In a recent blog post on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Medium channel, University of Michigan Ross School of Business Dean Scott DeRue and Goldman Sachs Managing Director Will Bousquette called upon American business school deans and finance executives to unify their commitment to ethics in the financial services industry.
The authors emphasized the importance of a company’s reputation and how unethical corporate actions and behavior can have a major impact on public trust. The post implored “schools who educate the next generation of corporate leaders, and the firms who hire and employ them” to address issues of ethics that are especially prevalent in the financial services industry.
“While firms are ultimately responsible for the behavior of their employees, business schools and financial services companies are uniquely positioned to effect broad-based change together,” DeRue and Bousquette wrote. “Our core focus is ensuring that ethics and integrity are inherently tied to success in the corporate environment.”
As part of a plan for leaders from around the world to reach a consensus for next steps in the process, business school deans and industry leaders convened on June 19th for the New York Fed conference.
At the conference, participant considered the following solutions:
- A white paper written by organizational or behavioral scientists that discusses how banks are strengthening their culture of ethics and integrity;
- Company-sponsored talks by researchers that discuss how positive business practices improve profits, and
- A consortium of banks and schools that come together to develop a series of case studies on ethics in financial services.
“As the upcoming New York Fed conference nears, we find ourselves considering future innovations that might help further realize this cultural shift,” DuRue and Bousquette wrote as lead up to last week’s conference. “Despite the challenges associated with finding solutions to these complex issues, we are optimistic about the future.”
You can read the full blog “Reinforcing Ethics in Financial Services” or check out the brief overview on the Michigan Ross website.
