A-Rod has admitted using steroids. Others are under a cloud of suspicion for the same.

The GM of the Washington Nationals has resigned “leaving under the cloud of a federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonuses given to Latin American prospects.” Like A-Rod he is not alone under this cloud.

Big money brings big temptation. There is an old saying that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Maybe we need to update that. Maybe it should be “money corrupts and big money corrupts big time.” We don’t need to look very far to see examples of this beyond Major League Baseball. Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion dollar scam reminds us. Much of the Wall Street failures of the past months are directly tied to big money and bad, perhaps even unethical decisions.

Most of us aren’t playing for those kinds of stakes but it is all relative. Are there controls in place in your organization to catch such transgressions? What about a strong set of values to combat such behavior?

Alan Boeckmann, Chairman and CEO of multinational engineering and construction company, Fluor Corporation, was just highlighted in Fortune Magazine for his work to combat corruption in construction globally. It is not an easy task. Local warlords and politicians all want their cut. Fluor will not pay it. In the long run they are better for it. We may not be able to say the same for Major League Baseball.

What will they say about your organization?

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 2:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.