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Compliance in popular culture

Corporate compliance and “the arc of the moral universe”

It is one of the most frequently-used and beloved quotes for champions of progressive values: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” This famous line from Dr. Martin Luther King espouses a certain determinism, from nature or faith, that morality favors fairness and the truth in the end, even if it takes a long time and a lot of effort to get there.

Perhaps further motivation behind these words can be sussed out by understanding the original lines by which Dr. King’s statement was inspired. The older quote comes from Theodore Parker, a 19th century minister and abolitionist. He stated, in full: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”

Parker was also a Transcendentalist scholar who wrote prolifically on the subject of justice and the conscience, and the sanctity of the rights of all people in the service of those virtues. In Parker’s view, then, justice can be elusive or disappointing, but it is unequivocally a moral force, and progress toward it, however slow and halting, is a high state of being for people and governments. In light of Parker’s remark, Dr. King’s words indicate that individuals alone cannot be definitively satisfied that society will become universally just, but this should not dissuade them from their commitments to their ideals or their personal responsibilities to uphold them, in both private and public.

However reachable this sentiment may seem to be (or not be) over history and in practice, this idea can still provide inspiration to those wishing to positively impact the journey toward a just society. Individuals, for example, may take this concept as a reinforcement of personal conviction, the kind which is passed down over generations in pursuit of an ideal. Organizations such as political action committees, community groups, or charitable organizations may see as a direct call to diligent and persistent public activism with the goal of societal change, often enforced by legal action.

But what about corporations? The concept of the corporation as a legal “person” is always controversial in contemporary society because it conveys rights and protections on companies that many feel should be limited to natural persons only. However, with this designation comes responsibilities and obligations also, and not just ones that may be important in a courtroom. Corporations can do their own part to positively impact progressive toward justice by adopting business values that elevate morality and encourage organizational and employee commitments to integrity and fairness.

  • Social responsibility sells: As companies compete in the ever-crowded global marketplace, price and product are far from the only deciding factors between success and failure with consumers. Companies are now putting their social responsibility interests at the forefront. This shows up in their business values that they communicate to their employees as well as their advertising, corporate branding, and strategy that they bring to the market and identify themselves with to their customers. Consumers want strong personal associations with companies when they have many choices for retailers or service providers. Embracing social responsibility and commitment to progress, inside and outside of organizations, gives corporations a competitive edge and a striking identity that helps them to stand out and be remembered.
  • Representation is key: It is well known that the workplace has much improvement to do before it starts to even appear as diverse as society is outside of the office. Representation at all employee levels, from starters to executive boards, is important in the efforts toward inclusion. In order to aspire for equality and diversity, people of all backgrounds need to first be present and practically included. Then the real effort for change can happen, where this truly representative group can start to work together toward the integrated, equitable type of collaboration and open access that is still lacking from many broader communities and discussions in the world in general.
  • …but tokenism is toxic: In order to support this ambition, however, obstacles must truly be removed, and merit and performance have to be the standards by which people are promoted and co-working is established. Representation in name only, or to fulfil an appearance, is empty and non-progressive. Companies must commit against token inclusion and truly seek to integrate and cooperate authentically. Only then can responsible corporate citizens inspire in the world the changes they see in themselves.
  • Transparency fosters a more equitable working environment: As the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Open processes at a corporation will lean more easily toward equitable outcomes for employees and consumers. Unethical management decisions are easier to take and justify if they are concealed and never need to be explained. Having to reconcile the interests and feedback of others, however, helps toward mitigating unfairness. There will always be some amount of bold intolerance or exclusion, just as there will always be a few bad apples. However, it’s much more productive to focus on the decision-making that can be nudged toward a positive viewpoint and those people who will do good things when they are appropriately informed and supported to do so.
  • Integrity promotes sustainability: Sustainability – not the type that encourages re-using recycled coffee cups or only printing documents if it’s really necessary, but the type that focuses on longevity and sensibility of business practices and relationships – is, like social responsibility, a key competitive advantage. Integrity as a main business strategy shows that organizations value their relationships and want to make the right decisions not just for their profit, but for their partners and the future. In this sense, a strong moral code for business values represents both an investment in the aims of justice as well as a preparation for success.

For further contemplation on the concept of the moral universe and its predisposition to justice, and the nature of humans within this, amidst the challenges of the secular world and the frustrations of the individual, Theodore Parker’s “Of Justice and The Conscience” from his Ten Sermons of Religion is a powerful and interesting text.

