Chapter 9

1. Chapter 9 Ethics and Developing An Effective Work Ethic

2. Learning Objectives • Define ethical behavior • Define unethical behavior and four basic rationalizations for unethical behavior • Identify defense mechanisms that individuals use to defend against feelings of unethical behavior • Name three factors affecting ethical behavior • Define moral courage and name the five elements • Identify the five types of ethical dilemmas • Identify the four major forms of plagiarism by students • Examine your existing work ethic through a work ethic

3. Welcome Lovely People! • Please take out your Code of Ethics assignment • I will be around to collect it Agenda ~Grade Quizzes ~Ethics discussion ~Discuss successful group techniques ~Group Project Timeline to College Entrance(200 points) due May 27th

4. Role of Ethics in Our Lives • Ethics—standards of conduct and morals which are an expression of right and wrong in a particular society. • Ethical behavior—conducting oneself in accordance with the standards of right and wrong in a particular society • Unethical behavior—conducting oneself in a way that is not in accordance with the standards of right and wrong in a particular society • Individuals rationalize unethical behavior to protect their sense of self and avoid remorse

5. Rationalizations for Unethical Behavior • Belief that the unethical behavior is within ethical and legal limits (It’s not really illegal to go a few miles over the speed limit.) • Belief that because the unethical behavior will work for the best interest of the individual or organization, the organization expects the behavior to be carried out (The end justifies the means) • Belief that nobody will notice (It’s not wrong if you don’t get caught.) • Belief that because the behavior helps the company, the company will go along and protect you if caught

6. Study of ethics in college students • Relationship among age, competitiveness, and ethics • Older students are more ethical than younger students • Less competitive students are more ethical than more competitive students • Ethics can differ among college majors—Information systems majors are more ethical than business or marketing majors • Important to teach ethics across all college majors

7. Organizational Defense Mechanisms to Charges of Unethical Behavior • Projection—Projecting shortcomings and failures on others • Denial—Refuse to admit there is an issue • Repression—Forgetting, suppressing, or distorting information about the issue • Reaction formation—Displaying the opposite attitude to what you feel about the issue • Sublimation—channel frustration and anger into socially acceptable forms such as compensating the wronged party or designing new goals as a result of the issue

8. Responses to Misconduct • Refusals—Help the organization deny harm and responsibility • Excuses—Help the organization deny responsibility • Justifications—Allows an organization to avoid admitting harm • Concessions—Help an organization admit both harm and responsibility

9. Deciding whether an issue has ethical importance • Magnitude of consequences—amount of harm or benefit involved • Social consensus—agreement on an issue’s importance • Probability of effect—event’s probability X its effect • Temporal immediacy—time between decision and consequences • Proximity—feeling of closeness to the individuals affected • Concentration of effect—does the action impact a few people strongly or many people weakly

10. Dimenensions of Moral Conduct • Judgment Dimension—whether or not the guiding precepts involve ethical conflict—Do you know if this is right or wrong • Motivation Dimension—whether self-interest undermines the motivation to do the right thing • These two dimensions combine to define types of ethical problems • Leads to 4 combinations of ethical problems

11. 4 combinations of ethical problems • Genuine ethical dilemma—individual is unsure of what should be done, but has the will and ability to do what is right • Compliance problem—individual knows what is right, but has a problem doing it • Moral laxity—individual knows what is right, but is unsure how to do it, so does nothing • No-problem problem—individual knows what is right, and has the will and ability to carry it out

12. Factors Affecting Ethical Behavior • Personality—ethical behaviors may be related to personality type • Moral Development—ethical behaviors may be related to an individual’s stage of moral development • The Situation—ethical behaviors may change depending on what the situation is

13. Personality • Extraversion-dominant individual’s use of power • For personal advancement and benefit • For having a broad scope to help other people • Irresponsible individual • May perform substandard work • Agreeable, well-liked person • Can lead people in either ethical or unethical behaviors • Self-aware individual • More likely to engage in ethical behavior even when the crowd is pushing toward unethical behavior • Positive attitudes towards ethics promotes ethical behavior

14. Stage of Moral Development • Kohlberg’s Model –Based on justice • Gilligan’s Model—for women, based on caring and changes in women’s self image • Miller’s Model of Moral Courage

