Denis Collins (business ethicist)


Denis Collins is an American business ethicist and tenured professor of business at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.

Biography

Denis Collins was born in the Bronx and raised in Carlstadt, New Jersey. He received a B.S. in business administration from Montclair State University in 1977, an M.A. in philosophy from Bowling Green State University in 1987, and a PhD in business environment and public policy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. He specialized in business ethics, teaching it at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Bridgeport, and Edgewood College.
He is a terminal cancer survivor, husband and father.

Optimal Ethics System Model

Collins' Optimal Ethics System Model is a compilation of what he says are best practices for achieving a morally healthy organization. They typically take the form of step-by-step instructions, like recipes. Collins offers empirical evidence that sustained financial success requires implementation of this model.
The Optimal Ethics System Model offers best practices in five categories:
  1. Hiring practices
  2. # Procedures for recruiting individuals who demonstrate and sustain ethical behavior over time
  3. Orientation practices
  4. # Procedures for orienting new employees to a code of ethics and conduct
  5. # Procedures for orienting new employees to an ethical decision-making framework
  6. Training practices
  7. # Procedures for teaching ethics
  8. Operating practices
  9. # Procedures for nurturing respect for employee and customer diversity
  10. # Systems for reporting ethical misbehavior
  11. # Procedures for ethical leadership and management
  12. # Procedures for engaging and empowering employees to achieve superior performance
  13. # Procedures for managing interaction with the natural environment
  14. # Procedures for conducting meaningful community outreach
  15. Evaluation practices
  16. # Procedures for continually improving best practices

    Books

Collins has authored or edited articles and essays on business ethics, social responsibility, participatory management, and service learning; he has also authored, co-authored, and co-edited several books: