Gregory W. Smith: Looks Like His Ethics Training Didn’t “Take”
Gregory W. Smith is getting his proverbial “15 Minutes of Fame” for all the wrong reasons. Baby Boomer Smith (56) is/was an official of the Department of the Interior, the former head of the “royalty-in-kind” office in Denver, Colorado. Smith, who resigned/retired last year (depends on which news story you read), is accused of taking bribes, using cocaine, and engaging in “inappropriate” relationships with subordinates.
In the investigative report from the Office of the Inspector General of the US, the inspector, General Gerald Devaney said, “Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length.” Now, there’s a great quote! The report also revealed that Smith had received annual ethics training every year from 2002-2006. Oops! Guess someone should have checked his grades on the training exam.
It should be made clear that Smith wasn’t the only one accused- Interior Department investigators claim that a third of the 55 employees in the Royalty-in-Kind office were involved in the scandal. One news source said the office had a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity.” It’s shocking, yes, but is it surprising? Is this kind of stuff a violation of public trust? Or is it a failing of our culture that condones, rather than condemns, these behaviors.
I have taught business ethics, and it’s a difficult subject to convey to students. Many of them don’t see what companies have done wrong. Some say, “Well, everyone does it.” If this sounds like another rant, maybe it is. Sure, people have been doing this stuff for a long time. Maybe it just shows that, just as you can’t legislate morality, you also can’t “train” people into ethical behavior. They just don’t see that they’re doing anything wrong. It’s amazing how we can rationalize our behaviors to justify our actions.
What do you think?
Tags: Denver, Gregory W Smith, Interior Department scandalRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Boomer Talk, Business Quotes, baby boomer voters
1 opinion for Gregory W. Smith: Looks Like His Ethics Training Didn’t “Take”
Peter Cook
Sep 12, 2008 at 7:14 am
As the author of ‘Sex, Leadership and Rock’n'Roll’, it seems apparent that Gregory W Smith has scored 2 out of 3 on these topics!! :-))
On a more serious note, ethics matter a lot but I guess it is very hard to to be totally consistent. The following deeply ironic story gives witness to this:
I once mentored an MBA student who worked for a ceramic tiling company, making toilet basins etc. It had troubled him for many years that the company imported the toliet basins from South America, where they had been set in a mould that allowed for a ’substandard flush’. He had carried the dark secret that his basins flushed one litre less than the British Standard for many a year. Shock horror I hear you say
The MBA ‘opened his eyes’ and, at 46, he decided that he had ‘corporate indigestion’. He quit his job and started a new career as an academic. He selected the University of Huddersfield to take a Doctorate in Ethics. Upon meeting the Professor in Ethics, he was told that he would be able to do some teaching to ‘top up’ his bursary, which pleased him greatly.
On arrival at the University some three months later, things progressed as planned and, at the end of term, he enquired as to where his wages were. The Professor of Ethics told him ‘Oh, we say we’ll pay you, but we don’t really mean that’
This is perhaps more ironic than a sequence from ‘The Office’.
Peter Cook
MD Human Dynamics
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