College of Business

Woke Capitalism: Should Businesses Jump In or Stay Out?

March 23, 2022 – In a culturally divided environment, businesses are caught in a dilemma. How can businesses act responsibly given our current political context? Should they embrace corporate activism or remain neutral?

At the 2022 live webinar event, keynote speakers debated whether, and the extent to which, businesses should influence the moral and political life of citizens. Panelists discussed how different types of corporate involvement in the moral and political sphere can positively or negatively impact society.

Keynote Speakers

Danielle Warren, Ph.D., Professor of Management & Global Business at Rutgers Business School, The State University of New Jersey. Professor Warren researches why deviance arises in business settings, how to evaluate it, and how to deter destructive deviance while promoting constructive deviance. She has published numerous articles on business ethics and ethical leadership in leading academic journals and business press. 

Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Business & Economics at the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and Director of PRI’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation. PRI champions freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing free-market policy solutions. Dr. Winegarden is also the principal of an economic advisory firm. Dr. Winegarden’s columns have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Investor’s Business Daily, Forbes.com, and USA Today.

Panelists

Amir Chapel, policy analyst at the National Institute of Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR). Amir coordinates projects with local government agencies and conducts research in the fields of criminal and juvenile justice, youth development, violence reduction, and organizational development. Before coming to NICJR, Amir was the Policy Manager at the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), Program Evaluator at the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), and Research Scientist at the New Mexico Sentencing Commission (NMSC). Amir has been directly impacted by the criminal justice system as a formerly incarcerated person who transformed his life as a young man to have a successful professional career.

Jacob Lopez, student at California State University, Monterey Bay, majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems. Originally from Lakeport, California, Jacob has a passion for current topics in relation to politics and business ethics, much like the topic of "woke capitalism." Through courses at CSUMB such as Business Ethics (BUS 300S) and Race & Ethnicity in the United States (HCOM 391), Jacob has discussed the impacts businesses have on sociopolitical issues under capitalism. Before coming to CSUMB, Jacob focused on doing charity work in Lake County for local organizations. One such organization is Operation Tango Mike, which seeks to support local active duty service members deployed overseas with care packages.

Staci M. Zavattaro, Ph.D., professor of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida. Her books include Cities for Sale, Place Branding Through Phases of the Image, and Social Media to Government: Theory and Practice (edited with Dr. Thomas Bryer). Dr. Zavattaro serves as editor-in-chief of the international journal Administrative Theory & Praxis. Her work appears in journals such as Urban Studies, Public Administration Review, Journal of Place Management and Development, Administration & Society, and Tourism Management.

Moderator

Jeff Froshman, Distinguished Lecturer, California State University, Monterey Bay

Downloadable Documents

• 2022 Ethics and Responsible Business Forum Agenda
• 2022 Ethics and Responsible Business Forum Debate Brief
• 2022 Ethics and Responsible Business Forum Organizing Committee
• 2022 Ethics Forum Poster - Woke Capitalism
• 2022 Ethics Forum Deans Messages 
•  Press release - 20th Annual Ethics and Responsible Business Forum

Black Lives Matter

Is the U.S. Social Contract Broken?

March 24, 2021 – The topic of the 19th Ethics Forum was the issue of racial equity through a debate and critical discussion on the social contract between the US and Black Americans.

The 8-minute, 46-second video of the excruciating death of George Floyd at the knee of a police officer sparked fresh public outrage against police brutality, and generated a wave of reckoning with racial injustice, across the globe. In the United States, this reckoning has coalesced under the mantle of Black Lives Matter. However, in the current state of American politics and social relations, justice for black Americans is no longer a uniting call. Instead, it has provoked criticism, backlash, and launched a growing list of social issues that carry a polarizing charge, capable of breaking down the structures and processes integral to the civic health of our country. Our Ethics and Responsible Business Forum is dedicated to understanding why the project of racial justice has become divisive instead of unifying, and to identifying our pressing obligations, as a country, in this area of concern.

Does the US have an unfulfilled social contract toward black Americans? If not, how do we understand and rectify the inequities faced by black Americans? Why does the issue of racial justice tend to break down on partisan lines? Are there bridges to cross these divides? What are we being currently called to do to advance racial healing?

