Not surprisingly, stories dealing with business ethics dominated the news this month. In this week’s edition of Ethics Newsline, we feature a report on a judge’s finding that the nation’s largest natural gas company deliberately manipulated supplies and contributed to California’s 2000-2001 power crisis. Previous issues covered the flap over perks provided to retired GE head Jack Welch (Sep. 23), a probe into finances at Tyco (Sep. 23), firings at a brokerage where employees allegedly refused to cooperate in an investigation of Enron finances (Sep. 23), a call by the New York Federal Reserve chief to take a hard look at spiraling CEO pay (Sep. 16), KPMG’s prediction that ethics — not the letter of the law — is the key to corporate responsibility (Sep. 16), sanctions against former Sunbeam CEO Al Dunlap (Sep. 9), a Canadian psychologist’s assertion that some corporate-ladder climbers fit the classic definition of psychopaths (Sep. 9), and the corporate implosion at WorldCom (Sep. 3).

Related workplace issues also figured prominently in September’s news menu. This week we feature a report on what promises to be a precedent-setting family-leave bill in California, and a new poll of “family-friendly” companies. On Sep. 16, we covered a dispute over employee evaluation methods at Goodyear.

Technology continued to garner a share of the ethics headlines. On Sep. 23, we reported on a new method of “cleaning up” movies by digitally bowdlerizing content — a technological breakthrough that has some producers crying foul. Our Sep. 16 edition covered the continuing controversy over stockpiling DNA samples by British law enforcement, and our Sep. 6 report chronicled apparent efforts by China to block the search engine Google after company executives refused to cooperate with censorship efforts.

Human rights issues almost always figure in ethics news, and in September we reported on a ruling that a U.S. company could be held liable for human rights abuses committed on its behalf (Sep. 23), the resignation of a controversial human rights chief at the UN (Sep. 16), a flap over secret deportation hearings held in the United States (Sep. 3), criticism of intelligence-sharing methods of the U.S. Justice Department and the CIA, and the Japanese government’s admission that the nation engaged in germ warfare during World War II (Sep. 3).

Several education-ethics issues surfaced during September. This week, we carried a report on how some parents are apparently diagnosis-shopping in hopes of scoring an advantage for their children on the SATs. In the Sep. 3 edition, we carried stories about the Los Angeles school district banning soda machines from schools, and Harvard’s decision, in the face of a possible loss of government funding, to allow military recruiters on campus despite disagreement over civil-rights issues.

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

The crisis of confidence in the business world continued to dominate Ethics Newsline’s reporting throughout August, as concern over corporate ethics intersected with the monetary consequences of shaking the public’s faith in equity markets.

Our three lead stories this week dealt with continuing fallout from allegations of financial impropriety: the first guilty plea in the Enron fiasco, the rollout of a new system under which corporate CEOs certify their companies’ books, and more troubles for Martha Stewart over allegations of insider trading. Other stories this month dealt with a major whistle-blowing case (Aug. 19), a Canadian official decrying the level of ethics oversight in that nation (Aug. 19), a survey in which many corporate chief financial officers claimed that their bosses had pressured them to cook the books (Aug. 12), and probes of financial dealings at WorldCom and AOL Time Warner (Aug. 5).

Ethical fallout from the war on terrorism continued to make headlines. At the forefront are this week’s items about the controversial airing of apparent al Qaeda videos purchased by major news organizations, and a threatened suit by Saudi interests against the U.S. government and some media outlets. The latter item was in reaction to a suit against Saudi interests covered in the Aug. 19 and Aug. 12 editions of Newsline.

Human rights stories almost always feature a significant ethical angle, and this week we covered news related to the seizure of white farmers’ lands in Zimbabwe, as well as controversy over an alleged go-easy policy by the United States over the “Dirty War” in Argentina. Related stories this month included controversy over the U.S. push to be exempted from certain human-rights prosecutions (Aug. 19), government intervention in a human-rights case against ExxonMobil (Aug. 12), and protest over an allegedly anti-Semitic article printed in an Egyptian paper (Aug. 5).

Technology was prominent this month: On Aug. 19 we covered a protest against Japan’s so-called Juki Net, a high-tech information gathering system, and on Aug. 5 we reported on a bill that would give media companies the right to hack Web sites that had appropriated their content. Also on Aug. 5, we covered a freedom-of-speech suit against a firm that programs Internet filters.