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Trends in business compliance

Round-up on higher education compliance

Many of the challenges of modern society in general are writ large in the world of higher education. The obstacles to ethical decision-making that are prevalent for individuals and organizations in business are also present in the educational environment. Campus culture often represents a microcosm of culture at large, with many complex social dynamics playing out in close quarters. Students as well as educators and administrators are confronted by complicated moral dilemmas as generational divides and differing expectations for justice, integrity, and duty of care coexist.

  • In taking the administrative decision to close a popular but controversial student dormitory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stepped into the thorny issue of informed consent. In order to support their choice to deaccession “Senior House” as a student housing, MIT used data from student surveys that were supposed to be anonymous (but were actually tagged with geolocation information) to collect evidence that the dormitory was the source of high drug usage, low graduation rates, and other behavior deemed unsafe or unacceptable by the Chancellor’s Office. This methodology of gathering data from students and their organizations without explicit expression of the purpose and its intended usage, and the questionable decision-making that stems from it, bring into question the ethics of universities’ relations with the students for whom they are supposedly providing a supportive and inclusive community. The closure of Senior House by MIT is seen as part of a trend of university administrations to exact more control over students’ lives, including conduct they may expect to be unrelated to their educational relationship with their school, such as things that happen off-campus, when school is out of session, or even online:  A Weird MIT Dorm Dies, and a Crisis Blooms at Colleges
  • Given the insular culture that many university academic departments are known for cultivating – focused on competition and comparison and often resulting in isolation and highly politicized decision-making – hostile working environments can quickly emerge on interpersonal levels. Unlike most at-will employees in the job market at large, however, many experienced professors have security of tenure and therefore their interactions with colleagues are not always checked by their fear of reprisal that could lead to losing their jobs. In some situations this can create workplaces that value and promote individuals for their academic prowess but turn a blind eye to claims of troubling personal behavior with colleagues or even students. Universities are often accused of failing to adequately investigate these allegations or not even providing a sufficient framework for safe and effective reporting. Hierarchical departments allow powerful, tenured professors to exploit their positions, with addressing toxic behavior taking a backseat to protecting those reporting harassment:  She Was a Rising Star at a Major University. Then a Lecherous Professor Made Her Life Hell.
  • “Call-out culture” – in which people, often in groups, point out statements or actions of others that they see as problematic or abusive and take down the person in question – has been fed by the public’s appetite for controversy and the prevalence of the internet and social media, where otherwise innocuous events between friends can be broadcast all over the world for commentary, criticism, and ridicule. While understandably some of the intent of call-out culture is to suggest and reinforce more positive, informed standards for interactions in a more inclusive society, this often goes too far. Far from just being restricted to taking down those who act with the intent to cause offense, or educating those who are unaware of the real implications of things they do and say involuntarily or too casually, this culture has fostered an environment where innocent behavior is subject to ridicule and derision. In the university setting, this fear of group criticism is very destructive to creation of community. Being unable to have dialog in the classrooms and student centers of universities has a major chilling effect on sharing of views and open learning:  The Destructiveness of Call-Out Culture on Campus
  • The call-out culture trend described above between students also exists on campuses between professors and other academics. Instead of playing out on social media, this dynamic takes place from editorial boards and academics who read papers in journals, or even just commentaries on papers in journals, and then pile on to criticize the author’s intent. Leaving aside the merit of any arguments made among these groups, the dynamic is the same, of stifling dialog and using groupthink to determine which expression is acceptable or even legitimate. Often this criticism is not very informed and even extends to having the outright intent of policing which and whose ideas are considered worthy of engaging with and debating about:  Academe’s Poisonous Call-Out Culture 
  • Another impact of social media and the internet on the classroom has been the rise of the “teacher influencer” – educators who are given free educational software or equipment, and even sometimes paid in addition, to use for their students in exchange for making posts online or giving talks about the products. These teachers can argue convincingly that their students benefit from access to these products, and that their business arrangements are taken on with the sole objective of benefiting their students in a time when school supplies and improvements are vastly underprovided and underfunded.   However, the standards for disclosure of these arrangements and the handling of the potential conflicts of interest that can arise even from the most innocent, helpful intentions are uncharted ethical territory:  Silicon Valley Courts Brand-Name Teachers, Raising Ethics Issues

In many ways the academic setting, for secondary education as well as at the university level, can be seen as an incubator for these social disruptions that occur in every area of contemporary life. Educational institutions are struggling with cultural changes that redefine the responsibilities in and limits of authority. Issues of consent, safety, cultural values, and conflicts of interest all prompt compelling compliance dilemmas in the higher education domain.

