Diversity and Ethics: Toward an Objective Business Compliance Function

This Article builds upon prior works which articulate an objective standard for corporate ethics and compliance that furthers shareholder wealth maximization: A firm should only engage in conduct that acclimates itself as optimally as possible to the full range of its constituencies, including investors, workers, consumers, and regulators. Further, because of the deep racial and social divisions within the United States today (and present in most business environments), a firm can achieve optimal acclimation only if it includes the full range of cultural diversity within its constituencies, as those diverse voices influence the behavior of the firm. This allows the firm to import the conscience of those constituencies due to differences in ethical sensitivities among discrete segments of the population. This Article argues in favor of an SEC disclosure guidance release requiring the disclosure of ethical and compliance governance structures and practices. Such a disclosure mandate should include: disclosure of governance structures at the board level and below; the role of cultural diversity in the ethics and compliance function; the degree to which the ethics and compliance function is independent of senior management; and how reports of potential misconduct are encouraged. These facts would be material to a reasonable investor given the history of shareholder losses (particularly in recent history) suffered at the hands of unethical and non-compliant management. This disclosure mandate could trigger a competitive race-to-the-top as firms search for those ethical and compliance practices that lead to the highest gains in sustainable financial performance. In short, competitive capitalism can lead to a race-to-the-top, in terms of ethicality and compliance practices, as well as a firm’s embrace of cultural diversity. The Article concludes that financial market competition can thereby foster superior financial performance, superior management of ethical and compliance risk, and superior embrace of cultural diversity all at once. This would further secure investment within the American economy

(Forced) Arbitration in America: Suppressing Claims, Undermining Corporate Accountability, And Perpetuating Injustice

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary issued the following testimony by Myriam Gilles, professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, involving a hearing on Apr. 3, 2019, entitled (Forced) Arbitration in America: Suppressing Claims, Undermining Corporate Accountability, And Perpetuating Injustice

Differences in the use of AI assistants : how human values influence AI assistant use or disuse

This report is an analysis of the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa through the examination of how an individual’s personal values influence their use of these devices. These assistants have become a built-in component of many technologies, and yet there is not a large amount of research on their utilization. Like most consumer level technologies, individual preferences determine how and when they will be used. Artificial assistants exist in a multitude of forms that most technology-using people will interact with, from bot assistance on websites or through the phone, to the personalized artificial intelligences used like the aforementioned Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. These specific assistants are utilized for everything from turning on the news to making purchases with the owner’s credit card information. They are privy to a multitude of personal information, and like most new technology, the level of comfort that people have using these devices varies depending on individual preferences. This report utilized a survey that focused on the Portrait Values Questionnaire created by Schwartz (2007) and made gender neutral by Verma, Fleischmann, and Koltai (2017) as well as in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews. The ten interviews generated a greater understanding of individual perceptions of these devices and allowed for a more in depth look at specific examples and perspectives that strengthened the findings from the survey. The ultimate purpose of the report was to analyze how human values affect an individual’s use of these devices as one step towards a greater understanding of human values’ impact on technology, and how technology can be best created for humanity in turn.Informatio

Crisis, Crisis, Read All About It! Investigating the Direct and Joint Effects of Crisis Response Strategies, Crisis History and Strategic Actions on the Tone of Media Coverage

Crisis management research has focused on how crisis stricken firms protect their reputation by communicating appropriate messages to evaluators and employing strategic actions that favorably shape public opinion about the stricken firm. Developing conversations have addressed how a firm’s crisis history may impact current crisis management efforts. However, little is known about how these factors jointly and directly influence what is said about a crisis stricken firm and subsequently impact evaluators’ perceptions. Primarily guided by the tenets of attribution and situational crisis communication theories, I studied the interactive and main effects of crisis response strategies (accommodative, reframing and defensive), crisis history (first time offenders and repeat offenders) and strategic action (ceremonial and technical) on the tone of media coverage about a crisis stricken firm. I theorized that there would be significant differences in the tone of media coverage about the stricken firm given the 1) the diverse reactions by evaluators to each category of response strategy, 2) differences in perceptions of current crisis responsibility as a result of crisis history and 3) the relative impact of strategic actions on a stricken firm’s crisis management efforts. I examined these relationships in the context of 63 high impact crises by analyzing 11,715 relevant articles and press releases to capture the tone of media coverage and code the crisis response strategies and strategic actions employed. A series of two way ANOVAs and ANCOVAs controlling for initial crisis attribution and organizational ranking indicated that relative to crisis history and strategic actions, crisis response strategies had the strongest effect on the tone of media coverage about a stricken firm. Further, the relationship between strategic actions and crisis response strategies revealed stronger effects on the tone of media coverage in conditions where stricken firms used reframing and defensive strategies, while employing technical actions and a combination of both technical and ceremonial actions respectively. Surprisingly, a statistically significant interaction between strategic actions and crisis history indicated a more favorable tone for repeat offender firms which did not announce strategic actions. I discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and present suggestions for future research

Regulating the Sixth Sense: The Growing Need for Forward-Looking Data Privacy and Device Security Policy as Illustrated by Brain-Computer Interfaces

Many of today’s consumers are skeptical of the vast amounts of information technology companies are capable of gathering. Methods of collecting such data have become more invasive over time and have the potential to become compromised or abused. Gallagher urges policymakers to consider the regulations necessary to address privacy and security risks associated with emerging biotechnology such as brain-computer interfaces (“BCI”) without disrupting innovation incentives.This Note analyzes the current state of augmentative BCI technology, the trend of increasingly invasive technology, and proposed policy solutions for governing data privacy. Since BCIs will be collecting data on consumers’ neural signals, accessing their most private thoughts and emotions, the need for adequate data privacy protections is urgent. This Note details elements of a proposed solution including a broad statute equipping an agency to develop adaptable regulations, sufficient enforcement mechanisms, device security standards, and a potential prohibition on collection of certain data types

Cheryl Hardy v. The Prudential Insurance Company of America : Brief of Appellant

Appeal from a Judgment of the Third Judicial District Court of Salt Lake County, Judge Dean E. Conde