The Role of Business Ethics in Employee Engagement November 04, 2009 //By Tom Monahan, CEO of the Corporate Executive Board My focus on ethical management reminds me that I still own a box full of business cards with my name from a company that no longer exists. My first job out of college was with Arthur Andersen. At the time, it was a single organization and I worked in a division that became Andersen Consulting, and is now Accenture. Arthur Andersen had one of the most ethical cultures I have seen; the best people, the best business systems, and a holistic commitment to performance ethics. Yet, it went from being one of the leading professional services organizations to only a Wikipedia entry in a matter of months, due to unethical behaviors in a reasonably small niche of the firm. The disappearance of my first employer due to ethical failures is a powerful lesson I bring to work everyday. While this is a somber example of the potential downside from an ethics or compliance failure, I have the opportunity at CEB to see how much upside a manager and leader can create with a focus on this issue. One of CEB’s core strengths is a voracious appetite for quantifying the drivers of corporate performance. We ask ourselves: what do the best companies do to create inordinate value? We have gathered and analyzed millions of data points about employee perceptions and behavior and rigorously tied them to key drivers of corporate productivity. What we found is a strong link between ethical cultures and employee engagement. If an employee works for a company they consider having a strong ethical culture they work harder, stay longer, and are less likely to leave. Collectively, this data points to a 9% productivity boost from ethical leadership in the management ranks. That’s a stunning figure, and for me, maybe even more compelling than the business cards. While there is a strong link, both ethical behaviors and employee engagement are at risk. What we see happening, across hundreds of thousands of employees at the world’s largest companies, is a perfect storm brewing composed of three different factors. First, we see heightened employee cynicism about commitment of management to ethical principles and compliance standards, as management teams wrestle with critical issues elsewhere in the business. Second, unhappy employees are unable to leave their current roles. In a normal economy, if an employee does not like their boss, they can leave. However, today unsatisfied employees are unable to move because of limited opportunities. This results in what we estimate to be about a 7 percent productivity shortfall in most companies as a result of low engagement levels. Third, employee disengagement is particularly pronounced with the highest potential employees within an organization. These employees are three times as likely to leave as a normal employee once the economy improves. Mos ...

1. The Role of Business Ethics in Employee Engagement
November 04, 2009
//By Tom Monahan, CEO of the Corporate Executive Board
My focus on ethical management reminds me that I still own a
box full of business cards with
my name from a company that no longer exists.
My first job out of college was with Arthur Andersen. At the
time, it was a single organization
and I worked in a division that became Andersen Consulting,
and is now Accenture. Arthur
Andersen had one of the most ethical cultures I have seen; the
best people, the best business
systems, and a holistic commitment to performance ethics. Yet,
it went from being one of the
leading professional services organizations to only a Wikipedia
entry in a matter of months, due
to unethical behaviors in a reasonably small niche of the firm.
The disappearance of my first
employer due to ethical failures is a powerful lesson I bring to
work everyday.

2. While this is a somber example of the potential downside from
an ethics or compliance failure, I
have the opportunity at CEB to see how much upside a manager
and leader can create with a
focus on this issue. One of CEB’s core strengths is a voracious
appetite for quantifying the
drivers of corporate performance. We ask ourselves: what do the
best companies do to create
inordinate value? We have gathered and analyzed millions of
data points about employee
perceptions and behavior and rigorously tied them to key
drivers of corporate productivity. What
we found is a strong link between ethical cultures and employee
engagement. If an employee
works for a company they consider having a strong ethical
culture they work harder, stay longer,
and are less likely to leave. Collectively, this data points to a
9% productivity boost from ethical
leadership in the management ranks. That’s a stunning figure,
and for me, maybe even more
compelling than the business cards.
While there is a strong link, both ethical behaviors and
employee engagement are at risk. What