Workplace issues consistently make ethics news, and this month was no exception. Among the top stories: a new survey finds many U.S. firms effectively protect the rights of gay workers (Aug. 19), a South African firm finds it makes economic sense to provide free treatment for HIV-infected workers (Aug. 12), and many employees remain upbeat about their firms despite the recent spate of negative news (Aug. 12).

LOS ANGELES
As genetic science advances, consumer marketing is keeping pace, with a growing number of companies touting tests designed to give you skin creams, meals, and medications custom-tailored to your genetic make-up.

The problem is, these tests just might be useless and illegal, regulators say, worrying about whether and how they should put the brakes on gene science gone mainstream, according to a report last week from the Los Angeles Times.

The tests in question offer a host of personalized do-it-from-home services — a heads-up on your likelihood to have breast cancer, or an analysis of which antidepressant would work best in your body, for example — that currently lack government oversight.

Some observers say such laxity may not be a problem because the tests often require a doctor’s follow-up to prove useful, according to the Times.

Others worry that the tests, which range in cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars, might be little more than data-rich placebos giving people a false sense of empowerment while weakening their pocketbooks.

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

As the direct connection between business ethics and investors’ pocketbooks became more apparent in July, nervous lawmakers and regulators tightened the screws on the types of accounting and reporting practices that led to the recent wave of corporate implosions.

Much of the story culminated in this week’s report on congressional passage of a major corporate reform bill, as well as in our reports about the widening international attention paid to the issue — this week in Canada and South Korea. International corporate reform was also featured in our July 22 edition in reports on the European Union’s new requirement that stock options be treated as expenses, and the establishment of a new Canadian accounting oversight authority. The business-ethics dealings of government leaders were the subject of several reports this month, including scrutiny of President Bush’s corporate record (July 15 and 8), as well as Vice President Cheney’s (July 15).

While business ethics dominated the news, various ethical angles on international relations also made headlines. This week’s report focused on controversy over the withholding of U.S. funds from the United Nations Population Fund, and also included a report on allegations that Iran bankrolled a terrorist attack in Argentina. In previous issues, we reported on controversy surrounding a special fast-track U.S. visa program (July 22), alleged corruption in Indonesia (July 15), and a U.S. government report on trading with so-called enemy nations (July 8).

Ethics in education is a recurring topic, and several reports dealt with the issue. In this week’s edition of Ethics Newsline we reported on a Web site break-in that appeared to result from an increasing climate of competitiveness in college admissions, and the controversy over textbook adoptions in Texas. Other items this month concerned a cheating scandal in Vietnam (July 15), a suit by British students who claimed they were bullied (July 8), and court decisions involving the Pledge of Allegiance, school vouchers, and random drug testing in schools (July 1).

How society protects the rights of those who may not be in a position to protect themselves was a prominent theme in the ethics news during June. We led this week’s edition of Newsline with two items related to that issue: grand jury investigations into the role Catholic bishops may have played in covering up sexual abuse of minors by priests, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing execution of the retarded. We reported on similar issues in the June 17 issue: a high court ruling that the disabled cannot claim a right to jobs that endanger them, and that prisoners can be compelled to take part in a program that requires them to confess to additional crimes. Other related stories included a report on a legal rejection of the use of Internet filters in libraries to shield children from pornography (June 10), and a probe into reports that U.S. Navy sailors were used as guinea pigs in Cold War-era bio-weapons experiments without their knowledge or consent.

Business practices of major corporations headlined the news during June: the conviction of Arthur Andersen in an obstruction of justice case (June 17), new SEC rules to hold CEOs more accountable for financial reporting practices (June 17), a spike in white-collar crime (June 10), the resignation of the CEO of Tyco amid claims of tax irregularities (June 10), an accounting-practice investigation of Halliburton (June 3), and a claim of conflict of interest against Ernst & Young (June 3).

The intersection of ethics and technology news was a busy one during June, with reports of Citibank’s crackdown on the use of its credit card for Internet gambling (June 24), a court decision protecting patent law (June 3), and a charge that research from a prominent lab may be riddled with errors (June 3).