In this shared context of deep division, we invite our distinguished speakers and panelists, who are powerful public voices, to help our community understand the complexities of the racial wound that cuts deep into the heart of this country’s past, present, and future. Under the encompassing question of “Is the US social contract with Black Americans broken?” we look forward to enlightening debate and discussion on the following points: Keynote speakers and panelists will enrich the discussion by sharing insights from their respective areas of expertise.

This annual event is sponsored The Ethics and Responsibility Forum is an annual event sponsored by the College of Business, College of Science, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and College of Health Sciences and Human Services, with the Associated Students.

Keynote Speakers

Ralph Richard Banks is Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law, Stanford Law School and Faculty Director, Stanford Center for Racial Justice. Professor Banks teaches and writes about family law, employment discrimination law and race and the law. He is the author of Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone.

Jason Riley is Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal columnist, and commentator at Fox News. He is the author of Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders (2008), Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed (2014), and False Black Power (2017)

Panelists

John Berteaux, Professor of Philosophy, California State University, Monterey Bay

Darchelle Burnett, CSU Monterey Bay Student, President of Black Students United

Vanessa Lopez-Littleton, Chair, Health, Human Services, and Public Policy Department.; Associate Professor, Public Administration, and Nonprofit Management

Moderator

Jeff Froshman, Distinguished Lecturer, California State University, Monterey Bay

Will You Survive the Gig Economy –

Does Gig Work Empower or Exploit?

March 4th, 2020 – The 18th Ethics Forum focused on the growing gig economy along with the recently passed California AB5 bill, which places regulations on independent contractors. In a debate-style presentation, two renowned keynote speakers discussed the benefits and perils of the gig economy. Panelists with ethical, business, and labor rights expertise offered their viewpoints and address pressing questions on the issue.

Some of the critical questions up for consideration in the forum included:

• What does a growing gig economy say about the fundamentals of the US economy? Is it a sustainable model?

• What can be done to safeguard contract workers in the gig economy? Should governments regulate? What are the intended and unintended consequences of California’s AB5 Bill?

• What are employers’ and workers’ obligations toward each other?

• How should workers prepare to succeed in the gig economy?

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

MODERATOR

Jeff Froshman

Distinguished Lecturer, California State University, Monterey Bay

Jeff Froshman is the "original" faculty member with CSUMB's College of Business since January 1996. He founded the accounting program, taught the initial classes and assisted with the expansion of the accounting concentration to its current level. A retired CPA, Jeff is currently working a financial consultant.

PANELISTS

John Berteaux

Professor of Philosophy, California State University Monterey Bay, School of Humanities and Communication

John Berteaux is a Professor of Philosophy at California State University Monterey Bay in the School of Humanities and Communication. He did his undergraduate work at San Diego State University and completed his Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego. Professor Berteaux's research interests are ethics, and political philosophy with a focus on race and the Liberal Tradition. His most recent publication Spring 2020 is, Humanistic Inquiry: Reconciling Reality, Knowledge, and Imagination. The article appears in Academic Questions a publication of the National Association of Scholars.

Lauren Casey

Lead Organizer of Working Partnerships USA; Co-Lead of Gig Workers Rising

Lauren Casey is a lead organizer for Working Partnerships USA, where she co-leads Gig Workers Rising. Before joining Working Partnerships, Lauren worked as an organizer with the Committee of Interns and Residents CIR/SEIU where she represented members across public hospitals in New York City and organized with residents at UCSF who successfully won a union contract with their employer.

As co-lead of Gig Workers Rising, Lauren has organized alongside rideshare drivers who have made history this past year - from protesting unfair deactivations and Uber and Lyft’s IPOs, to organizing for the successful passage of California Assembly Bill 5.

Jeremy Neuner

Co-Author of The Rise of the Naked Economy

Jeremy Neuner has spent the last decade exploring the future of work and the workplace. Jeremy was the co-founder and CEO of NextSpace, one of the world's first coworking companies. He is the co-author of The Rise of the Naked Economy: How to Benefit From the Changing Workplace (U.S. edition published 2013; Chinese edition published 2016). Jeremy was honored to give the TEDx Talk “The Office is Obsolete” in 2016. He now runs a startup accelerator at Google.

Fane Opperman

Financial advisor; Lecturer, California State University Monterey Bay

This annual public event is FREE and open to all. Sponsored by the , , , and and with the support of Associated Students.

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