The Science of Workplace Happiness
Rob Silverblatt

Researchers are trying to figure out what makes people happy and how those feelings can be created and sustained. This field of study--which is equal parts science and psychology, with a hint of motivational speaking thrown in--is hardly new, but it has taken on growing importance as the sour job market continues to weigh on the psyches of American workers

Reduction of Family-Friendly Job Benefits Hurts Working Women Most
Bonnie Erbe

Family-friendly workplace benefits (flex time, job sharing, telecommuting, and so on) were on the rise before the recession of 2008 took hold. I've been wondering recently how bad a whacking this category of benefits has taken.

Breaking the Corporate Glass Ceilings
Dan Gilgoff

With an African-American serving as the nation's chief executive, a woman heading the State Department, and a Latina settling into a new job on the Supreme Court, are there any glass ceilings left for minorities and women aspiring to leadership positions?

The Ethics of Reality in the Workplace
Daneen Skube

How do you recommend people handle ethics in the workplace? I have a strong sense of right and wrong and get pretty upset about how often people lie, or behave badly. How can I best communicate my values at work?

Tips for Dealing With Age Discrimination
Emily Brandon

Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, it's illegal to discriminate against anyone age 40 or older in the workplace with regard to hiring, layoffs, promotions, pay, and benefits. Here's what you should do if you think age is playing a role in your workplace woes

Kindness and Corporations: Sensitivity Does Have a Place in the Workplace
Judith Sills, Ph.D., Psychology Today

You could argue that the milk of human kindness is pretty much curdled at the office when it stirs images of weakness, naivete, self-promotion, or self-defense. All the downsides notwithstanding, there is a strong current of kindness stubbornly running through some workplaces. And where it flows, people smile more. They work harder, too.

Reply to the Case Against CSR - The Latest Version
The Wall Street Journal recently carried a piece by Aneel Karnani, associate professor of strategy at the University of Michigan's Stephen M Ross School of Business. Karnani was the author some years ago of a thoughtful and trenchant critique of the 'Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid' work of CK Prahalad, which I wrote about at the time. Now he has turned his attention to an attack against corporate social responsibility generally. (26 Aug 2010)

Apple suppliers in bribery charges
The two Apple suppliers named as having benefited from bribery allegedly received by its procurement executive Paul Devine have responded to charges. Devine has been accused by the company of having received more than $1m from Asian suppliers in return for confidential market information. (18 Aug 2010)

UK: Gap, Next and Marks & Spencer respond to Indian worker abuses
Major retailers Gap, Next and Marks & Spencer have responded to evidence of working rights abuses at factories in India. Workers have been forced to carry out excessive overtime with pay that is below the legal minimum wage, according to the Observer newspaper. (9 Aug 2010)

British court delays Yevgeny Chichvarkin extradition hearing
Russian businessman Yevgeny Chichvarkin, founder of mobile phone retailer Yevroset, has had court hearings into his extradition delayed until September. The case has been brought, according to Chichvarkin, because he refused to pay bribes or to comply with Russia's culture of corruption. (3 Aug 2010)

New integrated reporting coalition launched
A new initiative aimed at overhauling international company reporting has been launched. The International Integrated Reporting Committee says that it will undertake a radical review of reporting, aiming to transform the way companies make financial, governance, and CSR statements. (2 Aug 2010)

How good companies create bad outcomes in the supply chain
It used to be all about blame. Company X uses suppliers that have abusive working conditions, or child labour. They are cynically turning a blind eye to evil practices to benefit their bottom line. (2 Aug 2010)

Netherlands: Trafigura guilty of exporting toxic waste
Trafigura illegally exported toxic waste from Amsterdam, according to the findings of a Dutch court. The company transported the waste to the Ivory Coast where it injured thousands of local people in 2006. (23 Jul 2010)

Kazakhstan: Philip Morris suppliers used child and forced labour
A new report by Human Rights Watch has said that tobacco bought by Philip Morris International from Kazakhstan included farms that used workers that had been coerced into labour, along with child labour. (15 Jul 2010)

US: Nestle to drop 'deceptive' health claims
Nestle have said they will drop adverts that were described by the Federal Trade Commission as deceptive. The company's drink Boost Kid Essentials was sold in some ads on its ability to stop children catching colds and missing school. (15 Jul 2010)

China: Hang Seng launches corporate sustainability index
Hang Seng Indexes has become the latest to launch a series of sustainability indices, covering Hong Kong and Chinese companies. The aims of the index series is to "further raise awareness about corporate sustainability" as well as to meet international demand for socially responsible investment in Chinese companies. (12 Jul 2010)

In defence of Tony Hayward
BP's oil spill has been a catastrophe with a number of important lessons for other businesses. However, many of these lessons are being lost because of the tendency to simply personalise the problem as being the fault of one man - Tony Hayward. CSR writers and US Presidents alike have cast Hayward into the role of the 'bumbler', the ineffective and irresponsible non-leader, the gaffe-prone idiot. He wasn't simply branded as the 'most-hated' man in America, but also the 'most clueless'. (12 Jul 2010)

Monsanto GM seed ban is overturned by US Supreme Court
The bio-tech company Monsanto can sell genetically modified seeds before safety tests on them are completed, the US Supreme Court has ruled. (22 Jun 2010)

Bhopal trial: Eight convicted over India gas disaster
A court in the Indian city of Bhopal has sentenced eight people to two years each in jail over a gas plant leak that killed thousands of people in 1984. The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant - the world's worst industrial accident. (7 Jun 2010)

Nestle announces NGO partnership to verify palm oil
Nestle has said that it will work with the Forest Trust to review its palm oil supply chain to ensure it is not associated with illegal rainforest and peatland clearance. The move follows a vigorous campaign against the company by NGO Greenpeace. (18 May 2010)

Spotting responsible companies - blink and you might miss it
We have a lot of sophisticated tools out there now for spotting socially responsible companies. We have indices, and awards, and quality standards - you name it. Between them, they look at every management process you can think of, and cover every issue that might affect a company. But what if all that information gets in the way, rather than helps? (10 May 2010)