Work Place Ethics

 

R. Mehl

Proctor High School

 

 

 

Many companies are faced with ethical dilemmas each day. Having a Code of Conduct to follow is essential for a successful business. A purposeful business code of conduct establishes an atmosphere of commitment in an organization. It not only lays down a strong cultural foundation for the business, but also helps companies enforce and implement legal as well ethical policies and procedures for all kinds of decision making. The problem is:  companies don’t know what to put in their Code of Conducts. What should be included in a Company’s Code of Conduct?

 

 

 

 

Your task in this Web Quest is to research and explore legal and ethical concepts and put together a Code of Conducts for businesses to follow. You will then put together a presentation to present to your class.

1. Your instructor will assign you to a team of 3 students.

2. Each student will choose a Web Quest role to play (manager, consumer and employee).

3. Use face-to-face meetings, or email to communicate with each other throughout the project.

4. Collaborate to create a presentation to the class describing the results of your team’s research.

5. Your presentation should define the ethical code of conduct for a company to use in the United States. Each student will become an expert in one of the following roles:

a. Manager

b. Employee

c. Customer

6. Your presentation must include supporting resources.

7. Each team member must complete a self-assessment.

8. Each team member must complete a team assessment.

Together, your team will gather to investigate the topic of ethics in business. What are the major issues?

Before tackling the subject from the perspective of your role, the entire team should meet to discuss the ethical issues affecting business in general. Use the Web links below to answer the basic question. Be creative, insightful, and curious as you explore the Web for answers.

 

 

 

 

Ones you have established your roles. Each team member will investigate the role that pertains to them. Having expertise in different viewpoints will be beneficial when determining what should be included in a company’s Code of Conduct. It will help you to see the different viewpoints of everyone that is affected. Together you will come together to create a Code of Conduct on Ethical Business Practices within the work place. This will help you understand the needs of employees, customers and managers.

 

Consumer: The student or students choosing the role of consumer will research the expectations of consumers when dealing with companies.

 

Consumer Role Links:

 

Consumer Protection from the FTC: E-Commerce & the Internet

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm

 

Consumer Web Watch

http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/

 

Econsumer.gov

http://www.econsumer.gov/

 

The Purpose of a Business Code of Conduct

http://www.conductcode.com/business-code-of-conduct.html

 

Employee: The student or students choosing the role of employee in a company will research the types of ethical dilemmas encountered in the workplace.

 

Employee Role Links:

 

Online Ethics Center: IEEE Code of Ethics

http://onlineethics.org/codes/empemp.html

 

Ethics in the Workplace

http://www.gwsae.org/ExecutiveUpdate/2000/October/ethics.htm

 

All You Have is Your Integrity

http://humanresources.about.com/od/businessethics/a/integrity.htm

 

Manager: The student or students choosing the role of manager will wrestle with some very tough questions on how to manage ethical decisions within the workplace.

 

Manager Role Links:

 

A Question of Ethics

http://www.informationweek.com/825/ethics.htm

 

Business Ethics for IT Managers – What You Can Do

http://www.informationweek.com/825/ethics_side.htm

 

Ethics, E-Commerce, and the Future of the Past

http://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/18-1/saa13.html

 

After your individual research is done, your team should have a meeting. Each student should provide a list of suggestions for developing an ethical code of conduct based on the needs they found when researching their role.  As a group, you should then come to a consensus for developing a code of ethics. Refer to Creating a Code of Ethics for Your Organization by Chris MacDonald, PhD (http://www.ethicsweb.ca/codes/) for guidance. Everyone should be prepared to contribute to the discussion. Decide as a group how the team will collaborate to create the final presentation to the class. At the end of the meeting, make of list of steps that must be done to have the presentation ready by the due date.

 

You will use the PPA as an outline for your presentation. You may use PPA on the Internet, which is listed on the links below. You will complete the worksheets under each of the six steps.

The team can choose any medium to deliver their team presentation. It may be presented as a Web site, a PowerPoint presentation, a paper, or a narrative story.

 

The presentation must define and describe the following:

 

a. A consensus on what to include in a company’s Code of Conduct

b. Rationale from a management perspective.

c. Rationale from an employee perspective.

d. Rationale from a consumer perspective.

 

Include all steps using the PPA:

 

STEP # 1: DEFINE THE PROBLEM YOU CHOSE

STEP # 2: FIND EVIDENCE FOR THE PROBLEM

STEP # 3: DETERMINE THE CAUSES FOR THE  PROBLEM

STEP # 4: DETERMINE EXISTING PUBLIC POLCIY

STEP # 5: SUGGEST SOLUTIONS FOR THE PROBLEM

STEP # 6: CHOOSE THE BEST SOLUTION

 

Be sure to include appropriate references to the resources you have used.

 

 

 

The instructor will use the Web Quest Rubric to evaluate the team’s successful completion of the project, the team process, and the quality of the final presentation.

 

Web Quest Rubric: Use the following rubric for the self-assessment, the team assessment and the instructor’s evaluation.

 

 

 

 

You should have learned how unethical business practices affect the work place. They create hardships for not only the businesses themselves, but their employees, customers and surrounding communities.  Making an ethical decision may not always be the easiest choice, but it is the right thing to do. Every day we make decision based on our ethics. Businesses have to do the same.

 

 

 

CDOS:

Standard 1: Career Development

Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.

 

Standard 2: Integrated Learning

Students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.

 

Standard 3a: Universal Foundation Skills

Students will demonstrate mastery of the foundation skills and competencies essential for success in the workplace.

 

Standard 3b: Career Majors

Students who choose a career major will acquire the career-specific technical knowledge/skills necessary to progress toward gainful employment, career advancement, and success in postsecondary programs.

 

ELA:

Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.

Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.