When was the last time you faced an ethical dilemma at work? And what did you do about it? As a CIMA member or student you are obliged to take action. To do so you should ensure you are familiar with the Code of Ethics, which helps guides you to do the right thing.

In our upcoming CGMA report on ethics, our members  and students globally reported that human rights had risen in importance as an issue of priority for business.  Reflecting this, March saw the launch of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles. 

In Rebecca’s recent blog she highlighted how some candidates seem ethically challenged.

CIMA invites members and students to comment on IESBA’s proposed changes to the code of ethics for professional accountants to address conflicts of interest.

The final UN Global Compact meeting of the year focused upon Rio +20 UN conference on sustainable development, scheduled for June 2012.  The day the UK UNGC participants gathered in London, the announcement of the outcome of the Durban climate change meetings was still fresh.  After protracted negotiation a level of agreement was reached.  

Countdown has begun to the end of 2011 and it is not a cheery time. Although with developments in Europe the markets are steadying, Christine Lagarde’s dire warning of a lost decade looms large.

At the CIMA & Tomorrow’s company event last week the theme was Leading with Integrity: engaging hearts as well as minds.  As part of the Tomorrow’s Values series the session explored how employees align with a company’s values.   Values and trust are evidenced by people and their behaviours - not just by tickboxing around rules and policies – although such regulations are important in framing the environment and creating the push…..

The United National Global Compact (UNGC) meeting in London recently focused on anti-corruption initiatives globally.  In recognition of the overall cost to business, and wider economy and society of corrupt practices, principle ten of the UNGC is: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery."  

The 19th century philosopher Kierkergaard’s quote struck me as a challenge for finance  professionals -  linking existentialism and management accounting.   As our members and students are engaged in informing decision making based on the facts at hand, how best can they ensure that companies progress well, ensuring profitability and success whilst mitigating risk and damage in the longer term.  Not only in relation to the firm,  but to society at large, and to themselves personally.

Earlier this week  I corresponded with a veteran of the City (i.e. someone who has survived the downturn) who described himself and his colleagues as gladiators - entering battle every day, enduring existence in a high risk environment – and feeling more bloodied than pre-2008. 

When Nick Leeson, the Singapore based trader who brought down Barings Bank in 1995, realised the losses he was hiding were hours away from being discovered, he left a simple note on his desk.  And fled.  "I'm sorry" read the note and in a radio show last week, the Reunion, the BBC brought together Nick with his ex-boss for the first time when he apologised face to face.  In the show a former colleague, decribed Nick as "struck by a mixture of greed and fear for a number of yea

If a “wrong doing” in your organisation came to light, would it be a road-bump, in which management would quickly figure where things had gone wrong and put corrective action into place straight away, drawing lessons for the better running of the organisation in the future? 

The irony is not lost on many that the current ethical scandal that is fuelling global media, the story making front pages around the world and clogging all that is cyber, is indeed about the media itself.  The story is the story. And the story is of ethics.

The News of the World (NoW) the most profitable UK Sunday newspaper with the highest circulation and  known as the most read paper in the English language was dramatically closed yesterday by News International.

At 00.01 this morning, 1 July 2011, illicitly received or gifted golden coaches may well turn into pumpkins, or certainly costly liabilities, as the UK Bribery Act came into force, highlighting the continued global fight against corruption.

Over a rainy London weekend I caught up on some reading, including dipping in and out of Malcolm Gladwell’s recent book What the Dog Saw, a collection of his New Yorker essays from the last several years.  It seems even relaxing at home I am never far from business ethics, as one of the pieces, The Formula from 2007, focuses on the Enron collapse in a section looking at “flawed ways of thinking”. It may be old news, but the story remains instructive.

"Global attention on fighting corruption is intensifying" was one of the conclusions at a CIMA seminar at St Paul's cathedral held earlier in April.  The introduction of the UK Bribery Act is part of this "crest of a wave" and the growth of anti-corruption initiatives and focus on ethical business are evident everywhere.  "Call to end corporate corruption" read the headlines in the Malaysian press the day I was presenting

Last week the UK Ministry of Justice at last released the Guidance related to the UK Bribery Act 2010.  This guidance outlines procedures which commercial organisations can put into place to prevent persons associated with them from bribing.  As the guidance states victims of bribery not only include firms who lose out due to an unfair playing field, but also more generally governments and society globally pay a cost "undermined by a weakened rule of law and damaged social and economic development".

The United Nations Global Compact network meeting last week was focused on the challenges of operating in conflict affected and high risk areas.  Related to the recent release of a guidance for companies and investors, the discussions were timely, given the unfolding events in the MENA region and the indications that we may well enter more uncertain than stable times.  No-one predicted the sweeping call for change across the region, from Tunisia onwards, nor the conflict that has so quickl

Last week I was moonlighting, facilitating training in participation techniques for management and education professionals.  These individuals, amongst them a financial director currently working for a small UK manufacturing company, were about to embark on assignments far removed from their current day to day.

One result of the credit crunch, as Gillian Tett has recently written in the FT Weekend, has been a “celebrity” focus on the crisis and the ethical shortcomings.

This is the question Prince Charles pondered when we met with him yesterday to discuss sustainability together with representatives of the accounting bodies of the UK. I certainly hadn't been at a meeting table on a moving train before, and pitied the stewards pouring coffee!

Marking the launch of the Accounting for Sustainability Wales Forum – the meeting was scheduled in order to share objectives with the Prince, whilst he was travelling between Cardiff and Bristol on the Royal Train – promoting sustainability across the UK.

With the change in UK government in May this year,  many were wondering how the new coalition would deal with the UK Bribery Act which was passed into law in April.  Bribery and corruption are very costly for business – adding an estimated 10%