Some updates
Wes Bucey said:
This entire thread is extremely interesting. Marc has made a habit lately of bringing "Blasts From the Past" back to our consciousness (probably as much to show "what goes around comes around" as to highlight changes in thinking.)
I'm going to be giving a short presentation on Change Management = Cultural Change
at one of my ASQ Sections on June 17. I found some interesting material in this thread which I may adapt to the presentation.
As I read and reread this thread, I become more and more fascinated by the interweaving of
- "change"
- "culture"
- "ethics"
An interesting sidelight to the ethics situation is that the U.S. government has seen a connection between
- ferreting out unethical and criminal behavior in corporations
and
- the positive impact on the well-being of its citizens.
One method the government is using more and more is sharing the fines and penalties imposed on wrong-doers with the whistleblowers who turn them in.
So now, if you have as strong an ethical conscience as our vanished Cover (Carl Keller), you have an opportunity to do the right thing and get some compensation which will help you survive the career blacklisting which inevitably has followed whistleblowers throughout the world.
As I correspond with folks from around the country, I sense a real fear on the part of executives over the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) (
http://www.sarbanes-oxley.com/)
I mentioned in another thread the recent emphasis by the FDA to pursue litigation and criminal action against noncompliant companies. I neglected to mention that many of these FDA investigations are instigated by whistleblowers who stand to receive 10% of the total fine and disgorgement money paid by a company in settlement or court judgement. I'm not so sure about the rest of you, but I wish I had been the whistleblower
(if there was one - the government doesn't necessarily have to identify one if he doesn't testify) when Schering-Plough agreed to pay the FDA a $500 million settlement to resolve manufacturing problems -- the largest FDA settlement ever.
With $50 million in my bank, I wouldn't worry too much about getting another job at a drug company.
Our old guru, Deming, said, REMOVE FEAR! It seems the U.S. government is trying to remove that fear of being a whistleblower who gets blacklisted by providing a nice financial cushion.