Suzy Wetlaufer, editor of the Harvard Business Review, interviewed former General Electric CEO Jack Welch for a piece in the business magazine. In December 2001, she asked that the piece be withdrawn because her objectivity might have been compromised. Those at the magazine did another interview and published that interview in the February issue of the magazine. Editorial director of the magazine, Walter Kiechel, who supervised Ms. Wetlaufer, acknowledged as true a report in the Wall Street Journal about an alleged affair between Ms. Wetlaufer and Mr. Welch and that Mr. Welch’s wife had called to protest the article’s objectivity. Mr. Welch refused to confirm or deny an affair with Ms. Wetlaufer, who was divorced. Some staff members asked that Ms.

Wetlaufer resign from her $277,000-per-year job, but she refused. Their objections were that she compromised her journalistic integrity. Mr. Kiechel, on Chapter 3 Business Ethics, Social Forces, and the Law 63 the other hand, noted that she did “the right thing in raising her concerns.”19 About six weeks later, Ms. Wetlaufer did resign from her position as editor, announcing that she would be spending time with her four children. Do you think there was a conflict of interest because of the affair between Welch and Wetlaufer?20 Note: Mr. Welch and Ms. Wetlaufer have married and have written a book together. They now write a semiweekly column for BusinessWeek magazine.

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