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Compliance and ethics business case studies

Instagram and the internet’s code of ethics

Instagram is a very popular social media app based on sharing photos and videos, publicly and to selected users as well as via direct, private message. It was launched in 2010 and since April 2012 has been owned by Facebook, another giant in the social media industry. In less than the decade of its existence, Instagram has grown a very large and active community, where users can interact with their friends and “followers” as well as other communities who maintain a presence there, public figures, media sources, and corporate brands.

All of these wildly different groups, from all over the world, sharing content and commentary on one platform, is exciting and promises many opportunities for collaboration. Along with these positive connections, though, of course come negative surprises and possibilities for challenges and abuses. With all the influence Instagram has through its popularity comes also responsibility for defining the standards and limitations of the community as well as what it will put out into the internet and the world.

Instagram has faced its share of criticism for its efforts to implement and maintain effective controls and reporting mechanisms.   Instagram relies heavily on user reporting of inappropriate content, such as posts depicting illegal activity or the use of “coded” hashtags and emojis to conceal but continue on with such practices. Understandably, even the most aggressive attempts to keep up with the pace of this behavior on social media will fall behind quickly, leading to criticism the community is unsafe. When Instagram is too proactive or reaches in deleting comments, posts, or users, however, then controversy about overreaching into privacy and expression begins in response.

Kevin Systrom, one of the original creators of Instagram and its current CEO, wants to work this balance between protection from abuse and freedom of expression. Under his leadership, Instagram is dedicated to ensuring that the content and tone on the platform is compliant with its community guidelines. Changes to the comments sections on photos – including allowing users to filter out comments that had certain words, or to post photos without comment sections available – are intended to encourage safer self-expression by the posters who might otherwise fear harassment or offensive content in response below their photos.

Platforms such as Instagram, of course, can never be neutral – any technology’s relationship with its user is one that is fraught with moral concerns, starting right at the ethics of its design, which is made only more complex by algorithms, robot users, and the real users who make their own decisions about the content to share and promote that run the gamut from universally appropriate to offensive, harassing, or even illegal. In such a context, applying a code of ethics is a very hard task, but perhaps it is the inherent difficulty of doing this that makes it so important to try.

Creating filters and tools to hide and promote, prevent and engage, either when deployed by the community management behind the scenes or when elected by users, is just the beginning of the design choices engineers have made at Instagram to implement technical responses to problematic tone in some corners of the platform. Instagram tries to deploy artificial intelligence to help also, to sort real posts from fake and to learn from the data to understand why innocent comments or content may be abusive to the context, a concept called word embeddings. AI has its limitations, of course, but in any rules-based approach to governance it’s necessary to start with something good and then make continual efforts to make it better, rather than leave risks un-addressed while in hopeful pursuit of the best.

Time will tell how effective Instagram’s efforts to make the platform a safer place for expression really are, and what they really accomplish – a place which is open for creative sharing and communication creation, but not to toxicity and abuse, or a censored, sanitized, disingenuous photo collection where self-expression is restricted and speech censored? Perhaps Instagram will succeed in going against the tide on the internet and in much of life, where the level of social discourse seems to have gone low, tinged by anger and dark with people’s worst impulses, and make a place where the conversation can be a bit more civil, even if it has to be filtered first to get there.

For more detail on Kevin Systrom’s ambition of making Instagram a safe haven and role model platform on the internet, and the challenges that both motivate and complicate this mission, see Nicholas Thompson’s story on Wired.

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Compliance in current and historical events

Compliance lessons to learn from the 2017 Equifax cybersecurity breach

Equifax is one of the major US-based consumer credit reporting agencies. It operates globally and due to their nature of its business, maintains sensitive and personal information on more than 800 million individuals and more than 80 million organizations.

In September 2017, Equifax announced that it had experienced a cybersecurity intrusion in July 2017 which impacted the data of up to 200 million consumers from the US, Canada, and the UK. The handling of this breach by Equifax was widely criticized and questioned. Among the controversial aspects of it were the two month delay in publicizing it, the lack of specific information about the data compromised, the inadequate and possibly even unsafe system and support provided for impacted consumers, and the perception of possible insider trading by company executives in the days after the breach took place but before it was public.

