Walker Files Candidacy Papers, Benefits of Corporate Transparency, A World Without Work

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• As Governor Walker Makes 2016 Run Official, What Are His Chances?

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  Is the country ready for President Walker? Thursday morning Governor Scott Walker took a big step towards officially running for president, filing his paperwork with the Federal Election Committee. His aides said he will announce his intentions publicly on July 13th in Waukesha.

  He is among the last of the major candidates to join the ranks of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination and his candidacy brings that number to 15 in total. He has been actively campaigning, however, since the beginning of the year – traveling frequently to early primary states as well as abroad to Europe, Canada, and Israel.

  Walker is leading the pack of contenders in Iowa, but nationally is tied for sixth with Marco Rubio according to a CNN poll out Wednesday.

• Transparency Is The Solution For Scandals At FIFA And Elsewhere, Says Business Professor

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  Whether it’s in the form of corruption charges at FIFA or allegations of narcotic overprescription and intimidation at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Hospital, scandals are never far from the headlines.

  However, there are many organizations that manage to avoid such scandals — and according to a professor of management and business ethics at Edgewood College, they do so because of a commitment to transparency.

  “Transparency is putting a bright light on everything you do,” said Denis Collins. “It’s being absolutely truthful in what you’re up to, and sharing that truth with other folks.”

  The issue of transparency is one that’s been making Wisconsin headlines recently, after the state Legislature’s budget committee approved a plan to restrict public access to legislative documents. Some opponents of the measure assert that the provision will allow corruption to go unchecked. Supporters say it will allow lawmakers to have freer exchange of ideas.

  Collins — speaking with Wisconsin Public Radio before the open records provision was introduced — said that sharing information with the general public, government regulators or even an organization’s own employees is important. Aside from possibly preventing scandals, Collins said such transparency has numerous other benefits, especially when it comes to employee morale.

  “If you trust me with your financial numbers, that means you respect me, and if you respect me, I’m happy to work with you,” he said.

  Collins said that transparency doesn’t mean there are never cases where an organization can justify keeping information secret — a company protecting proprietary technology or a government agency classifying security information are examples. However, he said that managers often use confidentiality as an excuse for covering up unethical behavior, or, more frequently, avoiding responsibility for problems.

  “A business is very messy. It’s very, very, very hard to run a business, and therefore things go wrong all the time,” Collins said. “Most of the time, we can share a lot of information with a lot of people, and we’re just afraid to do so.”

  According to Collins, the recent FIFA scandal was an example of both corrupt leadership and subordinates being unable or unwilling to be transparent.

  “I’m sure a lot of people in FIFA knew those bribes were being made. Oftentimes, unethical people think they’re getting away with things,” Collins said. “But people know. Anytime these scandals come out, employees will say, ‘I thought that was going on.’ So the challenge, then, is how to give employees a voice so they can articulate what’s really happening.”

  Collins said he’s optimistic that the global explosion of access to information in the digital age will only make transparency stronger.

  “The world gets more and more transparent every day, and we have the Internet and democracy to thank for that,” he said. “The more we have democracy and the more we have the Internet exposing everything that goes wrong, the more just the world will become.”

• What If Techology Replaces Human Jobs?

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  While the idea of machines taking over human work seems futuristic, that reality may not be all that far away, says a journalist who investigated how people, communities and even culture could be affected if technology replaced human labor.