How Companies Reckon with Past Wrongdoing

Sarah Federman, assistant professor at the University of Baltimore, studies how companies handle their historical misdeeds and what that means for employees and customers. From insurance firms that backed slave owners to railroad companies that transported victims of the Holocaust, many legacy companies can find they played a role in past transgressions. Federman makes a moral and practical argument for uncovering and addressing these misdeeds, even though there may no longer be legal repercussions. And she shares how some leaders have been transparent, apologized, and found meaningful ways to make up for their organization's difficult history. Federman wrote the HBR article “How Companies Can Address Their Historical Transgressions: Lessons from the Slave Trade and the Holocaust.”

Share Podcast

[HBR IdeaCast podcast series]

HBR IdeaCast
Episode 837

How Companies Reckon with Past Wrongdoing

Listen | Podcast loading...

###

A conversation with the University of Baltimore’s Sarah Federman about meaningful ways to deal with a difficult history.

• Subscribe:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

RSS

All episodes

Details

Transcript

January 18, 2022

Sarah Federman, assistant professor at the University of Baltimore, studies how companies handle their historical misdeeds and what that means for employees and customers. From insurance firms that backed slave owners to railroad companies that transported victims of the Holocaust, many legacy companies can find they played a role in past transgressions. Federman makes a moral and practical argument for uncovering and addressing these misdeeds, even though there may no longer be legal repercussions. And she shares how some leaders have been transparent, apologized, and found meaningful ways to make up for their organization’s difficult history. Federman wrote the HBR article “How Companies Can Address Their Historical Transgressions: Lessons from the Slave Trade and the Holocaust.”

• Subscribe On:

Apple

Spotify

RSS

Latest in this series

All episodes

This article is about BUSINESS ETHICS

** Follow this topic

** Following

Related Topics:

• Human rights

• Transparency

Original source