15. Kohlberg’s Model • Level 1: Pre-conventional—right and wrong chosen based on self interest • Avoid punishment • Receive rewards • Level 2: Conventional—right and wrong chosen based on expectations of the group • Behave as a “good” person • Abide by laws and maintain order • Level 3: Post-conventional—right and wrong chosen based on universal ethics regardless of group’s behavior • Social contract

16. Gilligan’s Model--women • Preconventional—Goal is individual survival • Then transition from selfishness to responsibility to others • Conventional—Self sacrifice is goodness • Then transition to the belief of self-value to influence choices • Postconventional—Principle of nonviolence—do not hurt others or hurt yourself

17. Miller—Elements of Moral Courage • Recognizing a moral or ethical situation • Making a moral choice or decision • Acting upon that decision • Accepting responsibility for the decision and behavior • Fearing the consequences of the decision and actions but overcoming it. • Can be developed by practice and imitation of good role models—Who are your heroes?

18. Situational Ethics • Decisions are made and acts are judged within their contexts instead of by categorical principles • Unsupervised and competitive situations often will generate more unethical behavior • Relationships with individuals engaging in unethical behavior may influence how you feel about it

19. Codes of Ethics • Clarify organization’s mission, values, and principles and link to standards of professional conduct • Establish guidelines for ethical behavior • Based upon • Principle of Justice—decisions are consistent, unbiased, based on fact • Principle of Individual Rights—focuses on dignity of individuals • Principle of Utilitarianism—decisions made will go the most good for the greatest number of people • Principle of Individualism—centers on a person’s goal to achieve long-term self-interest • Categorical imperative--focuses on the universal good that would come if everyone behaved in this way

20. Ethics in the Workplace • Organizations should set ethical standards and model ethical behavior • Leaders need to set the ethical examples • Honest communication and practices • Discipline any employees who do not follow the organization’s code of ethics • Peer commitment to ethics • Embedded ethical values

21. Ethical Dilemmas • Dilemma vs breach of ethics—dilemma is a situation where a choice must be made, breach of ethics is a verifiable act that violates a law, standard, or norm • Types of ethical dilemmas • Misrepresentation and collusion • Misuse of data • Manipulation and coercion • Value and goal conflict • Technical ineptness

22. Misrepresentation and collusion • Option of full disclosure of factual information or altering or editing information or excluding or including some parties from getting the information • Misrepresenting information on applications or resumes • Only showing some of the available information • Deliberate misinformation about a project’s goals, values, needs

23. Misuse of information • Violation of confidentiality • Use of information resulting in personal or organizational harm

24. Manipulation and Coercion • Organization forces members to behave in opposition to their personal values and needs • Example: Individuals are told to suppress information which would result in negative press for a company or they will lose their jobs

25. Value and Goal Conflict • Vagueness or conflict concerning whose values will be taken advantage of by the effort or whose needs will be fulfilled by meeting goals. • Can also occur when values are not well defined

26. Technical Ineptness • When technical problems come up, do you acknowledge the problems or hide them • Do you work to correct the deficiencies

27. Academic Ethics • Academic Dishonesty • Cheating on exams or quizzes • Falsifying records or dates • Tampering • Lying • Unauthorized copying • Falsifying or misusing information • Plagiarism • Trauma drama—encouraging low income students to describe the trauma they have faced to get into college even if they have low scores and poor grades

28. Plagiarism • Can occur when you don’t know the proper way to paraphrase information (put it in your own words), summarize information (condense large amounts of information in your own words) or properly cite and document sources • Four main ways of plagiarism • Using material produced by someone else and calling it yours—purchasing a paper, copying a paper, using someone else’s work • Having someone else write a paper for you • Giving the impression of paraphrasing by leaving out quotation marks, even if cited • Paraphrasing without citing or documenting

29. Avoiding plagiarism • Take advantage of workshops or resources on correctly documenting a paper • Take advantage of college writing centers for help by tutors • Use good time management skills so you won’t be tempted to take the easy way out • Remember that colleges are using online tools such as Turnitin.com to detect papers written by someone else or cut and pasted from the internet

30. Defining Personal Work Ethic • Positive work ethic—responsibility, motivation, people skills • Includes values, goals, and priorities • Can be enhanced by time management skills • If you took the Work Ethic Inventory in Chapter 1, go back and take it again and see if there has been any change