Season 3, Episode 1: Walt Pavlo - A First-Hand Account of Fraud and Rationalizations
Walt Pavlo, a contributor at New York University School of Law’s program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement Program.
January 21, 2021 | By Cindy Moehring
Business Integrity Leadership Initiative
The initiative strives to foster a culture of integrity, and promote thought leadership and inquiry among scholars, students, and business leaders to address the ethical challenges inherent in our increasingly complex business world.
Noteworthy News
Let's Talk About Integrity and Race: Final Student and Community Workshop
Over the course of the fall 2020 semester, the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative, in partnership with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, held weekly workshops for students, faculty, and the NWA community to further the conversation on systemic racism and provide guidance on an action-oriented approach to speaking up against racism.
January 4, 2021
Ijeoma Oluo: Let's Talk Series
Ijeoma Oluo spoke via Zoom at the University of Arkansas for the Let’s Talk program on integrity and race. The event was a huge success with over 600 attendees.
January 4, 2021
What We're Doing
The Sam M. Walton College of Business began the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative
in January 2020 to bring a more comprehensive, strategic and influential approach
to business ethics for our students and other stakeholders.
We are equipping future business leaders with a mindset that encourages them to act with integrity. We are also equipping current business leaders with a mindset that encourages them to lead with integrity for long-term, sustainable business success.
We’re accomplishing this by creating and sharing thought leadership and encouraging innovation through three channels: education, research and outreach. Our Initiative’s approach is practical, integrated, and experiential in nature.
Vision:
Promote thought leadership and ongoing inquiry among scholars, students, business leaders, and regulators to address the evolving ethical challenges inherent in our increasingly complex global business world and foster a culture of integrity within organizations.
Mission:
To advance and disseminate business ethics knowledge and to encourage innovation in the practice of business integrity.
- Education - Develop innovative and experiential educational courses and opportunities to advance the understanding of practical business integrity issues, foster sound norms of ethical reasoning, and influence students to become responsible business citizens who act and lead with integrity.
- Research - Produce and publish transformative research on matters related to the ethical challenges individuals and organizations face in business and the increasingly interdependent global marketplace.
- Outreach - Create externally oriented programs designed to bring business leaders, students, scholars, and regulators together to provide analysis and discourse on the complex business integrity issues that exist for individuals and organizations in the global business community and in the regulation of global economies.
Why It Matters
In business, managers and leaders must act and lead with integrity to attain long-term, sustainable business success. That means all business students, and those managing and leading businesses need to understand business ethics, and how it affects a company’s strategy and operations.
"Personal and moral integrity is one of our basic fundamentals and it has to start with each of us."
- Sam Walton
To thrive, companies must be trusted. Studies indicate that stakeholders base their
trust in a company primarily on their view of that company’s ethics.
Despite this, business leaders and even some CEOs fail to understand that their own unethical behavior affects how stakeholders view their company’s culture of ethics and integrity. In the past few years, we have unfortunately seen a record number of CEOs let go for unethical behavior.
With this Initiative, Walton College is poised to help reverse this trend and positively affect the amount of trust that current and future business leaders create for stakeholders.
A Message from the Founder and Executive Chair
Cindy comes to the Walton College with over 27 years of leadership experience, most recently at Walmart, Inc., where she spent the last 20 years collaborating with the Walmart Board of Directors, four of the five Walmart CEOs, C-suite executives, and other senior leaders to drive global, technology, culture, risk management and governance change across the enterprise.
Cindy spearheaded the transformation of Walmart’s global culture of integrity in the wake of Walmart’s foreign corrupt practices act investigation. She developed and implemented a global ethics program in 27 countries for over 2 million employees.
She also led a multi-disciplinary, 400-person ethics and compliance department and implemented blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to advance controls in critical regulatory risk areas existing in over 5,000 U.S. facilities.
Cindy also drove the modernization of Walmart’s global corporate governance and enterprise risk management practices. She regularly reported to the Audit Committee, interfaced with and presented to the Walmart Board of Directors, and served as a key, senior leader of the Walmart Global Governance and Walmart U.S. business leadership teams.
Externally, Cindy is the immediate past Chair of the Board of the Ethics and Compliance Association. She also served as a Director for the Ethics Research Center. She has served locally on the board of the Ruth I. Kolpin Family Foundation for 20 years, and as a board member of the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of Girls on the Run.
Cindy is a licensed attorney with a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, where she graduated magna cum laude. She also graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Science degree.
I’m excited to join the Sam M. Walton College of Business as the Founder and Executive Chair of the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative.
Operating with integrity was a core principle for Sam Walton, our college’s namesake, and how he ran his business, Walmart. This same focus has been carried over into the values of Walton College – excellence, professionalism, innovation and collegiality (EPIC).
Integrity is called out as one of the core behaviors that define “professionalism.” Because integrity is already woven into the values, Walton College is well-positioned to take a more comprehensive approach to integrating business ethics into the culture of the college itself, and the experience of all students and business stakeholders.