As the problematic response to this cybersecurity incident unfolded, Equifax’s various blunders and missteps in the public handling of the situation formed a guide for worst practices in such a scenario. As the dialog around Equifax’s response has shown, poor crisis management in the public eye only compounds the consumer protection problems.

  • Companies do often have legitimate reasons for delaying notifying consumers, regulators, and the public at large about data breaches. Sometimes companies do not even know they have been breached right away. Even once they are aware, sometimes law enforcement will request that they do not disclose the breach. Different types of data may be subject to different disclosure requirements, so companies also sometimes have to take time to determine what data was involved. However, these delays still can be very problematic for consumers, who can be unknowingly at risk and make assumptions about the seriousness with which their data is stored and maintained which might be very far from reality.  Why it can take so long for companies to reveal their data breaches 
  • While Equifax was taking its time notifying consumers and regulators of the data breach, questions abound about when – and what – people on the inside knew about it. This is because only a few days after the July 29 cybersecurity intrusion, on August 1 and August 2, several executives at Equifax sold shares. These transactions were not part of scheduled trading plans, but they were not total liquidations of their positions, and the company says that the executives were unaware of the breach at the time of the trades. However, the perception of possible insider trading is hard to avoid once the timing of this activity is revealed. If they truly did not know about the cybersecurity problem, it would have been wise at least to inform key senior management of the breach and advise them to avoid trading in the stock while in possession of inside information.  Three Equifax Managers Sold Stock Before Cyber Hack Revealed
  • Despite how secret most people in the US see their financial data as being – especially social security numbers and bank account or credit card information – current privacy laws are lacking in many key areas when compared to those in other parts of the world such as the EU. Top of mind among privacy concerns, including the need for consumers to input personal data to check whether their other personal data has been compromised, is that over a month went by before Equifax notified the public of the cybersecurity incident at all. In the 40 days that went past, the data could have been used for many illicit purposes without consumers even being aware they were at risk. Laws in the US currently differ between states with regards to breach notification requirements. There is no unifying directive in the US for the standard where personal data is concerned, such as there will be next year in the US under the General Data Protection Regulation, which requires notification within a maximum of 72 hours. Perhaps a higher standard in the US such as this one would reinforce seriousness of these events to organizations and improve consumer protection and communication processes when they occur.  Equifax breach disclosure would have failed Europe’s tough new rules
  • While these data breaches are unfortunately becoming so common that the public is often less alarmed by them now than in the past, irresponsible or insufficient responses by organizations to these breach still provoke justifiable outrage and calls for change. Consumers being desensitized to the exposure of their personal data just shows how widespread the problem is and how insufficiently the interests of the consumers are guarded. However exhausted the public may seem to be with the ongoing leaks and hacks of their private data, this is no excuse for organizations affected by them to respond with the same passive, indifferent attitude. Equifax’s lack of detail and inadequate communication displayed to the public that they did not care about the invasion consumers were suffering, which is quite a different message than one of fatigue by victims who have had this experience too many times to excuse. The reputational risk suffered by such corporate carelessness is extreme, and hopefully will drive consumers to advocate for a higher standard of responsibility and responsiveness from keepers of consumer data.  The Banality of the Equifax Breach
  • As the public contends with the reality of the Equifax data breach – that subsequent hacking attempts stemming from this breach are inevitable and that companies like Equifax do not meet the standard of care for protecting this private information in their possession – what can anyone do in the future? Holding companies accountable for their poor service by taking their business elsewhere is often the only choice consumers have to voice their displeasure. In the current system individuals aren’t really able to avoid the consumer credit reporting agencies, but organizations could opt to create and use independent systems with more secure infrastructures. These corporate users could drive a technological shift that would also benefit individual consumers. Blockchain and related technologies could provide the solutions to these vexing and chronic security concerns that the existing system seems unable to address.  It’s time to build our own Equifax with blackjack and crypto

Given the ever-increasing risks surrounding cybersecurity, compliance professionals and individuals interested in cybersecurity risk management can take many cues from the above on what not to do in such a situation from Equifax. Hopefully as organizations continue to live with the risk of such intrusions, and improve their control frameworks to prevent and mitigate them, they also pay attention to the public responses in such situation, to make sure that the statements made and guidance provided are adequate and accurate.