3. we see happening, across hundreds of thousands of employees at
the world’s largest companies,
is a perfect storm brewing composed of three different factors.
First, we see heightened employee cynicism about commitment
of management to ethical
principles and compliance standards, as management teams
wrestle with critical issues elsewhere
in the business.
Second, unhappy employees are unable to leave their current
roles. In a normal economy, if an
employee does not like their boss, they can leave. However,
today unsatisfied employees are
unable to move because of limited opportunities. This results in
what we estimate to be about a 7
percent productivity shortfall in most companies as a result of
low engagement levels.
Third, employee disengagement is particularly pronounced with
the highest potential employees
within an organization. These employees are three times as
likely to leave as a normal employee
once the economy improves. Most business plans I see are built
around the commitment of those

4. employees most likely to leave.
So with a huge 9% performance boost to be had, but a “perfect
storm” making it difficult for
managers to seize it, what should leaders be focused on?
First, ensure consistent messages and ethical behaviors at all
levels. Companies claim they
employ best practices by using their CEO to reinforce ethical
principals in a video or town hall
meeting. Companies also need their individual managers to
reinforce and demonstrate the
appropriate behaviors and values of the organization.
Organizations need to make sure that every
layer of leadership in the company communicates the same
ethically grounded priorities and then
lives up to them.
Second, help employees understand how their role contributes
to company strategy One of the
most important things for an employee to know is how his or
her behaviors and actions makes a
difference, and that his or her work is connected in some way to
the strategic goals of the
enterprise. CEOs have spent a lot of time over the last year
thinking about survival in another

5. day, week or quarter. That has clearly been the right strategy for
this past year, but now it is time
to lift up again, and reinforce employees’ connection to the
enterprise.
Third, help employees re-forge personal networks. Having a
personal network at work is a key
support mechanism for ensuring ethical behaviors. These
networks were certainly disrupted by
the rounds of corporate downsizing this past year. And
rebuilding them has become more
difficult in a world where people are scattered across
geographies, with work following the sun
24 hours a day. A lot of organizations are working to make sure
their employees are forging
connections that transcend where they are physically located.
At CEB, we serve – and learn from – the world’s best
companies every day. These companies
have taught us that ethical behavior can drive productivity and
performance in a measurable way,
and needs to be managed with the same intensity as the strategic
moves that have helped
companies survive the economic downturn.
From an employer perspective, these actions create a much more
engaged work force, and

6. increased productivity. If you need an additional reason to
implement these ideas, you can also
think about this: it’s no fun to have a box of business cards for
positions and companies that
don’t exist anymore.
Reply needed 1
Discuss some of the benefits and disadvantages of using group
policy in an organization.
Group policy provides organizations with a number of
advantages. It allows the administrator to assign group policy in
domains, sites, and organizational units. The group policy
settings apply to all users and computers in a domain, site, and
OU. This means that if you want all users and computers in a
domain to have the same background, screen saver, login
message, and password policies, then group policy can make
this possible. The administrator also has the ability to change
and rewrite group policy settings at will. Group policy can
reduce the workload of the administrator in many areas, and can
be used to totally define the working environment on computers
and the network. Group policy settings set the standard for rules
and conduct on the network and work computers.
Despite the positives, there are disadvantages to group policy as
well. It can be challenging and overwhelming to organize
multiple GPO’s on a large network. Ironically, this can increase
the burden on the administrator and it is possible to lose track
of which policies apply to which groups and OUs. There also
really isn’t a “one size fits all” across the board solution for
group policy. Some group policy settings may work well on one

