{"id":1287,"date":"2013-04-04T14:03:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T14:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2013-04-04T14:03:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T14:03:10","slug":"most-influential-business-ethics-blog-chris-macdonald-ph-d-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/04\/most-influential-business-ethics-blog-chris-macdonald-ph-d-blogger\/","title":{"rendered":"Most influential business ethics blog; Chris MacDonald, Ph.D, Blogger"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might be interested in Chris MacDonald’s\u00a0business ethics blog at www.businessethicsblog.com<\/a>\u00a0 Particularly if you are in one of the professions and practice in a business-like manner.<\/p>\n

Chris is an educator, speaker, and consultant in business ethics.\u00a0 He teaches in a school of management at a university in Toronto and is associated with another in the U.S.\u00a0 He is co-editor of the Business Ethics Journal Review. http:\/\/businessethicsjournalreview.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris is\u00a0a philosopher by training, a practical philosopher by inclination – this chap’s not stuffy by a long shot.\u00a0 He’s seldom still.\u00a0 An east coast\u00a0guy that has done good and is influencing the business world in a big way.\u00a0 And doing this in an area – business ethics, that is in desperate need of a good influence.<\/p>\n

Philosophy <\/em>means “love of wisdom”, from the ancient words philos <\/em>(love) and Sophia <\/em>(wisdom) (Ref. 1).\u00a0 Think most of\u00a0us in the professions are in that good place.<\/p>\n

I met\u00a0Chris when he taught a critical thinking course a few years ago at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.\u00a0 One of the best courses I’ve taken in my life by a good teacher, and a course that all professional engineers practicing forensic engineering should take.<\/p>\n

Chris has twice been declared one of the “Top 100 thought leaders in trustworthy business behaviour”.\u00a0 He has several times been named one of the “100 most influential people in business ethics”.<\/p>\n

He has been blogging since November, 2005.\u00a0 His blog is current, well designed, easy to navigate, and very readable – not cluttered and\u00a0busy like so many.<\/p>\n

He tells you about his blog much better than I could at his web address above.\u00a0 I think a good, spirited summary of who he is and what he’s trying to do with links is at his page, ‘About’.\u00a0 He warns you on this page that you will probably be irritated by his blog – but, I found, your thinking challenged in the process.<\/p>\n

One of his recent postings lists five must-reads on business ethics at http:\/\/www.canadianbusiness.com\/blogs-and-comment\/5-business-ethics-must-reads\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been reading some of\u00a0Chris’ material on ethics for several years now.\u00a0 It’s well I should, considering that one-third of the content of a 140 page set of guidelines for forensic engineering practice – 46 pages, is on ‘ethics in forensic engineering’ (Ref. 2).\u00a0 Another approximately one-third is on legal matters and business considerations.<\/p>\n

One-fifth of another 200 page set of guidelines for forensic engineers is on legal matters and guidance for experts preparing for the civil litigation process (Ref. 3).\u00a0 There is some emphasis on ethics in these guidelines too.<\/p>\n

Also, I should read\u00a0the business ethics blog\u00a0if there’s anything to my comments on professional ethics and\u00a0the tyranny of the bottom line, updated, a\u00a0blog I\u00a0posted October 11, 2012 (Ref. 4).<\/p>\n

Those are\u00a0enough reasons for a professional engineer to take\u00a0an interest in Chris’ blog, as I have, but allow me one more reason.<\/p>\n

Rule 55 in the Nova Scotia’s civil procedures rules\u00a0is quite direct in informing experts that they are reporting to the court, and that they are to be objective – that’s all there is to it, with no qualifiers on objectivity.\u00a0 And\u00a0experts are to state the reliability of their opinions.\u00a0 These charges to experts from the justice system are explicit and contain a\u00a0clear\u00a0ethical requirement.<\/p>\n

It’s possible some of you might be interested in Chris’ blog.\u00a0 I think\u00a0he’s\u00a0got something to say to all of us.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/h1>\n

1. Mannion, James, Essentials of Philosophy, The Basic Concepts of the World’s Greatest Thinkers, <\/em>Fall River Press, New York, 2002<\/p>\n

2. Lewis, Gary L., Ed., ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), Guidelines for Forensic Engineering Practice, <\/em>2003<\/p>\n

3. ASCE, Guidelines for Failure Investigation<\/em>, 1989<\/p>\n

4. Professional ethics and the tyranny of the bottom line. Updated.\u00a0 Blog posted, October 11, 2012<\/p>\n

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You might be interested in Chris MacDonald’s\u00a0business ethics blog at www.businessethicsblog.com\u00a0 Particularly if you are in one of the professions and practice in a business-like manner. Chris is an educator, speaker, and consultant in business ethics.\u00a0 He teaches in a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}