As usual, we also featured several stories dealing with the ethics of international business, including a lawsuit against banks that lent to the South African government (June 24), a call from Nigeria’s leader for other nations to help track down funds looted by corrupt African officials (June 17), a report noting that British working women have not achieved financial or professional parity with their male counterparts (June 10), and the continuing exchange of conflict-of-interest charges involving the awarding of government contracts to Canadian firms (June 3).

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

Controversy over conflicts of interest in the financial world continued to dominate the news in ethics during May, with this week’s edition of Ethics Newsline reporting on a $100 million settlement in the case against Merrill Lynch, alleged to have misled investors in hopes of appeasing big investment banking clients. On May 20, we carried a summary of what appears to be a record number of restatements of earnings following revelation of various accounting scandals, and on May 13 we covered a probe into allegations that Enron manipulated California’s energy supply during 2000 and early 2001. And on May 6 we featured a summary of Congress’s probe into fluctuating oil prices.

May saw several news stories dealing with the intersection of governance and ethics: a subpoena for White House records related to energy policy (May 27), a call for ethics reform in Canada (May 27), a government suit against municipalities for alleged voter mistreatment during the 2000 elections ((May 27), a dramatic shift in the Justice Department’s view toward interpretation of gun control (May 13), a stay on executions in Maryland (May 13), and a call by a Canadian newspaper for an end to what it views as U.S. trade protectionism (May 13).

Media ethics issues figured prominently in ethics news: a controversy over an ad agency’s use of the homeless in its marketing (May 27), protests over the use of a 9/11 photo of President Bush for fund-raising (May 20), concern over the airing of a videotape depicting portions of the killing of a Wall Street Journal reporter (May 20), and protests against the calling of reporters to testify in war-crimes trials (May 20).

Workplace stories also were featured in Ethics Newsline during May: a call for action to stem workplace violence (May 13), a settlement in a case involving testing workers for predisposition to certain workplace injuries (May 13), and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding seniority rights in the workplace (May 6).

As always, education ethics remained a continuing theme throughout our coverage: Harvard’s effort to reform grade inflation (May 27), criminal charges in the U.K. brought against a mother for allegedly allowing her daughter to be truant (May 20), and a call for more comprehensive sex education in the United Kingdom (May 6).

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

Fallout from the Enron scandal continued to impact the news in ethics this month. In this week’s edition, we lead with a warning from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Cooperate with government probes or face the government’s wrath. Also this week, we feature a story from our Canadian correspondent about a press report indicating that despite the lessons of Enron, many Canadian firms continue to receive auditing and consulting advice from the same firms. The effect of the debacle on Arthur Andersen’s attempt to merge with a Canadian firm was highlighted on Apr. 22, and allegations that Merrill Lynch acted in conflict of interest was featured in our Apr. 15 report. On Apr. 8, we also noted that press reports indicated that an Andersen executive claimed he was sidelined and silenced after attempting to alert his bosses to the growing problems at Enron, and that Xerox had agreed to a settlement with the government over alleged accounting irregularities.

Education and ethics figured prominently in several stories this month: a debate over separate schools for refugees in the United Kingdom (Apr. 29), protests in Philadelphia against turning some of the city’s worst-performing schools over to private companies (Apr. 22), and a threatened teachers’ strike in the United Kingdom over the length of the workday (Apr. 8).

Ethics and the environment was a recurring theme in April’s Newsline: A jury returned a precedent-setting verdict over pollution from a gasoline additive (Apr. 29), the Senate handed President Bush a setback in his Arctic oil drilling policy (Apr. 22), and a report from the New York Times claimed that environmentalists were largely excluded from the Bush administration’s conversations on the shape of energy policy (Apr. 1).

Health care was the subject of several articles: A federal judge upheld Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law (Apr. 22), a report claimed that the threat of malpractice suits is degrading the quality of medical care (Apr. 22), the Food and Drug Administration warned pharmacies not to concoct their own nicotine lollipops (Apr. 15), and a British woman known only as Miss B, paralyzed from an accident, won the right to have her life-support terminated (Apr. 1).