7. network, and then work poorly on another network. Group
policy may also be configured incorrectly (and not realized) by
the administrators which makes it ineffective. Group policy is a
good solution for organizations and provides many useful
features, but network admins need a good understanding to
really make it effective.
References:
Williams, Matt. (2012). Group Policy Not the Only Way to
Manage User Activity. Retrieved from:
http://www.faronics.com/news/blog/group-policy-not-the-only-
way-to-manage-user-activity/
Tech FAQ. (2014). Group Policy. Retrieved from:
http://www.tech-faq.com/group-policy.html
Reply needed 2
Benefits
·
· A Group Policy Object (GPO) can be created that defines
registry-based policies, software installation and maintenance
options, folder redirection options, script options, and security
options.
· AppLocker Group Policy can be used to prevent users from
accessing or installing software or using software that is
restricted by the policy. Application usage can also be
monitored using AppLocker events.
· According to Microsoft (2012), "In Windows Server 2012 R2,
when Group Policy gets the latest version of a policy from the
domain controller, it writes that policy to a local store. Then if
Group Policy is running in synchronous mode the next time the
computer reboots, it reads the most recently downloaded version
of the policy from the local store, instead of downloading it
from the network. This reduces the time it takes to process the
policy".
· Remote GP update

8. · Fast Start-up
· Group Policy settings in Internet Explorer 10 and Group
Policy preferences for Internet Explorer 10
Disadvantages
· Policies may take 2-3 reboots before they're able to apply
successfully on a workstation
· Despite the name, Group Policy can only be applied to users
and computers, and not groups.
· If you're attempting to push a GPO to user(s), you may run
into issues if they are not placed in the appropriate container or
have the wrong GPO settings applied to them.
References
Microsoft. (2012). Monitor Application Usage with AppLocker.
Retrieved from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/hh994604(v=ws.11).aspx
Microsoft. (2014). What's New in Group Policy in Windows
Server. Retrieved from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/dn265973(v=ws.11).aspx
Reply needed 3
AppLocker is most often used in the federal government and
multiple other agencies and organizations to enforce rules on
what applications are allowed to be used by a user, which users
are allowed to install software, what versions of a software are
allowed, and how licensed applications are controlled.
AppLocker allows an administrator to specify which users can
run specific applications and is accessed through group policy.
Additionally, an administrator can control the types of
executable files such as Windows Installer files and DLL files.
This is important to assist in reducing and managing computing
resources more efficiently by decreasing the number of help
desk calls from users running applications that are disallowed.
If set up inappropriately by an administrator, certain users may
be able to access applications that others cannot, users may be
able to access what they shouldn't, and applications that aren't

9. restricted may be restricted accidentally by blocking certain file
extensions.
References
Microsoft. (2014). Windows AppLocker. Retrieved from
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/dd759117(v=ws.11).aspx
lessons
in marketing
RILLIANC
BY JENNIFER WANG
During the height of her popularity, Paris Hilton once fired this
retort at critics: "It will work. I am a marketing genius." Sadly,
those of us who aren't as blessed must face the fact that creating
a
campaign that captures millions of eyeballs and produces
millions
in sales is about as likely as Hilton's big Hollywood comeback.
Still, each year there are marketing initiatives that hit on that
win-
ning combination of great idea, perfect timing and flaw less
execu-
tion. From viral campaians to, well, virus campaigns, we've
picked
10 marketing marvels of 2011, pulling out a few lessons to help
you
create brilliance. You ' re welcome-now the rest is up to you.

10. [> LESSON: GO CUERILLA
Things can go viral if you
break the mold, so to speak,
of a traditional campaign.
Ryan Lum, creator of the
blog Creative Guerilla
Marketing, says the virus
billbo a rd is a great example
of guerilla marketing done
right. "It makes people on
the street who see it wonder,
and raises questions about
1. THE CONTAGION
BACTERIA BILLBOARD
Warner Bros. Ca nada , Curb
Media and ad agency Lowe
Roche took their promotion
of Contagion, Steven Soder-
bergh's film about a mysteri-
ous airborne virus, to new
heights of literalness. They
hired a group of microbiolo-
gists and immunologists to
inoculate a billboard with
penicillin, mold and pigment-
ed bacteria that grew (thanks
to light and temperature con-
trols) to spell out the name
of the movie, and set it up
in an a bandoned storefront
window in Toronto. Some
passers-by were squicked,
but the campaign got a ton

