Ethical Leadership and Big Data
From the earliest cuneiform writings to today’s Big Data capabilities, humans have been collecting and assimilating data for thousands of years.
What are Solutions with Synergy?
You can click on the word for a dictionary definition, but it really means that the when the sum of two or more things equals something way more than what they were individually, something new and totally awesome is created.
Ok, that’s a little bit of creative embellishing, but synergy is not 1+1=2, it’s 1+1=3.
As emerging technologies propel us forward, it’s critical to partner with people and organizations that have a skillset and a mindset for harnessing these technologies to provide innovative solutions.
But harnessing these technologies isn’t enough –
It’s up to ethical leaders to commit to using these technologies wisely and with transparency.
We all know, or we should, that massive amounts of data are being collected on us. Where we shop, where we’ve been, our political ideology, and that dreaded photo of you at the company party with a lampshade on your head….
Just an example I recently came across – recent job postings for a large banking institution and major retailer. The application process for both companies REQUIRE candidates to provide their social security number as part of the application process. WHAT????
Your Social Security number is Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This information is defined and protected under all kinds of laws. Entities that collect this information are required by those laws to provide the methods by which they collect, store and manage this information and the reasons why they are collecting it.
Yet, neither one of these entities offered their policies on PII collection. While it may be a matter of ignorance, this is a good example of unethical and poor leadership. A bank and a retailer now have your social security number for all eternity – whether they even consider you for a job or not.
A how to for Ethical Leadership and Data Policies.
Ethical Leadership can be taught and learned. Whatever way “it’s always been” or “used to be done”, it doesn’t need to continue if it’s a bad business practice.
The more data you collect, the more liability your company assumes, and the more at risk your business reputation becomes.
Ethical leaders challenge the status quo by using data to question established methods of thinking and to drive discovery.
Questions Ethical leaders ask before they collect data:
1) Who am I collecting data from?
2) What am I collecting data for?
3) How was the data vetted for accuracy?
4) What are the regulatory implications of collecting, storing and managing this data?
5) What happens if this data is breached?
6) What are my organizational polices surrounding data?
7) Do I need this data?
How Ethical leadership can educate people… with data… to make informed decisions
One of the societal issues we have been hearing quite a bit about is prison reform.
So, you commit a crime, you go to prison, you serve your time, you get out and your life goes happily along? Right?
Before you ask – why write about prisons on a LinkedIn forum? Isn’t LinkedIn for business?
It’s time that more private businesses take a more active part in the social aspects of our communities. It’s part of what we call Organic Profits™.
What the data says about the United States prison population and specifically the Federal Bureau of Prisons:
1) While the U.S. population is some 5% of the World’s population, our prisons and jails hold 25% of the World prison population.
2) While men/women are 49.2%/50.8%, respectively, of the total U.S. population, 93% of the inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prison are male.
3) While Black or African American males over 18 are 6.59% of the total population, they represent 37.8% of the population of inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
4) While Hispanic males over 18 are 9% of the total population, they represent 32% of the population of inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons
5) While Asian males over 18 are 2.9% of the total population, they represent 1.5% of the population of inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
6) While American Indians and Alaska native alone and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders over 18 are 1.5% of the total population, they represent 2.3% of the population of inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons
7) 74% of the population in the Federal Bureau of Prisons are between the ages of 26-46.
8) 27% of inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons do not have a high school education/GED.
9) The average yearly cost of housing and care for inmates is $34704.00. There are 162,826 total inmates in Federal Prison that are represented in the statistics above. That’s $5,650,713,504 billion dollars per year.
10) The “highlights” of a summary of prisoner recidivism that indicates most inmates who are released from prison will be re-arrested.
- The 401,288 state prisoners released in 2005 had 1,994,000 arrests during the 9-year period, an average of 5 arrests per released prisoner. Sixty percent of these arrests occurred during years 4 through 9.
- An estimated 68% of released prisoners were arrested within 3 years, 79% within 6 years, and 83% within 9 years.
- Eighty-two percent of prisoners arrested during the 9-year period were arrested within the first 3 years.
- Almost half (47%) of prisoners who did not have an arrest within 3 years of release were arrested during years 4 through 9.
- Forty-four percent of released prisoners were arrested during the first year following release, while 24% were arrested during year-9.
Suggested questions we could ask about the results of this data?1. Why are we incarcerating people at 5 times the rate of our population vs. world population?
2. Why are men overwhelming more likely to be incarcerated than women?
3. Why are Black and African American men incarcerated at almost 6 times more than what they should be, based on population demographics?
4. Why are Hispanic males incarcerated at 4 times more than what they should be, based on population demographics?
5. Why are Asian males incarcerated at almost half of what they should be, based on population demographics?
6. Why are so many men living the prime earning years of their lives behind bars?
7. What role does education, or the lack of education, have as a risk indicator for incarceration?
8. Is spending over $6 billion dollars per year to house and care for inmates sustainable, or even practical?
9. Why are most inmates who are released re-arrested? Is future criminality predictable? What role does the punitive measures for housing and job potential, if any, play in these re-arrests?
Some caveats about data:
When you collect data from multiple sources, you must develop best practices to ensure that the data is standardized across the sources. Regarding the data in this article:
1. The U.S. Census includes 2 race categories: Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone & 2 or more races, the Federal Bureau of Prisons does not define those categories. For the purpose of analysis, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders were added to the “Native American” category at BOP.
2. At the time of this article, there were 13 inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prison under the age of 18. Since this analysis was based on comparisons of populations of adult males, this number was subtracted from the total BOP population demographic number(s).
3. Since the prison population is overwhelming male, the number of female inmates was subtracted from the total BOP population demographic number(s).
Data takes us beyond the political rhetoric, the quasi-facts presented by some media outlets and the chatter of voices, over talking each other to be heard (or calling each other names) and gives us the power, as citizens and human beings, to make decisions based on facts.
Data results should also cause us to question and decide how our society is going to move forward and evolve.
We’re passionate about leveraging data to define and solve problems.
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