Workplace Ethics

By one expert's prediction, within 20 years half of Americans will have body implants that tell retailers how they feel about specific products as they browse their local stores. The notion may be outlandish, but it reflects executives' drive to understand shoppers in the aisles with the same obsessive detail that they track us online. In fact, a hidden surveillance revolution is already taking place inside brick-and-mortar stores, where Americans still do most of their buying.

Freedom is on the decline around the world. Autocrats in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are undermining our open societies, human rights, and the rule of law. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for the West, but the biggest threat remains China. For two generations, Americans and Europeans have believed that change will come through trade, but instead of dictatorships becoming more like Western democracies, unfettered free trade has strengthened our enemies and undermined our countries.

DEI consultant and corporate speaker, Risha Grant, shares her practice of learning how to welcome and embrace people’s full humanity, without BS, full stop. What’s BS? It’s bullshit for sure, but more specifically it’s the powerful and often invisible belief systems we’ve been steeped in since birth—the judgment and bias we carry with us that impact our own lives and the many others we encounter every day. Risha teaches us about the inner work and the outer work we need to do to dismantle our “biasphere,” and change how we see ourselves and how we interact with others.

As night settled on April 20, 2010, a series of explosions rocked Deepwater Horizon, the immense semisubmersible drilling platform leased by British Petroleum, located 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. Exhaustively researched and documented, Drowning in Oil is the first in-depth examination of how a lack of corporate responsibility and government oversight led to the biggest offshore oil spill in US history. It is an objective, definitive account of the energy industry and BP's pursuit of profit at any cost.

It’s no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs - a perfect storm of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures. But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Award-winning investigative reporter Ellen E. Schultz reveals how large companies and the retirement industry - benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks - have all played a huge, hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits.

In examining the history of the 737, a highly regarded plane that Boeing's new management degraded with cost-focused mandates, Flying Blind explores how Boeing skimped on testing in the race to match a competing plane from Airbus, outsourced software work to poorly paid graduates in India and convinced the US Federal Aviation Authority to put the MAX into service without requiring pilots to undergo simulator training.

Businesses have a big role to play in a capitalist society. They can tip the scales toward the benefit of the few, with toxic side effects for all, or they can guide us toward better, more equitable long-term solutions. Christopher Marquis tells the story of the rise of a new corporate form - the B Corporation. These companies undergo a rigorous certification process, overseen by the B Lab, and commit to putting social benefits, the rights of workers, community impact, and environmental stewardship on equal footing with financial shareholders.

A Crisis of Beliefs makes us rethink the financial crisis and the nature of economic risk. In this authoritative and comprehensive book, two of today's most insightful economists reveal how our beliefs shape financial markets, lead to expansions of credit and leverage, and expose the economy to major risks.

The question of how to lead successfully and responsibly is crucially important in our uncertain, high-pressure, turbulent world. In this audiobook, Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Badaracco answers this question in practical and, at times, provocative ways. Leaders today are surrounded by what Badaracco calls “the new invisible hand” - powerful, pervasive markets that touch and shape almost everything. As a result, understanding the inevitability and importance of struggle is critical.

The growing wealth inequality continues to dominate headlines. The divide between the haves and have nots in America is increasingly political and tensions are rising. On one side, the wealthy wield power and advantage, keeping the system operating in their favor, all while retreating into enclaves that separate them further and further from the poor and working class.

Today, the pay gap between chief executive officers of major US firms and their workers is higher than ever before - depending on the method of calculation, CEOs get paid between 300 and 700 times more than the average worker. Such outsized pay is a relatively recent phenomenon, but despite all the outrage, few detractors truly understand the numerous factors that have contributed to the dizzying upward spiral in CEO compensation.

We all eventually ask ourselves the question, "Am I making a difference?" We want our lives to have meaning. But just as an airline flight attendant will tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others, getting your own life together is the first step to making a positive impact on the world around you. In this new book, FranklinCovey cofounder Hyrum Smith shows that achieving a meaningful, fulfilling, and impactful life is a straightforward process.

El futurista Gerd Leonhard vuelve a abrir nuevos caminos, reuniendo la urgencia humana de actualizar y automatizarlo todo - incluso la propia biología humana - con nuestra eterna búsqueda de libertad y felicidad. Antes de que sea demasiado tarde, hemos de detenernos y hacernos las grandes preguntas: ¿Cómo podemos acoger la tecnología sin convertirnos en ella? Cuando esto ocurra - gradualmente, luego súbitamente - la era de las máquinas creará el mayor hito de la vida humana sobre la Tierra.

There is an invisible army of people deep inside the world’s biggest and best-known companies, pushing for safer and more responsible practices. They are trying to prevent the next Rana Plaza factory collapse, the next Deepwater Horizon explosion, the next Foxconn labor abuses. Obviously, they don’t always succeed. Christine Bader was one of those people. Using her story as its skeleton, Bader weaves in the stories of other “Corporate Idealists” working inside some of the world's biggest and best-known companies.

Leadership is alive when it is used for others. It dies when it is all about you. Anyone can make an impact. All you need is influence - the most potent professional asset on the planet. The problem is that influence is also the most underused asset on the planet. And the primary reason is that the enemy of influence is a universal human trait: self-preservation. You guard your ideas, your status, and your reputation.

What does it take to thrive in the world’s most relentlessly innovative company? In this gripping and unflinchingly honest account, a former Amazon leader pulls back the curtain on twelve transformative years inside the tech giant. From the scrappy startup culture of early Seattle days to the high-stakes expansion into global markets, this book is both a survival guide and a playbook for navigating corporate life. Harness the power of Amazon’s Leadership Principles to deliver results and build trust. Master the STAR Method to uncover exceptional talent and make every hire count.

In straightforward language, A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues encourages every White person to share his/her wealth with the Black community - plain and simple. Those who listen to the book will: understand the root causes of racial disparities in America; discover how you can personally contribute to reducing the inequality between Black and White people in the United States today; and get concrete recommendations on how to redirect your spending to Black-owned institutions to help decrease the racial wealth gap.

Drawing from his many best-selling books and years of experience mentoring, John Maxwell offers Equipping 101, a concise collection of time-tested principles on how to equip those around you for service.

In 2004 Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for Microsoft. Its mission: to explore novel technological solutions to the world's persistent social problems. But after a decade of designing technologies for humanitarian causes, Toyama concluded that no technology, however dazzling, could cause social change on its own.

In the spring of 2021, when news outlets feasted on "the Facebook Files," Frances Haugen went public as the former employee who blew the whistle on the company by copying tens of thousands of documents. She testified to Congress and spoke to the media. She was hailed at President Biden's first State of the Union Address. She made sure everyone understood exactly what the documents revealed: Facebook not only set its algorithm to reward extremism, it knew that its customers were using the platform to foment violence, to spread falsehoods, to diminish the self-esteem of young people, and more.