NACE Excellence Awards
Best Practice or Program—Educational Programming—Employer
KPMG - The Ethical Compass: A Toolkit for Integrity in Business
When new employees begin work at
KPMG LLP, they attend a series of
sessions designed to help them understand
how to conduct themselves ethically
on the job.
“Ensuring the integrity of the accounting profession means fostering awareness, trust, and personal responsibility at every level of the profession,” says Nicole Fritz, KPMG’s associate director of national campus recruiting. “It is especially critical to ensure that the next generation of accounting professionals is aware of and prepared for potential ethical challenges in their careers—especially as the continued globalization of business and the capital markets requires accounting professionals to work in other countries and within cultures where behavioral norms can often be different from their home culture.”
The sessions, which deal with everything from a code of conduct to case studies of real-life situations, attracted the attention of Barbara M. Porco, Ph.D., director of Fordham University’s dual-degree accounting and taxation program.
Two years ago, Porco approached Blane Ruschak, KPMG’s director of national recruiting, about developing some of the material to use in a oncea- week class for freshmen business students.
“That experience was extremely positive, from both Fordham’s and KPMG’s perspective,” Ruschak says, explaining that he did some of the teaching and KPMG provided funding for the class.
Ruschak adds that the program caught the attention of Timothy Flynn, KPMG’s chairman and chief executive, a Fordham alumnus who was visiting the campus.
“That led us to sit there and say, “What can we do to build off that success and experience?” he says.
Ruschak and Porco met with KPMG’s ethics and compliance team to develop a more comprehensive curriculum that could be used by business, accounting, and auditing students. Out of those meetings came “The Ethical Compass” toolkit, packaged in modules titled “Ethical Dilemmas,” “Role Plays,” and “Case Studies.”
The toolkit, first used at Fordham, is now available at no cost to any interested college or university. Each module comprises a three-ring binder that includes a complete leader’s guide, overview of the study contents, prepared in-class or homework assignments, and handout materials.
“We rolled it out in October,” Ruschak says, explaining that currently, more than 100 faculty members at nearly as many colleges and universities have ordered the toolkit.
“It’s very flexible,” he points out, explaining that professors and instructors can use as much or as little of the toolkit as they need.
Ruschak says he and his staff, including Wanda Kaminski, associate director of ethics and compliance, who prepared videos for the “Ethical Dilemmas” module, are waiting for feedback from users.
“We want to keep the content the same, but add on,” he says.
Fritz says the toolkit has already garnered media attention, including an article in the Winston-Salem Journal about a class using the toolkit at Wake Forest University last fall, and two articles in CFO Magazine, found at www.cfo.com.
Ruschak says the experience helps students realize that ethical decisions are a crucial part of life and encompass far more than issues of copying on an exam or cutting and pasting text from the Internet.
“Every day, they’re making ethical decisions as students,” he says. “It’s not going to stop when they enter the business world.”