11. of press, won media awards
and served as inspiration
to industry peers like John
Laramie, the CEO of New
York City-based Adstruc, a
startup with a tech platform
for outdoor advertising.
"Pretty cool," he says . "It
was probably one of those
crazy ideas somebody just
came up with, but planned
and executed perfectly."
what it's trying to pro-
mote," he says.
2. 7-ELEVEN's
sLURPEE UNITY TOUR
During the contentious
midterm elections, President
Obama accused Republicans
of "standing, watching us,
sippin' on
a Slurpee"
while Demo-
crats did all AMthe work.
Post-eJection,
and in a
better mood,
Obama joked about host-
ing a Slurpee Summit at the
White House with incoming
Republican Speaker of the
House John Boehner. 7 -Elev-
en took this as a product

12. endorsement from the most
powerful man in the world
and ran with it with all the
marketing power it could
muster. The convenience-
store franchise tapped agency
FreshWorks to create the
Slurpee Unity Tour. Trucks
bearing the campaign logo,
picturing an elephant and
a donkey sharing a Slurpee
cup, made their way across
America giving out samples,
including a special Purple
for the People Slurpee, made
from a mix of the red and
blue frozen treats.
[> LESSON: ~'AY ATTE.NTION
You can score big if you
keep up with current events
and speak to what's on
people's minds. " This cam-
paign was timely, effective,
entertaining, memorable ,"
says Mark Schaefer, market-
ing consultant and founder
of Schaefer Marketing
Solution
s. "They essentially
turned the president into a

13. brand advocate. How can
you lose with that?"
3. LULULEMON
ATHLETICA's
AMBASSADOR PROGRAM
Instead of mimicking bigger
brands like Nike and Adidas
by spending hundreds of
millions of dollars on fancy
campaigns with star ath-
letes, Vancouver, British
Columbia-based JuJulemon
athletica went grassroots to
generate buzz-and major
sales of its $100 yoga pants.
Since its founding in 1998,
the con
ed an a
recruiti
fitness i
but givi
and gea
wear th

14. Impress
lead cia
"We w i
ambass;
says Eri
of bran(
new rna
move, a
consider
projecti(
$1 biJJio
says Ton
editor-in
ing mag~
"strengtl
cause tht
accessibl
and shov
IS glVll1g
C> LESSO
INFLUE"
Find a w
best cust!
evangelis

15. made. "J
mon is Ie
carry the j
stars, not
says Scha
on marh
Return 01
to be pub
Hill next
thing if a
they're gr
better w~
tomer tell:
4.1
THEMU
To adverd
its second- objectives," says Kent Huff- be helping them help
you.
generation Core man, co-publisher of Social Christopher Renz,
co-found-

16. processor, Intel Media Marketing Magazine. er of Miami-based
new-me-
came up with dia agency The brpr Group,
the "Visually notes that the campaign
Smart" cam- 5. ABOUT.ME'S leveraged the inherent vanity
paign. Then, to BILLBOARD CONTEST of social media users-
him-
make the con- The popular AOL-owned self included-who
pushed
nection that the service about.me, which their profiles through
Twitter
product could enables users to create a and Facebook. "Much of
the
v- the company has implement- help "visualize" a person's
landing page that aggregates feedback I received was not
ed an ambassador program, life, the company worked all their
online profiles, came about my profile, but people
recruiting local athletes and with Japanese digital agency up
with a simple but far- asking, 'What is about.me?'"
fitness instructors (unpaid, Projector for five months reaching
contest to raise its he says. "Mission accom-
but given $1,000 in clothing to create The Museum of profile:
People who got the plished for them."
and gear) to test products, Me . The Facebook app most votes on

