News

PSS is now offering an online version of our Ethics Beyond Compliance course. This is an ideal solution for small groups and individuals who need flexibility in their schedule, but still want the best in ethics education. For more information, visit the online course information page or contact us for additional information.

The PSS executive team will be in Athens, Greece in June of 2006 to present a paper at the Athens Institute for Education and Research. Anyone interested in attending the presentation should contact us for additional information.

Events

We will be giving a free seminar at the First Annual Future of Ethics conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Our session is entitled "Ethics Beyond Compliance" and will begin at 10:30a.m. This one-day conference will bring together local and national business leaders, ethics scholars, attorneys, physicians, religious leaders, and others interested in the teaching and practice of ethics. The conference is open to everyone, and will feature discussion of such topics as: business ethics, environmental ethics, marketing and advertising ethics, health care ethics, the ethics of intellectual property, and legal ethics.

The Future of Ethics --
An Interdisciplinary Conference on Professional Ethics and Social Values
Thursday, October 23, 2003 -- 9:00-3:30
University of Colorado, Boulder Campus
Folsom Field Stadium, Club Level
Open to All
Conference program (PDF)
For more info visit:
http://leeds.colorado.edu/japha/

Also, we have a legal education seminar tentatively scheduled in mid-November at the Arvada Center for the Arts, contact us for details.

New Articles

An ethics program is essential to the well being of any business and its employees. Do you have the Four Fundamentals in place? View Business Ethics Foundations: Key Elements of a Successful Ethics Program.

Aims

Recent world events have shown a decided and immediate need in business for ethics training. The actions of companies such as Enron, WorldCom, and Qwest have shown that existing rules and regulations, when enforceable, still leave much open to interpretation by people who may not be experienced with the analytical tools and decision making apparatuses required. The mistakes made at this level expose all of the workers of the company, as well as the customers and surrounding communities, to the severe backlash that can ensue. Executive’s lives are ruined, employees are out of work, and the company will never earn consumer confidence or trust again.

Many people think that these problems are specific to one industry or another, or that the problem is inherent in the “evilness” of a particular CEO, while in fact, every single company and its employees face difficult ethical situations every day. We all do. Regulations have been put in place only as retroactive “punishment” for offenders after the action has taken place. This does not prevent the action from taking place and results in expenses to remedy the situation. What is needed instead is education about available analytical tools and problem solving decision making mechanisms that enable employees to find the best solution at the point of decision making.

Professional Services Source is continuing its tradition of providing quality, high impact ethics training programs utilizing the latest technologies and teaching techniques that stimulate life-long learning in an exciting and informative manner. Instead of providing clients with a list of “dos and don’ts”, PSS provides clients with cutting-edge graphical self assessment tools and stimulating process oriented content focused on teaching the analytical skills and decision-making tools that enable individuals and organizations to thrive in a complex world of competing demands and goals.

NACSE Endorsed Provider Program

PSS is pleased to announce its key role in providing ethics training as a part of the NACSE Endorsed Provider Program. Read about the program at http://www.neppro.org/.

What is the NEP program all about?

"The NEP (NACSE Endorsed Provider) program was born out of the recognition and need that as our industry (Information Technology) continues to grow, we are doing so with few if any guidelines about how we practice our day-to-day business. That fact is having some serious negative impact on our image to our clients. (Just consider the news reports over the last 6 months. How many IT related companies are in trouble of some sort or another and the stock market reflects the lack of confidence in general business practices but IT in specifically)

We must balance our hard earned technical skills with sound, ethical business practices. Practices and procedures that tell our clients that we are professional business people and conduct our business in a succinct and ethical manner.

These practices range from ethics in IT, training & education policies, quality process (QS) standards and practices, personnel management, conflict resolution, Client generated "report cards" and a performance rating system on each member.

To that end the NEP Program was created. Supported and underwritten by NACSE (The National Association of Communication Systems Engineers), NEP is establishing, through the work of concerned working IT companies and individuals, all donating their precious time and effort, to develop a set of guidelines and business processes that we can all live with and more important, that will meet the needs of our clients and raise the bar for professional IT companies.

It is clear that not all companies have the interest of their clients, their own company image, their reputations or the quality of the goods and services they sell, at heart. While we all understand that revenues and bottom line performance is why we all are in business, it is the position of NEP and its members, that we can best meet those revenue and profit targets by focusing on offering our goods and services couched within a professional, quality standards framework. We are sure you know of competitors that simply don't match up to the standards you find important for your business and your clients.

Secondarily, by focusing on quality and performance issues in a business like manner, NEP also provides through its Endorsed Channel Partners, a very valuable tool for non-technical clients to evaluate IT providers. NEP uses a unique grading and evaluation system along with client "Grading Questionnaires" that are built on a peer-to-peer basis evaluation system. The results are published on the NEP Website, with that information so that clients have some legitimate way of separating the "Wheat from the Chafe." It makes each member company, work harder at his or her trade and continually work to improve their quality level of performance and service.

Clearly, non-participating companies cannot even be considered as potential players because they are not working from any "Industry based" guidelines. Their "ad hoc" style of business dealings will be "crap shoot" for the client at best. The client has no way to measure either the technical abilities within the companies stated area of discipline or the methodologies (if any) in business practices. Clients will see the difference.

Any "Best Practices" program contains a number of specific areas that need to be addressed in order to provide the right program for a client. The NEP guidelines help member firms track along those guidelines. It provides the client with a better quality product, the provider with a strong differentiation tool and will most certainly minimize conflicts and lawsuits."

-NACSE