Finally, high-tech remained a staple of ethics news: The U.S. Supreme Court refused to clamp down on computer-generated “virtual” child pornography (Apr. 22), Canadian tax authorities fretted that e-commerce may become a tool for tax avoidance (Apr. 8), and video-game makers adopted a code of ethics seeking to tone down violence in the popular diversions (Apr. 01).

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

The Enron debacle and its fallout dominated the news in ethics through much of March, with a related story — campaign finance reform — leading this week’s report. The Enron scandal was cited as one compelling reason for the need to stanch the flow corporate money into government. Criminal indictments of Enron were reported on Mar. 18, and in our Mar. 11 issue we relayed stories about President Bush calling for tougher penalties for corporate mismanagement. A concomitant chill in Canadian markets was one of our top stories on Mar. 3, as our Canadian correspondent reported how the incident has shaken faith in markets there.

Health-ethics stories received a great deal of play during the month. Three major stories are in this week’s report: a finding that minorities receive inferior health coverage compared to whites, an offer by the World Health Organization to aid in lawsuits against Big Tobacco, and NBC’s decision to bow out of its attempt to advertise hard liquor after protests from health and social groups.

Media-ethics stories ran the gamut this month, from attacks on too-real “reality TV” (Mar. 25), a Canadian animation firm’s troubles with government regulators (Mar. 25), a report alleging that Hollywood has been playing cozy with tobacco companies by featuring their products (Mar. 18), the use of television to fight religious violence (Mar. 11), and the U.S. government’s decision to shut down a propaganda office after journalists expressed fears that disinformation could work its way into the foreign press and back to the United States (Mar. 4).

And international affairs and governance issue received heavy play in March: a scandal-related shake-up in Japan (Mar. 25), controversy over politically motivated tariffs (Mar. 18), charges of corruption in the Zimbabwe elections (Mar. 18), and a U.S. State Department report accusing several nations of softness on human rights issues (Mar. 11).

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

Recognizing that the United States’ financial markets are fueled by trust as much as by money, corporate regulators vowed, as detailed in Newsline this week, to crack down on dishonest executives. Current penalties, some regulators argue, are no deterrent to the fabulous wealth that can be generated by financial skullduggery, especially when insurance companies often foot the bill for fines, penalties, and settlements. As we also reported this week, some insurers are balking at paying the price of deception when they themselves claim they were lied to.

The latter story, of course, evolved from the continuing Enron debacle, which figured prominently in our reports throughout the month. February saw the Senate subpoena Enron’s tax records and President Bush call for a “single standard” in the administration of 401(k) plans, eliminating the preferential treatment that allowed executives of Enron to sell equities nested in their 401(k)s while rank-and-file employees were forced to hold the tanking stock. During February, we also reported on former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay’s subpoena to testify before a Senate subcommittee, a suit by the General Accounting Office for details of meetings between Enron and White House officials and the hero status afforded by some to the whistleblower who first warned that Enron was about to collapse in a blizzard of accounting scandals.

Health care issues continued to figure prominently in ethics news this month. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell made headlines with his endorsement of condom use for sexually active teens. Allegations that high-powered medical researchers are simply adding their bylines to “research” conducted for them by drug companies figured prominently in our February 18 issue. New proposed guidelines for stem-cell research were a major story on February 11, and the issue of February 4 carried two health-ethics items: a controversial federal provision to extend health-care coverage to fetuses, which critics contend is a backdoor step toward defining a fetus as a person; and a heart transplant, at taxpayers’ expense, to a convicted felon.

Four speech and press cases figured in the month’s news in ethics: a promise from the U.S. Defense Department that government propaganda would not involve lying to the public, an agreement to keep things clean in traditionally nasty Hungarian political campaigns, a suit over a so-called “censorship clause” prohibiting purchasers of certain software to criticize it in the press, and a controversy over a teacher’s complaint that students got off too lightly after allegedly plagiarizing a paper.

And sports provided many ethics-related reports this month. The Olympic judging controversies raised calls for reform (Feb. 18, Feb. 25), and Mike Tyson’s checkered past continued to raise the question of when an athlete’s personal morality should disqualify him from competing (Feb. 4, Feb. 25).

NEW YORK
Corporate America, though still dominated by white males, appears to be opening its doors to more minorities — thanks in no small part to a growing number of lawsuits accusing companies of discrimination, the Reuters news agency reported last week.

