[LINK] unethical directors

[Vic Cinc]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gordon Keith" <gordonkeith at acslink.net.au>
To: <link at anumail0.anu.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: [LINK] Is it unethical to infringe a patent?


> On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:49, Geoff Ramadan wrote:
>> > Unethical? Very tricky. Depends on your ethics doesn't it? If you
>> > have the ethics of a modern company then no, nothing much is unethical
>> > because companies aren't people and have no ethics.
>>
>> Surely companies are run by people, decisions are made by people (on 
>> behalf
>> of a company) therefore the ethics of the company relate directly to the
>> ethics of the people running the company.
>
> But is it ethical to act ethically?
>
> I've heard it argued that companies are required by law to act in the best
> interest of shareholders. If a company director has to choose between 
> actions
> that are ethical, but not in the interest of shareholders, or unethical but
> in the interest of shareholders then the directory is legally and ethically
> required to act unethically.

absolutely not, the correct action for a director that feels his ethics are 
being compromised is to resign.

directors dont "run" the company. the ceo and executives do. the directors 
set the direction of the company and parameters for the ceo's action and 
results.

further youll probably find the same cross section of ethics in the community 
as youll find on boards, however boards have a very heavy duty of care 
applied to them, including unlimited personal liability so youll be rather 
hard pressed to find many unethical boards. employee have no such liability 
and the ethics issue arise far more frequently with employees.

my experience is that there are far far more ethically run companies then 
unethically run companies. there are some companies run like they are sharks, 
you quickly learn to stay away from them.

Vic