17. their about.me
wear the brand in front of accesses a user's account, page would
win a spot on a
impressionable students and scours it for photos and billboard
in Times Square, 6. SPOTIFY'S
lead classes in local stores. content and, in a matter of plus a
trip to New York U.S. LAUNCH
"We will go where our seconds, displays a polished to check out
their prize. When Spotify, a music-
ambassadors tell us to go," short film that archives the
Motivated contestants got to streaming service that boasts
says Eric Peterson, director
ICY
more than 10 million users in
of brand innovation in Europe, arrived stateside last
new markets-a smart summer, it deployed a launch
>, strategy that catapulted it
considering 2012 revenue
move, and a lucrative one,
to the top of an extremely
Ie competitive playing field

18. $1 billion. The campaign,
projections are around
populated by the likes of
says Tom Gierasimczuk, Pandora, Rhapsody and
editor-in-chief of Market- Google Music. First the com-
ing magazine in Canada, pany focused on getting early
"strengthens the brand be- adopters and influencers with
ts high Klout scores to "tell
accessible to the community,
cause the ambassadors are so
everyone they know." Then
and show that the company there were the limited beta
is giving back to its buyers." person's life in a virtual gal- work
rweeting and posting invites, which controlled the
lery. The initiative became to Facebook, driving five number of
free subscriptions
't- l> LESSON: woo " CITIZEN a viral sensation, with more
times the usual amount of and elevated demand for the
INFLUENCERS .. than 1 million hits in five visitor traffic to

19. about.me. service. When September
Find a way to turn your days-all achieved without Some even
designed You- rolled around, Spotify joined
y best customers into brand any paid media promotion. Tube
video campaigns and forces with Face-
evangelists, and you've got it "We tapped directly into old-
fashioned paper fliers to book. By now,
made. "I love that lulule- people's emotions and what hand out
at school football the only holdouts
mon is letting customers they cared about, and found games.
Ryan Fujiu, who are probably
carry their story-not movie a way to tell a personalized heads up
about.me's partner- people too afraid
stars, not celebrity athletes," story," says Pam Didner, ships and
user acquisition, to out themselves
says Schaefer, whose book Intel's global integrated says the
contest turned as Taylor Swift
on marketing via citizens, marketing manager. about. me users
into a team fans to everyone
Return on Influence, is due of word-of-mouth market- on their
social
to be published by McGraw- t> LESSON: GEl P .. RS NAI ers.
"Marketing on the nerworks.
Hill next month. "It's one Obviously, relating to cus- social

20. web," he says, "is all
thing if a brand tells you tomers is vitally important about
giving your users an l> LESSON: BE EXCLUSIVE
they're great, but it's much for any marketing effort. incentive
to talk about your Two words: invitation only.
better when another cus- Intel was able to "successful- product
with their friends, "Those invites were in high
tomer tells you so." ly communicate the human co-workers and
family." demand, and it got users
benefits of using a somewhat clamoring to be a part of
technical and complicated l> LESSON: RAISE the cool crowd,"
Renz says.
4.'NTEL'S product in an easy-to-under- THE STAKES Equally
important, Schaefer
THE MUSEUM OF ME stand way and .,. accomplish Give your
customers a adds, was the campaign's
To advertise the power of solid, measurable business reason to
care, and you'll sustainability: "When Spotify
http:about.me
http:about.me
http:about.me
http:about.me

21. interesting things that blurred the lines between
don't go anywhere if art, advertising and edito-
people-especially young rial content with its "Dream
people-don't feel inclined Portraits" campaign . The
to show it to their friends." company books A-list pho-
launched, I was surrounded
by bu zz from all directions-
friends, my kids, Twitter-
and it didn't let up, because
the product delivered. "
7. METHOD'S
COMMERCIAL
When Method, a San
Francisco-based producer
of eco-friendly cleaning
products, entered the laundry
detergent market, it seemed
a Herculean task to change
buying habits and convince
Tide users that a small,
20-ounce bottle could do 50

