CFA UK’s new ethical book club will help members identify ethical blind spots and put them in context.
CFA UK’s Ethics Committee has launched a new initiative, the Ethics Book Club, designed to help members navigate the increasing ethical complexities of the investment profession.
The Club will host three sessions, spaced three months apart, and will focus on different components of ethical behaviour. “The aim of the series is to discuss the key books in ethics, and to really help fund managers with their career, because at any point in their career, they could find themselves confronted with ethical challenges. It’s important that they are armed with the right knowledge,” says Dr Alexandra Dobra Kiel, who is leading the initiative.
The events will take place in an exclusive room at Williams Tavern in the City, and are designed to focus on different aspects of ethics. Session one will focus on ethical lapses and their causes. The second session will focus on ethical principles, while the third will focus on ethical dilemmas and how to navigate them.
The following books have been chosen for each session, which last two hours:
- Event #1 (3rd July): Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Event #2 (TBC): Blind Spots. Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do About It by Max H. Bazerman & Ann E. Tenbrunsel
- Event #3 (TBC): Black Edge by Sheelah Kolhaktar
Dr Dobra-Kiel will introduce the books, and then open the floor to participants. “It’s about creating a dialogue and thinking about times in their own career where they faced ethical challenges, and how they reacted to them, and how they could improve on that,” she explains.
She wants to attract a mix of people, she says. “We want people who are new to the field, as well as more senior people, so junior professionals can learn from their experiences. Each session is built on the previous one. In the first session we will be exploring a number of issues. What are the worrying signals of unethical behaviour, and how do you understand the context and psychology that has led an individual to be unethical? In some cases, individuals are not even aware they are being unethical! These are the blind spots and it is important that individuals become aware of these. I think another issue is that in many cases individuals act unethically because of the context, which triggers emotional contagion, rather than their own natural tendencies,” she says.
Copies of the book can be purchased from Amazon.
