The sense of duty, responsibility and stewardship in Downton Abbey are nothing less than old-fashioned words for the "modern" concept that a few corporations are once again embracing: Corporate Social Responsibility. But with one important difference: Robert Crowley, the Earl of Grantham, is an individual as opposed to a corporation. And, he takes this responsibility very seriously.

Unpaid internships are in the news again as a result of a groundbreaking study on precarious employment in Ontario. There are a number of factors that play into the decision to pay an intern (or not), of course. That said, greed is ultimately the common denominator that business leaders share when determining whether to create paid or unpaid internships.

Trust at the board level is necessary at three intersection points: board and CEO, board member to board member, and CEO to C-suite. Why does trust matter? Think about the transactional costs of a low-trust relationship. In low trust relationships, suspicion abounds and parties feel compelled to paper every decision and every discussion. What can boards and executives do about this? Here is some advice.

the new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "whistle-blowing" rule that permits employees now to go directly to the regulator with a complaint and completely bypass the company's internal processes. The practical effect of this new rule is to put the heat on many companies and corporate boards to reexamine their workplace investigations of potential wrongdoing -- and that is a welcome development. Where do investigations go wrong?

The hard reality is that good people do bad things, and honest leaders let it happen. Honest leaders don't do it on purpose--they create ethics risks at their organizations by simply focusing on the wrong issues. So how did the good and honest leader unwittingly cause such behavior? Here are four ways it happens.

You can't let board members off the hook simply because they're not full-time employees of the company, or that on just one day per quarter they're presented with information on which they can't always get feedback. And that's why Richard Schulze has been forced to step down from Best Buy's board.

It's clear we need to rethink business as usual, but it should start with how business leaders are trained to view their roles, analyze risks, and understand the moral implications of strategic decisions.