I am thrilled to be here and have the opportunity to work with the amazing faculty, staff and students who are eager to take business integrity to the next level at Walton College!
Meet the Faculty Advisory Board
Adam Stoverick
Associate Professor, Department of Management
Dr. Adam Stoverick is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at the Walton College of Business. His research examines a variety of important workplace phenomena, including work team resilience, team effectiveness, workplace status hierarchies, and organizational justice.
Mary Lacity
Professor, Department of Information Systems
Dr. Mary Lacity is a Walton Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence in Sam M. Walton College of Business. She has conducted case studies and surveys of hundreds of organizations on their outsourcing and management practices. Her publications have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, and many other academic and practitioner outlets.
Jonathan Shipman
Associate Professor, Department of Accounting
Jonathan Shipman is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Arkansas. Previously, he worked as the director of accounting for Minor League Baseball. He is entering his sixth year working in the Walton College of Business.
Tim Yeager
Professor, Department of Finance
Dr. Yeager is a Walton Professor of Finance and Arkansas Bankers Association Chair in Banking. Previously he worked as an Economist and Assistant Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Jeff Murray
University Professor, Department of Management
Dr. Rosen's research broadly considers how work-life experiences affect the well-being, attitudes, and performance of organizational members. His research has also focused on methodological questions pertaining to the measurement and modeling of psychological constructs. His research has appeared in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, and others.
Vikas Anand
MBA Director, Professor, Department of SEVI (Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Venture Innovation), and former Professor, Department of Management
Dr. Anand is the Director of the Walton MBA Program and a Professor at the Walton College of Business. Dr. Anand’s research focuses on business ethics, crisis management, and the normalization of corruption. He has a diverse education holding degrees in physics, engineering, and business.
Dan Worrell
Professor, SEVI Department, most recently Interim Department Chair, Department of Management
Professor Worrell is Dean Emeritus of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and currently holds the Corporate Responsibility Professorship in Management. Over the course of two decades, he served in a variety of higher education administrative positions including associate dean and 15 years of service as a dean at three different business schools. Professor Worrell has published over 50 journal articles appearing in The Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and many others.
Puja Bhattacharya
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
After completing her PhD, Professor Bhattacharya worked for the German Institute of Economic Research for two years in Berlin till she moved to the University of Arkansas. In her research, she uses experimental methods to study moral decision-making in economic transactions with a focus on communication and prosocial exchange.
Meet the Staff Advisory Board
John B. Bell
Project/Program Specialist
After receiving his Master’s degree in Information Systems in 2012, Bell worked for Tyson Foods in a variety of roles. He has since become the Academic Data Specialist for the Office of Strategic Information and Effectiveness at the University of Arkansas
Lori L. Foster
Executive Assistant to the Dean
Lori Foster serves as the Executive Assistant to the Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business. She utilizes her communication degree, her background in education, and her experience in special events in the supporting role she plays in the dean’s office.
Teryl Hampton Jebaraj
Associate Director
Since graduating with a Master’s degree in Higher Education, Teryl has worked in a multitude of roles at the University of Arkansas. After beginning as an academic counselor she has since become the Associate Director of the Walton Graduate School of Business.
Cody Jendro
Computer Support Specialist
Cody graduated from Palomar College in 2017. He has since been an on air personality before accepting a position with the University of Arkansas where he is currently a Computer Support Specialist.
Jamie Leto Kern
Academic Counselor
After receiving her Master’s in Communication, Kern worked for the Peace at Home Family Shelter as the Development Associate. She currently works for the University of Arkansas as the Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs.
Andrea Morgan
Administrative Support Supervisor
Andrea Morgan graduated from Robert Morris College in 1999. Over the years she has worked in a variety of roles for the University of Arkansas. She is currently the Administrative Support Supervisor for the Sam M. Walton College of Business.
David Sorto
Research Associate
David received his Master’s degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin. Since then he has worked a wide range of jobs before becoming a Research Associate at the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business.
Ryan Versey
Program & Constituent Relations Outreach Coordinator
Ryan Versey received his undergraduate degree from Prairie View A&M University. He founded Versatile Optics, a creative media agency, before entering the Master’s program at the University of Arkansas. He is currently the Program and Constituent Relations Outreach Manager for the Sam M. Walton College of Business.
Connect with Us
Engage with our initiative on social media, and get updates from our email newsletter.
News of Note
Noteworthy Papers/Articles
- Building a Culture of Honor and Integrity in a Business School
- Teaching Business Ethics: The Principles Approach
- Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-based Approaches to Principles for AI
Activities / Events
- University of Arizona case competition, October 2020
- February 2020: Sponsored APPE’s annual workshop for University Ethics Center Directors. Over 40 different universities represented.
- April 2020: Presenting Partner sponsorship of IBECC’s 23rd Annual International Business Ethics Case Competition
- Six students involved in IBECC's April 2020 Moral Compass Competition, and three students placed!
Faculty and Staff Engagement
- Creation of an Academic Advisory Board at Walton College for Business Integrity Leadership
- Creation of an Staff Committee at Walton College for Business Integrity Leadership
