We continue to be bombarded with stories of executives committing ethical violations.

The latest fiascos involve inappropriate relations and resume falsification, resulting in bad press for companies, destroyed reputations and disgust by the public, who must endure an endless parade of disgraced chief executive officers. These business leaders think the rules do not apply to them, and their behavior tarnishes the good CEOs.

The CEOs of Yahoo and Best Buy, along with Best Buy's founder, were recently forced to step down. Here's what happened. Yahoo's CEO was caught falsifying his resume while Best Buy's CEO and its founder were both forced to step down over the CEO's inappropriate relationship with an employee and the founder's failure to report the issue.

You have to wonder what these individuals were thinking. You just can't do these things, even if you're the CEO or chairman of the board. Everyone must understand that there are consequences to one's behaviors and no one is immune ever. These guys didn't get the message.

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze was forced to step down as the company's chairman of the board after it was revealed that he failed to inform the board when he learned that CEO Brian Dunn was having an improper relationship with a female employee. Dunn resigned and Schulze ultimately did too.

Once again, careers were destroyed and a company reputation's harmed because key executives did dumb things one having a relationship with a subordinate and the other for failing to report it after receiving a written statement about it, in clear violation of their company's policy.

Best Buy acted appropriately in accepting both "resignations." The company's internal audit showed Dunn's behavior was inappropriate and negatively impacted the work environment. It turns out this (apparently) consensual relationship was not a secret at Best Buy, as the consenting partner spoke openly about her friendship.

As for Schulze, his 46-year career at Best Buy ended because his failure to report this incident "exposed the employees to potential retaliation and the company to potential liability," according to the company.

While there has been no claim of sexual harassment, the potential exposure was there. All executives and managers should learn from this and take the necessary steps to protect their companies from similar embarrassments:

As for Yahoo, Scott Thompson, the former president of Yahoo, falsified his resume when he was a candidate for the job. Thompson stated he had a degree in computer science, when he did not. When he got caught, he blamed the recruiter. And for all that, he lost his job. Senseless.

See the original post:
When hubris and personal responsibility clash