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Best Practices

Communication strategies for increasing employee engagement in compliance programs

Every compliance professional’s strategic annual plan will include seeking increased employee engagement in and attention to the organization’s compliance program. Communication strategies must be carefully devised with the goal in mind of making compliance vivid and interesting to employees. The compliance message can quickly become routine and dry: sign an attestation, request pre-approval, complete a checklist. This sort of messaging alienates employees rather than engaging them. They have only a small function in the compliance operations this way. Nothing is learned or shared, they are just doing a “tick the box” type exercise.

Instead, the true aspiration of the compliance messaging is that employees take interest, learn something new, ask questions, and feel connected to the story of the organization’s compliance program. This is accomplished via effective and appealing communication that speaks to all audiences and sets a new, compelling tone.

  • Key moment messaging: Compliance is highly relatable to current events and new stories. Therefore compliance communications should take full advantage of key moment messaging opportunities. Relate communication topics to outside events to make the objectives of the compliance program even more concrete. For example, if there is a major earthquake somewhere in the world and your office is located in Southern California, take that opportunity to engage with employees about disaster recovery and business continuity policies and procedures. Their interest will already be heightened and the necessity of the information will be at its most tangible.
  • Positive reinforcement: Start with a kudos, congratulations, or positive sentiment. Any action that needs to be taken or improvement that needs to be made based upon the communication will be much better received if the message gets off to a welcoming start. Set a productive tone by thanking employees for their participation in the last request or calling out good insights or high engagement. Then build off that encouragement to bring in the next steps needed and issue the call to action.
  • Branding: Branding and marketing are now important considerations across all business lines and functions. Compliance is not immune to this, as messages from so many sources fight among themselves for precious attention and airtime from employees. Therefore compliance professionals must carefully consider branding options that will maintain the substantive content of their communications yet be adequately branded to be appealing. Using humor or a catchy, fun theme to introduce the communication, before getting to the meat of the message, can provoke curiosity and prompt engagement. Don’t take it too far and make it a joke – but a little bit of amusement can go a long way.
  • Give visuals/shortcuts: On a similar note, think about making simple takeaways from the communication, however complex its overall message. One way to do this is to provide a visual, like an example of a new form that has to be filled as standard procedure, or a chart showing results on an initiative over previous periods and projected future results. If a visual is not applicable, try using acronyms or slogans that will work as mnemonics to help people remember your message and keep the meaning in mind.
  • Make it interactive: The best way to engage employees in compliance communications is to concretely incorporate them in it. Make the messages interactive for them. Ask an open-ended question and promote any responses received so that employees know the request for input is credible. Take a poll or offer a quiz. This way, employees can share in the mission and the effort by weighing in themselves, which allows them to personalize the message and be more likely to remember it.

To interest and appeal to all employees, compliance communications should not be generic or routine. Taking advantage of opportunities to make compliance relatable, and capitalizing on human interest or emotional connections that can be made, will help to make the mission of the compliance program much more interesting and effective.

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This week preview

This week on Compliance Culture

Be sure to visit Compliance Culture this week for posts on these topics.

  • Monday: Compliance communication to encourage employee engagement
  • Tuesday: The Equifax cybersecurity breach: What not to do
  • Wednesday: Instagram and ethics
  • Thursday: Compliance culture in higher education
  • Friday: Corporate compliance and the morality of justice

Don’t miss it!

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Last week round-up

Last week on Compliance Culture

Check out last week’s posts on Compliance Culture, in case you missed or want to revisit them.

Many thanks for reading!

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Compliance in popular culture

The Office and culture of non-compliance

The Office is a very popular US television comedy series, based on a UK series of the same name. It follows the daily lives of the employees working in the Scranton branch office of a paper company. Filmed as a “mockumentary,” to imitate the style of a documentary, the show features many “interviews” with the employees and management. While it does address things in their private lives and personal relationships between the characters, most of the action of the show occurs in the workplace and is based around the dynamic of the characters as colleagues and employees.

In this light, the show offers many interesting insights and tropes about the experiences of working in a small or branch office, with an eccentric boss and idiosyncratic colleagues, dealing with policies from head office and the challenges of working together effectively. Scenarios relevant to compliance are touched upon often in the series, frequently showing examples of very poor management practices or problematic cultural values.

