management and director, Harold S. Geneen Institute of Corporate Governance, Bentley University. Panelists include:
- Wesley Cragg, senior scholar and professor, Schulich School of Business, York University, and project director and principal investigator, Canadian Business Ethics Research Network
- Robert Klitgaard, university professor, Claremont Graduate University
- Amy Sepinwall, assistant professor, Legal Studies and Business Ethics, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
As a parallel program, competitively selected doctoral students – this year from Aarhus University (Denmark), Bentley, City University of New York, HEC Montreal (Canada), University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Washington (Seattle), UCLA, and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany), – will join noted scholars from Boston College, Harvard Business School, and the University of New Mexico in the 5th Next Generation ESG Scholars Workshop.
For more information on the symposium and the leading experts on each panel, please visit the Symposium’s website. The Bentley Center for Business Ethics and Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility present the event which is sponsored by the State Street Foundation, Inc., the charitable grant-making arm of State Street Corporation, and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative.
Established in Memory of Timothy B. Harbert ’76, Chairman and CEO of State Street Global Advisors and Trustee and Alumnus of Bentley University, the partnership unites business and higher education to build a strong ethical foundation from which to serve our many constituencies and communities.
State Street Foundation: Established in 1977, the State Street Foundation is the charitable grantmaking arm of State Street Corporation. Supporting the communities in which State Street lives and works around the world is one of State Street’s fundamental values. The Foundation is dedicated to enriching these communities through contributions to charitable organizations and by supporting causes important to State Street employees. Specifically, the Foundation administers the funds for strategic grantmaking, matching gifts, disaster relief emergency assistance, and the workplace Global Giving Campaign.
Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME): The mission of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative is to inspire and champion responsible management education, research and thought leadership globally. The PRME are inspired by internationally accepted values such as the principles of the United Nations Global Compact. They seek to establish a process of continuous improvement among institutions of management education in order to develop a new generation of business leaders capable of managing the complex challenges faced by business and society in the 21st century.