The Network Blog Our Picks for the August Top 10 Ethics and Compliance Articles You Don't Want to Miss

With so many articles available every month, it's possible that a few got buried in either your inbox or the depths of the blogosphere. But for professional growth (and a quick break from the daily grind), we all know it's important to stay on top of what's happening in our exciting industry, so we've compiled the top ten articles we think you shouldn't miss. Getting on Board with Organizational Culture BusinessWorld Online While organizational culture is essentially a team effort which gradually takes shape as an organization matures, the Board plays an important role in overseeing its development in the right direction. That the Board plays a critical role in an organization cannot be overemphasized. The Board is responsible for an organization's overall strategy for growth, assessing risks, and ensuring the soundness of operating and financial practices. But how does the Board get more actively involved in shaping an organization's culture? This article lays out a framework for how the Board can work with or, if needed, initiate changes in the culture of the organization. Read more... Does the Prohibition on Facilitating Payments Correlate with Higher Levels of Corruption? A Question Revisited The FCPA Blog This post is a follow up to prior FCPA Blog post in which the editors observed a pattern that surprised them and many of their readers: signatories to the OECD Convention that allow facilitating payments have a significantly better average ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index than those countries that prohibit them. Readers suggested other correlations worth exploring, and in this post, the editors examine some alternative theories. Read more... When Culture Is the Culprit: Lessons From Toshiba, Hertz, and FIFA Internal Auditor Plenty has been written about failures in the system by those in and supporting the C-suites in these organizations, including internal audit. Unfortunately, we may never know if internal audit or others at FIFA, Toshiba, or Hertz tried - but were unsuccessful - to raise red flags about poor internal controls, flawed financial reporting or inappropriate tone at the top. However, we can look at the cases at these companies, try to learn from them and ask how organizations can best serve their stakeholders, live up to expected values and correct internal control failings before they get out of hand. A new report provides insight towards answering these questions, including a comprehensive analysis of the cultural failures within modern banking that have contributed to a loss of public trust in the financial industry. Read more... How Ethically Confident Should We Be? Conflict of Interest Blog Much of the field of "behavioral ethics" is addressed to proving that "we are not as ethical as we think," which certainly doesn't seem like an overly optimistic view of human nature. Jeff Kaplan, editor of the Conflict of Interest blog, details how to determine what the correct ethics and compliance confident quotient and what balance of optimistic and skeptical approaches works for your company. Read more... Conduct Codes: How 'Interactive' Boosts Commitment, Use Forbes How does an interactive Code of Conduct help companies meet their ethics and compliance goals? As this article points out, the benefits of a Web-based Code go beyond saving paper. For example, did you know that even the most basic web analytics provide 10 times more insight than what we can garner today with downloaded PDFs? Read on to find out how an interactive Code is the most measurable platform to deliver your ethics and compliance messages, what kind of metrics you can expect to gather and how this kind of Code helps you transcend beyond just compliance to an authentic commitment to ethical business. Read more... How to Influence the Right Corporate Culture in your Business (and why it Matters) Financial Post Corporate culture is at the forefront of everyone's minds, to the point that clichés are flying around hot and heavy at every business seminar. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." "Anyone can knock off your product, but no one can copy your culture." "Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first." And yet, given the challenges in hiring A-players and talent shortages, culture really is a key differentiator. As the author so concisely put it, "Whether or not culture beats strategy, it may keep you from being somebody else's breakfast." Most helpful are the six key takeaways you can implement today (and every day, like brushing your teeth, because culture isn't a "once and done" deal). Read more... Game Changer: Confronting the new SEC Whistleblower Paradigm Inside Counsel The recent developments in SEC whistleblower awards may leave well-intended companies unsure of the appropriate response to actual or potential whistleblowers, how to best structure their compliance regimes, and how to conduct investigations and other business that might involve requests for confidentiality from their employees. Those decisions are crucial for companies in light of the increasing size and volume of whistleblower awards: on July 17, 2015, for example, the SEC announced a new award for more than $3 million to a whistleblower whose information helped the SEC in a complex fraud case. Inside Counsel's new whistleblower series showcases how SEC-reporting companies should handle the SEC's new whistleblower regime. Read more... Directors' and Compliance Officer's Criminal Liability under the Latest Reform of the Spanish Criminal Code Global Compliance News Liability of compliance professionals and the fining of corporations simply for having a deficient compliance program has been a hot topic here in the States after the BHP Billiton case. Recent changes to the Spanish Criminal Code have brought the topic to light in Spain as well. The recent reform of the Criminal Code ('Reform') specifically provides for corporate criminal liability, and expressly establishes that corporations will be exonerated if they have implemented ethics and compliance programs, which must meet certain requirements and include specific contents. The new legislation also introduces the role of 'compliance officer. The compliance officer does not assume that position as a guarantor, and will only be liable when a specific contractual duty has been delegated to the officer to prevent offences beyond his/her role as a supervisor of the operation of, and compliance with, the prevention model. Read more... Toshiba Scandal Indicates Troubled Corporate Governance across Japan Governance and Compliance Magazine Toshiba has been in the news recently for inflating their operating profit by a total of 151.8 billion Yen ($1.2 billion) over the course of several years. The inflation was up to triple their actual profits - and management was well aware. Leo Martin, director of business ethics and compliance advisers at GoodCorporation, told Governance and Compliance magazine that "the events at Toshiba hint at a serious problem in Japanese corporate culture. Our own experience of working in Japan is that employees are very loath to speak up and challenge management. All too often, the culture is overly consensual, fearful of challenge and strongly discouraging anyone from dissent." How much of the Toshiba scandal is indicative of governance problems aided in part by Japanese culture, and how much is attributable directly to Toshiba's culture? Read more... What Ethical Leaders Believe: The Leading in Context Manifesto Change This Linda Fisher Thornton's manifesto of ethical leadership is based on the premise that ethical thinking is intentional. We perform lots of routine tasks on autopilot, which makes sense - it saves time and effort. But when it really counts, such as in our leadership decisions, how can we be sure we're thinking things through and not just reacting on autopilot? Is that autopilot programmed to make ethical decisions? This article introduces Linda's framework for intentional values-based thinking answers some paradoxical questions that, such as "Why do even ethics experts disagree about what ethical leadership means?" and, "What are the business benefits of intentionally using high-level ethical leadership?" Read more... Share Your Thoughts with Us! What other articles would you share, so your colleagues in the ethics and compliance industry wouldn't miss them? You can join the conversation by commenting on the blog, messaging us on JDSupra or messaging me directly on LinkedIn. (PS: Have you seen our exciting news? We're now a part of the NAVEX Global family! Read the press release here.)The post Our Picks for the August Top 10 Ethics and Compliance Articles You Don't Want to Miss appeared first on .