  • “Sexual Harassment” (Season 2, Episode 2): In this episode, the office’s HR personnel are providing sexual harassment refresher training and reviewing policies after an incident at corporate headquarters. Instead of setting a tone at the top to reinforce how important a respectful and safe working environment should be, and how inappropriate harassing behavior of any kind is, the manager Michael Scott has a tantrum and makes light of the importance of the policies. He never embraces his duty as a leader to model positive behavior; even when he defends one of his staff against the rude joke of another, it is accompanied by an improper comment of his own, as he misses the opportunity to step up and reinforce a culture of compliance.

 

  • “WUPHF.com” (Season 7, Episode 9): In the cold open of this episode, the power goes out in the office and the server goes down. Instead of having reliable disaster recovery procedures on hand or a controls framework that would enable business continuity in this sort of situation, the staff must resort to guessing the password as a group. Obviously this is not advisable in light of critical cybersecurity concerns which face all businesses today, especially small offices such as this one which might be assumed to have weaker controls and be targeted by intruders hoping to gain access to the larger company network.

 

Actually, the “WUPHF.com” episode, in its entirety, is another good example of poor compliance practices. Ryan Howard, with Michael’s encouragement and financial backing, claims that he has devised a web-based messaging system called WUPHF.com. In reality, Ryan is committing a fraud, in that the website does not function (despite his attempts to advertise to the contrary) and the only purpose for it is to try to sell off the domain name. Instead of uncovering and disclosing this fraud, and protecting the other investors, Michael backs Ryan. Though he later withdraws his support for Ryan, the fraud is allowed to continue because Michael does not step up and see beyond the conflict of interest posed by his personal relationship with Ryan in order to act on behalf of the investors as he could do.

 

  • Scott’s Tots (Season 6, Episode 12): In surely one of the more cringe-worthy moments for Michael Scott – that’s saying a lot – he fails to keep the promise he made years before to pay college tuition for a group of lower-income children. Upon their high school graduation, he must confess that he has not upheld the duty to them that he created with his promise. Instead, he apologies and tries to give them batteries as a conciliatory gesture. Apart from the terrible awkwardness of the concept itself (this episode aired in December 2009, deep within the global financial crisis, an uncomfortable time to try to address financial fraud humorously), it’s unfortunate, and a sign of weak leadership, that Michael doesn’t seem to acknowledge at all the reliance upon his integrity he created by making that commitment.

 

  • The Incentive (Season 8, Episode 2): In the absence of Michael Scott, his former employee and now new office branch manager Andy Bernard is proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to insufficiently ethical leadership. Andy finds himself at a loss for how to motivate his employees and decides to create a points-based incentive system to encourage their performance. Rather than appealing to their values or accepting lower performance in exchange for more sustainable and strategic efforts, Andy chooses a management method which will yield only short-term, temporary improvement or engagement.

From the above it is abundantly clear that The Office does not depict a corporate culture of compliance or a values-based approach to business strategy. Rather, it shows a company that is run, at least in the Scranton branch, with an ethos of non-compliance in the workplace.

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Trends in business compliance

Round-up on ethics of design in technology

One of the most interesting and challenging inquiries in the evolving ethical code of technology has to do with design choices. Ethical decision-making and process design has direct impact on the fluid, complex process of creating the devices, interfaces, and systems that are brought to market and used by consumers on a constant basis. In such a disruptive and innovative industry, there are moral costs for every design decision: every new creation replaces or changes an existing one, and for everyone who has new access or benefits, others experience the costs of these decisions. Therefore the ethics of design as applied to technology and, of particular interest, social media, have concrete importance for everyone living in a world increasingly dominated by user experiences, communities’ terms of service, and smart devices.