Noting a number of recent suits against iconic U.S. firms — Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Texaco among them — observers say other companies are diversifying their workforces to avoid the possibility of similar suits.

“You see more and more large companies that have at least one or two individuals whose responsibility is overseeing the diversification of the workplace,” employment lawyer Timothy Bland told Reuters. “There’s a tremendous business case for diversity.”

More diversity can mean less liability to discrimination claims, broader appeal to the diverse U.S. marketplace, and greater insight into product markets and supplier circles, Bland and others note.

Despite the logic of diversifying, some firms — especially smaller, white-owned businesses — may persist in stonewalling minorities, fearing lawsuits should they botch the process of integrating their workforce.

With only three black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies, there is still much room for improvement, but progress is being made, according to Ray Hood-Phillips, chief diversity officer at Advantica Restaurant Group, which has paid more than $50 million to settle a racial discrimination suit filed by black customers in the early 1990s.

Progress at Denny’s “would not have occurred without the lawsuit,” Hood-Phillips told Reuters. “Many American corporations have systems and ways of doing business that exclude and they are not aware.”

“I think Corporate America is probably on the forefront of understanding the damaging ramifications of trying to exist and operate within your own cultural and racial silos,” she added.

WASHINGTON
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week said it would soon unveil an official strategy for fighting the spread of spam, warning that unsolicited junk email increasingly is irritating consumers and threatening legitimate business.

The rate of spam spiked last year, rising from 440 junk emails per user in 2000 to 571 last year. The trend is expected to continue, rising by roughly 200 messages a year and hitting 1,479 in 2006, reported the Washington Post.

Consumers, weary of sifting through emails from bogus businesses, are clicking on less of the legitimate ones, according to the Post report, leading to a lessening click-through rate and cutting into businesses’ bottom lines.

“What happens is your good message gets sandwiched between emails that say ‘Get Rich Quick’ and ‘PornoXXX’ and gets deleted by your customer,” explained Ian Oxman, vice president of an online marketing firm.

More direct costs are mounting, too, according to the Post article, which notes that ISP superpowers America Online and Earthlink are being forced to invest considerable funds in the anti-spam fight.

“We have a full-time staff handling complaints,” Les Seagraves, chief privacy officer for EarthLink, confided to the Post. “We spend $1 million a year dealing with it, and I think we do as good a job as we can. But as soon as you find a new way to filter, the spammers find a new way to get it through.”

Joining the fight, the FTC has set up an email address — uce@ftc.gov — to collect junk emails sent in by irritated consumers, tracking down and prosecuting spammers, especially operators of pyramid schemes.

“We want to send a message today: We’re going after deceptive spam and the people who send it,” vowed FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris last week.

HOUSTON
The fate of most corporate whistleblowers — persecution, pariah status, and blacklisting — may be escaped by Enron’s Sherron Watkins, the executive who warned of her company’s probable wrongdoing last August, according to an article last week from BusinessWeek.

“The history of whistleblowers is not pleasant to read. They usually don’t get good treatment at the hands of their companies or future employers,” Thomas Donaldson, business ethics professor at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told BusinessWeek.

Watkins may fare better than other whistleblowers because of two key points — her position at Enron, and her method of handling the matter, experts and ethicists contend.

Whereas many whistleblowers are disgruntled employees, Watkins had clout and respect at Enron, where she was vested and highly involved with management.

Also to her benefit, Watkins framed her concerns in language meant to help the company and protect itself from imploding “in a wave of accounting scandals,” as she wrote in her memo to former Enron head Kenneth Lay.

Instead of going public immediately with her worries, Watkins worked first to effect change from within. “She was clearly trying to act in the best interest of Enron” without condoning the company’s behavior, noted Steve Currall, an associate professor at the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University. “She could have gone to the press with that thing. But she was trying to keep it within Enron and bring the issues to the attention of the top executives.”

“Every now and then, a whistleblower so galvanizes public attention that the person becomes a kind of hero. Watkins may well achieve that status,” Wharton’s Donaldson added.

