Many businesses are run differently. Ethics vary from business to business. Ethics are a set of moral principles under which a business must conduct their activities. Some businesses follow these sets of rules while others let profit come before ethics. Historically, American business has made the country a superpower. The average working American relies on the ethics of businessmen for their job security, retirement investments and livelihoods. Foreign countries trade with America and base their business on reciprocity of ethics. Millions suffer when greed is placed before ethical business practices. Jobs are lost, retirement pensions are ruined and confidence is eroded. Without an ethical playing field, investors become skeptical and the capitalist system, under which America has prospered for centuries, collapses.

You have a chance to formulate change. You are now an investigative reporter. It will be your job to expose unethical business practices in America. You can bring these criminals to justice and establish standards by which every American can feel safe. Your article will then be used by the Congress of the United States to formulate laws and polices to safeguard our capitalist system. This web quest is a challenge…..GOOD LUCK !

1:Students are required to research and write a paper exposing unethical business practices in American history

2: Students will produce a typed paper of at least 3 to 5 pages; with situations business used unethical ethics. You will expose unethical business practices and recommend changes. You should use graphs, charts and images to highlight your paper. The paper should be written on MS WORD and double paced.

3: OPTIONAL: You can also create a power point presentation, which would explain ethics in business. The presentation will be a minimum of 10 minutes in length, explaining to the audience (your class) the findings of your research. This will be extra credit

4: You will use the PUBLIC POLICY ANALYST to organize your information. Each group will complete the worksheets on the 6-step PPA and construct your paper (and power point) from these sheets.

1: You will divide into groups of four.

2: You will select an unethical business practice in American History. You will research the practice and use the PPA as an outline for your research paper

2: 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

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

Read each page on the Public Policy Analyst carefully you will learn how to become a public policy analyst through these steps.

http://www.ethicsandbusiness.org/indes3.htm

http://www.businessethics.org/

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu:9000/6017/

http://www.webpublicitee.com/web-publicitee-documents/Unethical%20Business%20Practice-Proposal.doc

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu:9000/6310/

http://cageyconsumer.com/firstscam/fsindex.html (credit)

http://www.nfib.com/cgi-bin/NFIB.dll/jsp/toolsAndTips/toolsAndTipsDisplay.jsp?contentId=3679518

(Solutions)

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/enron.html

(Enron scandal)

http://www.securitiesfraudfyi.com/worldcom_fraud.html

(World COM scandal)

http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v6/alertv6_38.asp

(Anderson Consulting Scandal}

GENERAL WEB SITES TO FIND INFORMATION

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

WWW.YAHOO.COM

WWW.ASKJEEVES.COM

The following rubric will be used to judge your project.

	Exceeds Expectations	Meets Expectations	Does Not Meet Expectations	Score
Points Earned	3	2	1 or 0
Factual Information	All information correct	Most information correct	Little or no information correct
Variety of Sources	Excellent variety of sources; excellent use of relevant materials	Adequate number of sources; adequate use of relevant materials	Inadequate number of sources; inadequate use of relevant materials
Discussion/Detail	Excellent discussion/detail	Adequate discussion/detail	Vague/shallow discussion/detail
Depth of Insight/Analysis	Impressive depth of insight/analysis	Adequate depth of insight/analysis	Unexceptional insight/analysis
Form and Style	Effective introduction	Adequate introduction	Weak or missing introduction
Conclusion	Effective conclusion	Adequate conclusion	Weak or missing conclusion
Organization	Clear organization	Adequate organization	Confusing or weak organization
Transitions	Smooth transitions	Adequate transitions	Awkward or missing transitions
Spelling and Grammar		Correct grammar; no spelling mistakes	Incorrect grammar; many spelling mistakes
References in Footnotes and Bibliography		Correctly credits references	Incorrectly credits references or credits missing
			TOTAL SCORE

SOCIAL STUDIES

Standard 1: History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States.

Standard 4: Economics

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and non-market mechanisms.

Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

English Language Arts

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.

You should have learned from this web quest that unethical business practices have occurred in American History. They have created hardships for all citizens. Following ethics and doing business may not always be compatible. Business have to make decisions every day relating to their business ethics. However, greed can be a great motivator. It can create a prosperous business atmosphere or a criminal. You have seen the importance of a public policy analyst and a journalist in the capitalist system. It is their job to investigate wrongs and keep our democracy flourishing. Thanks for your help!

Our next web quest will deal with the different economic systems and the ethics they produce.