  • Former Google product manager Tristan Harris has gone viral with his commentary on the ethics of design in smart phones and platforms creating apps for them. There is a balance in online design where the internet platforms go from being useful or intuitive to encouraging interruption and even obsession. Many people worry about the effect “screen time” may have on their attention span, quality of sleep, and offline interactions with people. Design techniques may actually keep people attached to their devices in a constant loop of advertisements, notifications, and links, as content providers and platforms compete to grab viewers’ attention. Alerting people to the control their devices have over their attention and time is one step, but urging more ethical choices in the design process is the next frontier for innovation reform:  Our Minds Have Been Hijacked By Our Phones.  Tristan Harris Wants To Rescue Them. 
  • The above phenomenon of addictive design has become so imbedded in the creation of app features that even the most subtle changes can have a huge impact on the consumption practices of users. But when do features go from entertaining and user-friendly to compulsive, even addictive? Refreshing an app can be like pulling the lever on a slot machine, giving the brain rewards in the form of new content to keep the loop going at the expense of other activities and priorities. These design improvements, then, may actually affect users more as manipulations:  Designers are using “dark UX” to turn you into a sleep-deprived internet addict
  • These small, ongoing redesigns are intended to make apps more readable and consumable. These periodic improvements are intended to make content more captivating and enable longer browsing – again prompting the question, what is the ethical code for the control designers wield over users with these choices? From a design ethics perspective, these small changes can be viewed as more alarming than major ones, as they are so incremental that many users do not consciously notice them and therefore “optimization” tips into “over-optimization,” meaningful interaction becoming possibly destructive:  Facebook and Instagram get redesigns for readability
  • Artificial intelligence always captures the public’s imagination – thrills and fears about the possible developing capabilities of robots and predictive algorithms that could direct and define – and perhaps threaten – human existence in the future. AI has been developing in recent years at a breakneck pace, and all indications are that this innovation will continue or multiply in the coming period. The science fiction-esque impact of AI on society will grow and bring with it all kinds of ethical concerns about the abilities of humans to define and control it in a timely and effective way:  Ethics — the next frontier for artificial intelligence
  • Social media platforms have developed into social systems, with all the dilemmas and dynamics that come along with that. These networks may face the choice between engagement and all of the thorny dialogs that come with it, and a simpler, more remote model that can be enjoyable but is less interactive and therefore, perhaps, less provocative:  ‘Link in Bio’ Keeps Instagram Nice

Queries into design ethics and choice theory in technology, especially social media, ask the questions of what human experience will evolve into in a world which is increasingly digitized and networked. The design decisions made in the creation of these devices and systems require an ethical code and a sense of social responsibility in order to define the boundaries of what are the best collective choices.

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Compliance and ethics business case studies

TravelBird and setting the standard for corporate cultural values

One of the undeniable effects of the trends of globalization and increased demand for customization and specialization that have occurred in both the retail and service industries is that competition is keener than ever. In today’s crowded marketplace, organizations must get creative to set themselves apart and appeal to consumers. From a compliance perspective, of course, the most practical and sustainable way for an organization to do this is to be loud and proud about its integrity and values-based approach to business.

TravelBird, an Amsterdam-based travel agency which operates in 11 European markets, has embraced a disruptive business model and is determined about changing the way customers plan and book their vacations into a holistic experience. Founded in 2010, TravelBird refers to itself as a “scale-up,” a start-up with a strategy of cultivated and plotted growth. Its customer service ambitions are matched by its desire to create a vibrant employee experience and to have a corporate profile which is inspiring and consistent with the image it wishes to project publicly.

Towards accomplishing this goal, TravelBird has recently announced its “cultural values,” a novel spin on the corporate mission statement or business principles. These values as stated by the company are strikingly balanced and represent a thoughtful evaluation of the organizational and employee traits which embody the best alignment with a successful, sustainable business philosophy:

  • Adventurous but Responsible – Take measured business risks, even as leaps of faith, and go boldly into new product and service areas as the customer experience may demand the organization to do so. However, do this with respect for foundations such as legal and regulatory frameworks and the ethical and moral considerations that may be implied. This is the ultimate principle of sustainability that emerging enterprises, especially companies with a basis in technology, forget to make room for in their organizations. An organization which approaches its growth with this orientation is culturally better prepared to offensively weather future storms than one that defensively considers problems for the first time as they occurring.
  • Passionate but Practical – Creative and sales may drive the bottom-line survival, but compliance and other control functions inform the staying power. Design strategic choices and decision-making at the company so that it is consistent with an ambitious business profile and speaks to the passions and excitements of the employees and customers, but don’t forget to do things right from the start.
  • Candid but Compassionate – Honesty is the best policy, but it doesn’t have to be brutal or at the expense of a mature relationship-based way of doing business. Commercial relationships can be very remote and it’s easy to forget there are people on both sides of every interaction. It is important to treat each other with integrity but to also have a high standard for performance and behavior.

Customers and employees alike are highly motivated by companies that model admirable cultural conduct. Blending corporate ambition and conscience, strategy and cultural responsibility, is a powerful approach to growing and cultivating a business. Companies looking to develop directed corporate cultures should aspire to lead with this kind of message and engage in these values authentically and continually.

For TravelBird’s announcement on their cultural values: check out their LinkedIn.