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

Ethical and legal responsibilities of the government, corporate executives, and independent auditing firms were the subject of several of our top stories this month, culminating in our lead item this week: a government call to probe current contracts with Enron and Arthur Andersen. As we report, the U.S. budget director pointedly noted that existing laws “require that firms seeking to do business with the government have a satisfactory record of business ethics and integrity.” (See Newsline’s Jan. 7 issue for coverage of President Bush’s decision to repeal a law bolstering such government oversight.)

Previous issues of Newsline (Jan. 14 and Jan. 21) also reported on the controversy surrounding allegations that federal officials have not been forthcoming with details concerning what they knew about Enron and when they knew it, and claims that the private accounting firm hired by Enron overlooked dangerous financial practices because it did not want to risk losing the energy giant’s business.

Another emerging trend this month concerns medicine and ethics. As we report in this week’s issue, France is facing a crisis precipitated by a tightening national budget and an increasingly expensive health care system. In addition, France has been rocked by controversy surrounding doctors’ liability for prenatal tests that fail to diagnose birth defects (Jan. 7 and Jan. 14). On Jan. 21, we reported on an intriguing story centering on a television network’s decision to pay for DNA tests to help produce a news program about wrongly convicted criminals. The ethical implications of prenatal medicine were also front and center in a Jan. 7 report on the widespread use of the so-called morning-after birth control pill in Canada.

Equity issues continue to dominate headlines from the world of ethics. This week we reported on a dispute over regulations requiring female members of the military stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear the head-to-toe robe required under that nation’s law. On Jan. 21, we summarized several stories about an important change in the role of arbitration in settling disputes, and on Jan. 14 we featured a major roundup dealing with a tightening of the definition of the term “disability” when enforcing U.S. workplace law. And allegations of age discrimination figured prominent in the news capsulized in the Jan. 7 issue, where we reported that a major insurer was hit with a lawsuit by former agents claiming they were forced out because of their age.

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

Our lead story this month — the debate over Enron’s responsibility for allegedly encouraging employees to invest in shaky company stock — continues a theme carried over from our coverage of the World Trade Center disaster. As we reported on November 5, ethics officers at many corporations have begun to reassess the corporate role in employee well-being, pondering whether it is the proper role of the company to provide counseling for those shaken by the events of September 11. In our November 13 issue, we also reported that many Canadian firms are going through the same process.

The general nature of the workplace also figured prominently in our reports. On November 5, we reported on how on-site child care continues to flourish despite the threat of terrorist attacks, and how still-pending Supreme Court cases could resolve issues related to a worker’s right to a hazardous job as well as a worker’s right to proselytize religious beliefs at work. Work, incidentally, seems to be emerging as a “safe” area or “cocoon” according to a report in our November 13 issue. And in our November 19 report, we detailed what appears to be a growing trend in the American workplace: allowing an ally to attend a non-unionized employee’s disciplinary hearing.

Another trend concerned advertising related to September 11. On November 13, we reported that some prominent analysts warned that patriotic ads flavored with reminiscences of the terrorist attacks could backfire by appearing to be exploitative. According to a report filed in the November 19 issue, at least one group is planning an ad campaign touting nothing but values — such as courage and teamwork.

Medical ethics figured prominently in the month’s news, particularly the potential of harm. This week’s issue examined reaction to a report about medical societies prohibiting doctors from assisting in capital punishment and the potential for harm (and good) related to stem-cell research. Our November 13 issue covered a related story: physician-assisted suicide.

Human rights remained on the radar during November. While many of the human-rights related stories stemmed from the events of September 11, such as our November 13 piece on how foreign workers are facing increased scrutiny by immigration authorities, we also reported on a survey naming countries where religious intolerance is allegedly rife (November 5), on difficulties in prosecuting human-rights abuses in Nigeria (November 5), allegations that African immigrant children are abused in Europe (November 13), and continued allegations against a Canadian firm charged with encouraging human-rights abuses in Sudan (November 19).

Special to Newsline from editor Carl Hausman

Getting back to business in the month-and-a-half following the September 11 attacks has been a difficult journey for many firms and institutions, as they struggle to balance their immediate ethical obligations for employee well-being with the long term demand of staying in business.