22. loads of laundry-all with
a puny marketing budget of
$200,000 . Method co-found-
er and brand architect Eric
Ryan decided the best way
would be to enlist the help
of customers. The company
hired media agency Me-
kanism to produce a crowd-
sourced commercial, asking
people to record themselves
performing specific actions
from a storyboard and
submit those clips for a final
edit. A total of 332 cons um-
ers participated, along with
those who showed up for an
open casting call. When the
infinitely watchable video
aired, it was the week's 93rd
most-viewed YouTube clip
and resulted in a 68 percent
increase in the number of
Method's Facebook fans.
Brpr's Renz, who has worked

23. with Method in the past,
says the beauty of crowd -
sourcing here meant there .
was a built-in distribution
network for the commercial
once it was complete .
[> LESSON: HAVE A
CC)Nv'E:RSATION
Talk to your customers;
a brand that engages in
dialogue will do better than
one that prefers to lecture.
"As a mission-driven brand,
we have great consumer
advocates, " Ryan says.
8. PERRIER'S
YOUTUBE CAMPAIGN
After keeping a low profile
in North America for more
than a dozen years, Per-
rier made a big splash in
2011 with an edgy digital

24. and social media push that
captured the a ttention of
a younger demographic.
With the help of Ogilvy &
Mather and ZenithOptime-
dia, the beverage company
made a series of YouTube
videos under its "Melting"
campaign called "Le Club
Perrier," featuring scantily
clad dancers partying in a
melting nightclub . The scene,
it promised, would become
"sexier, steamier and wilder"
as more viewers tuned in
and additional videos were
unlocked. More than 11.5
million viewers took the
(rather attractive) bait.
I> LESSON: r>1AI<E IT
SHARE-WORTHY
It's all about the "pass-along
value" in social media .

25. "Rather than putting the
videos out there and ask-
ing people to send [them]
around, there was enough
incentive for them to start
clicking on their own, " says
Natalie Zmuda, an Advertis-
ing Age reporter. "You can
make creative, beautiful,
9. APPLE'S SIRI SPOTS
No marketing-brilliance list
worth its salt would leave off
Apple and longtime agency
partner TBWA . In 2011,
the release of the iPhone 4
kicked off with commercials
starring Siri, a voice-driven
assistant who takes dictation,
schedules appointments,
sends e-mails, searches
the web
and directs
users to
the nearest

26. Starbucks.
One
30-second
TV spot
ran through
a dozen
scenarios
demonstrat-
ing how Siri
works for
everyone from soccer moms
to CEOs, and showed Apple
products doing what they
do best: making your life
easier. (Plus, making you
shell out for things you never
knew you needed.)
[> LESSON: . { LVE
A PRuB Er
It's always a good bet to
focus on how a product
or service helps customers,
rather than bragging about
your best features, no matter

27. how cool they are. "Whether
the target audience is a con-
sumer or another business,
you have to explain how you
can fit into work flow and
improve lifestyle," says John
Obrecht, editor of marketing
strategy magazine BtoB.
1o. DISNEY'S
DREAM PORTRAITS
Since 2007, Disney has
tographer Annie Leibovitz
to capture some of the
world's most beloved stars
as legendary Disney char-
acters. The latest: Penelope
Cruz as wide-eyed Belle and
Jeff Bridges as the trans-
formed Beast, Queen Lati-
fah as the villainous Ursula
from The Little Mermaid
and Olivia Wilde as the Evil
Queen in Snow White.

28. " It's a big, big idea that
took a lot of soul-searching
and deep analysis of the
brand. It's executed simply
and deeply, incorporat-
ing actors, who are agents
of escape that epitomize
fantasy," says Marketing
magazine's Gierasimczuk.
[> LESSON: ,NOCK IT
OUT OF THE PARk..
Few companies can rival
Disney's ad spend, but
no matter your budget,
a traditional, well-executed
campaign with one stun-
ning narrative can be more
effective than one that's
fragmented across contests,
Facebook fan pages and
a multitude of other chan-
nels. According to Gierasim-
czuk, the Leibovitz por-

29. traits, like Absolut Vodka's
classic ads, demonstrate
how the best concepts can
lend themselves to long-
running campaigns . E