Michael L. Hackworth, chair of the Advisory Board of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and member and chair of numerous corporate boards, talks with Lon Allen, chair of the National Association of Corporate Directors-Silicon Valley, on what boards can do to promote ethics in an organization.
The Number 1 responsibility of the board is to promote ethics in the boardroom. If you think there's an ethical issue, there probably is one.
The board should also monitor C-level executives behavior. Does it reflect the values of the organization?
Finally, the board should be aware of incentives for employees. The way employees are incentivized can promote or detract from ethical behavior.
Hackworth shares a scoring system for the ethics of corporate boards.