Throughout the month, some firms faced withering criticism for appearing to cash in on the disaster (”Finance Firm Criticized for Soliciting Business of September 11 Victims’ Families,” Oct. 22) while others won plaudits for their accommodation to workers (”U.S. Companies Show Support for Employees Called to Active Duty,” Oct. 1). As we report this week, many companies are now taking an active role in attempting to help employees cope with what is becoming a traumatic transition back to the workaday world.

Ethical issues related to free speech also evolved during October. In a nation unaccustomed in recent years to pressing internal security issues, we debated whether loose lips will sink ships or whether tightening restrictions on sensitive issues would scuttle the spirit of the Constitution. Major issues included a backlash against reporters critical of President Bush’s handling of the crisis (”Free Speech Collides with Sensitivity in Wake of Terrorist Attacks,” Oct. 9), voluntary agreements by major TV networks to curb the airing of bin Laden-provided tapes (”TV Networks Agree to Curb bin Laden Coverage,” Oct. 15) and an easing on restrictions of the flow of top-secret information to members of Congress (”Bush Returns to Full Briefings on Wartime Activities,” Oct. 22).

Perhaps the major trend that will shape news in ethics over the coming month is portended by this issue’s story on postal worker’s claims that they were not given adequate protection against bioterrorism when a full-scale sweep and shutdown was ordered for threatened lawmakers. At issue: With all resources facing some eventual limit, who will receive priority protection?

In November, look for vigorous ethical debate over:

• The priority in which people receive vaccinations and treatments for diseases such as anthrax and possibly smallpox
• Levels of protection for various groups and institutions that may be likely targets of terrorism
• The news media’s role in reporting the likelihood of terrorist incidents — Is vigorous prediction of possible threats in itself a terror-inducing phenomenon? Should the media view their duty as to fully inform or show restraint in order to calm possible hysteria?

NEW YORK
Even though women are playing a greater hand than ever in building jobs and businesses in the U.S. private sector, they face long odds when it comes to winning venture capital, according to a report last week from USA Today.

Women create 70 percent of all jobs at privately owned firms and own 26 percent of all companies in the U.S. private sector, figures that continue to climb as more women enter the workplace.

But despite their increasing clout, women received only 4.4 percent of the record $72 billion in venture capital dispensed last year — a percentage that has been flat or declining since 1997, USA Today reported.

Venture capital, with its frequent perquisites of free legal, accounting, and marketing advice, is vital to many start-up firms, which would otherwise founder, a prospect even more likely as the U.S. economy cools.

Though women entrepreneurs face higher hurdles than many male-owned firms seeking venture capital, most analysts say the disparity is rarely the result of outright discrimination, but rather of women’s lagging pace at entering the corporate race, USA Today reported.

According to the article, women traditionally have avoided the business sector, have faced bias when trying to break into the business arena, and have a historical handicap in making contacts with corporate heavyweights — all factors that have retarded their progress in capturing venture capital.

But that will likely change as a growing number of women overcome gender-based barriers to climbing the corporate ladder, according to Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association.

“The future of the world is going to be women,” Heesen told USA Today. “Venture capitalists don’t ignore tsunamis, and this is a tsunami.”

NEW YORK
As a growing number of companies cut their staffs, experts are advising firms to take extra precautions against sabotage by former employees who feel mistreated, the New York Times reported last week.

Although sabotage occurs in only one percent of dismissals, that rate could climb to five percent at firms that clumsily handle layoffs and firings, an executive with a Chicago-based security firm told the Times.

Angry workers furloughed in the dot-com age can cause more damage than ever before due to the spread of technology, which often makes it possible to alter records, inventory data, price lists, and other information, even after the former employee has physically left the office.

“Every new wave of technology introduces new security exposures,” Richard Hunter, managing vice president at research firm Gartner Inc., told the Times. “If people who have a reason to be upset have access to your system, then they have the means. The remaining question is: Do they have the motivation?”

Increasingly, the answer is “yes,” Detroit employment lawyer Linn Hynds told the Times. “I don’t recall any time in my history, and I’ve been in this for 30 years, when the degree of destruction was quite as high.”

Fueling the fire may be the bungled manner with which some businesses, especially new high-tech firms run by inexperienced managers, handle layoffs, impersonally cutting loose loyal employees when times start to get tough.

As workers put in longer hours than ever before, sacrificing personal time for the company, they often expect something more than a pink slip when profits slip, one workplace psychologist explained to the Times.

In the end, though, most workers — whether angry or not — have little time for plotting revenge, Florida labor lawyer Jonathan Alpert told the Times.

Most dismissed workers “are shell-shocked,” Alpert said. “Their main concern is figuring out how to get their lives together, not masterminding some sort of retaliation.”

DANVILLE, Virginia
As the U.S. economy cools and companies tighten their belts, a growing number of firms are converting manufacturing facilities into more efficient, round-the-clock operations — a change that is causing concern among workers and safety watchdogs.

One such facility, a Virginia plant owned by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., was profiled last week by the Wall Street Journal, providing snapshots of the changes in workers’ lives and attitudes.

The shift to 24-7 production, with its frequent move to 12-hour shifts, creates a struggle for many workers, who often must rearrange their schedules to accommodate the push for nonstop labor, noted the Journal.

“If you’re a single parent, you now have weekend child-care requirements,” Bill Sirois, a consultant at a firm helping companies shift to nonstop operations, told the Journal. “If you’re a student, now you find it hard to make it to courses.”

Over the last decade, Sirois says his firm has seen the manufacturing industry undergo “a massive conversion to running 24-7″ — a change “structured around the machines, rather than the people who run them.”

That shift in focus causes concern among many workplace-safety advocates, including Mark Rosekind, president of a safety-consulting firm in California and former director of the Fatigue Countermeasures Program at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

“Fatigue undermines every aspect of human capability — from decision-making abilities to alertness,” Rosekind told the Journal.

The Journal cited a 1998 study in Germany that noted a rapid rise in injury risks to workers after nine hours on the job.

ROCHESTER, New York
Workplace programs that promote physical and mental fitness for employees ultimately save more money than they cost, reducing workplace injuries and absenteeism, according to a new study published last week.

“Over a two-year period, we found a 5-to-1 return on investment,” Deborah Napier, health management director for Xerox and co-author of the new study, told the Associated Press.

Napier and Shirley Musich of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center studied the health of more than 3,300 Xerox workers from 1996 to 1999.

Those employees enrolled in a Xerox-sponsored wellness program fared significantly better than their counterparts, who filed nearly 60 percent more workers’ compensation claims, noted the AP report.

Treating workers in the wellness program, which focused on both physical and mental health, also cost less than their counterparts when filing claims — $6,506 compared to $9,482 for nonparticipants.

“What companies like Xerox want to know is, does this program have value?” Musich told the AP.

The answer, she and others say, is a resounding “yes” — backed up now by statistical figures published in the July issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

NEW YORK
Growing numbers of U.S. workers are breaking down one of the few remaining workplace taboos — religion — by unapologetically struggling to integrate their religious beliefs with their office culture, according to an article last week in Fortune.

These efforts challenge the long-held belief that the constitutional bulwark separating church and state extends to the boardroom.

“Spirituality in the workplace is exploding,” Laura Nash, a senior research fellow at Harvard Business School who has followed the topic for a decade, told Fortune.

A recent Gallup poll backs Nash’s assessment. According to the 1999 survey, 78 percent of respondents in the United States said they felt a “need to experience spiritual growth” — more than triple the 20 percent who said the same thing in 1994.

Leading the search for finding God in the marketplace are the baby-boomers, Greg Pierce, cofounder of the religion-focused Business Leaders for Excellence, Ethics, and Justice (BEEJ), told Fortune.

“We’ve always been a very introspective group — which is the polite way of putting it…. Actually, we think the world revolves around us,” explained Pierce, author of a new book called Spirituality@Work. “We’re reaching the top of our careers, we’re kind of where we’re going to be, and now we’re saying, ‘What’s it all about?’”

Bill Pollard, chairman of the Fortune 500 firm ServiceMaster, owner of brands including Terminix, ChemLawn, and Merry Maids, said the trend is a good one.

“We can’t and shouldn’t and don’t want to drive people to a particular religious belief,” said Pollard, whose firm is committed explicitly to serving God. “But we do want people to ask the fundamental questions: What’s driving them? What is this life all about?”

Pollard’s take on foregoing denominationalism makes sense, according to Fortune, which notes that a recent survey of executives found 60 percent of them supportive of “spirituality” but negative on religion.