Chapter 6 Ethics
Because types of ethical dilemmas vary according to who is involved, the circumstances and context, it is not particularly helpful to explore common ethical problems experienced in the organization or its industry.
False
Employee workshops on fraud detection are not effective in discouraging those who are considering committing a fraud, nor can they realistically help detect frauds as soon as they occur.
False
Fraud cannot occur in nonprofit or governmental organizations because there are no shareholder resources to steal.
False
If Codes of Conduct and Ethics are displayed prominently throughout the workplace, further analysis will not be helpful in determining the extent to which employees embrace them.
False
It is always best to utilize an ethics workshop facilitator who is not a member of the organization, but rather an expert from outside.
False
It is important to present ethics training materials in a way that targets specific employees for their behavior to provide an example for others in the organization.
False
It is inappropriate to characterize work as a "calling" or vocation because it implies religious affiliation.
False
It is typically inappropriate to include ethics and personality measures in ethics training, because these are personal issues.
False
Lengthy ethical cases or vignettes are more effective in soliciting meaningful feedback from employees during ethics training.
False
Requiring a written response to ethical dilemmas is not helpful because it forces the employees to put their opinions in writing.
False
To ensure organizational harmony and team-building, divergent thinking and creative problem solving should be discouraged during ethics training, in favor of a single approach to decision-making.
False
It is inappropriate to examine ethical issues presented in the business ethics literature or internet websites for the purposes of training; doing so does not allow employees to explore their own organization.
False- Drop the beat here!
The terms fraud, theft and embezzlement can be used interchangeably.
False- Meanings are different.
A strength of facilitator-guided face-to-face ethics training is that it allows for discussion and motivating employees to get out of their "comfort zone".
True
A useful method of ethics training can include formulation of "games" modeled after quiz shows designed to raise awareness of ethical issues at work.
True
A useful method of ethics training may include presenting actual cases of employees or people in the industry violating a Code of Conduct and the punishments they received.
True
A useful step in ethics training involving exploring ethical scenarios is to encourage discussion of minority viewpoints.
True
Because individuals are more likely to discuss work-related ethical issues with family and friends than with coworkers or executives, realistically, ethics training is unlikely to be effective.
True
Consistent with best practices in ethics training, at least one mandatory ethics training should be offered annually.
True
Ethics training, if well done, holds both managers and non-management employees accountable for their ethical behaviors, and provides an opportunity for misunderstandings to be addressed.
True
In order to preserve anonymity, change references to specific people and places when discussing real-life ethical dilemmas during ethics training.
True
It is possible to assess the "ethical culture" of an organization through use of survey instruments.
True
Members of some professions are required to take ethics training as part of obtaining or renewing their professional licenses to protect the public from incompetent practitioners.
True
Upper-level managers establish the overall ethics tone that is then filtered throughout an organization; as such, training can help these leaders achieve consensus on how to address difficult behaviors.
True
Web-based training can be a simple and effective method for making employees aware of the most common ethical issues at work.
True
Approximately 60 percent of employees have stolen from their employers.
True (as of 2013)
Outline the steps required for an effective ethics-training workshop.
Your Answer: CEO or supervisor expresses support for the activity Clarify workshop rationale, goals, and objectives Present competitive advantages of maintaining an ethical work culture (see Chapter 1) Foster awareness of industry, organizational, or work unit ethical issues Introduce the organization's Code of Ethics and Conduct (see Chapter 4) Focus on a salient issue or behavior that challenges the Code of Ethics and Conduct Legitimize an ethical decision-making process (see Chapter 5) Individually apply the decision-making process to a specific relevant situation Discuss the issue in small groups Debrief Assess and evaluate the workshop for continuous improvement
Discuss the eleven personality measures/surveys associated with ethics that can be useful tools for ethics training.
Your Answer: - Idealism/Relativism measures whether a person tends to be an "idealist" or "relativist" when responding to an ethical dilemma. The 20-item survey consists of two 10-item factors (idealism and relativism). - Ethical Ideology measures whether a person tends to be "principled" (deontology) or "expedient" (relativism) when responding to an ethical dilemma. An 18-item survey. - Moral Identity measures whether a person internalizes moral character traits (internationalization) and projects them to others (symbolization). Survey participants read a list of 9 moral character traits (e.g., caring, compassionate, fair) and then answer a 10-item survey consisting of two 5-item factors (internalization and symbolization). - Moral Courage measures whether a person exercises moral principles. The 15-item survey consists of five 3-item factors (moral agency, multiple values, endurance of threats, going beyond compliance, and moral goals). - Empathy measures a person's emotional reaction to the experiences of another person. The 28-item survey consists of four 7-item factors (perspective-taking, emphatic concern, personal distress, fantasy). - Altruism measures whether a person engages in altruistic behaviors. Survey participants evaluate the extent to which they have performed a list of 20 behaviors. - Trust measures whether a person is willing to be vulnerable in supervisor interactions. A 7-item survey. - Ethical Self-Efficacy measures whether a person believes he or she can successfully perform an ethical behavior. A 12-item survey consists of three factors (uses and keeps computer self-efficacy, distribution self-efficacy, and persuasion self-efficacy). - Machiavellianism measures whether a person identifies with "the ends justify the means" moral thinking. A 20-item survey. - Locus of Control measures whether a person believes she or he controls (internal), or is controlled by (external), events in life. The 30-item survey consists of two 15-item factors (internal and external locus of control). - Life Regard measures whether a person values living a meaningful life (framework) and whether this desire is being fulfilled (fulfillment). The 28-item survey consists of two 14-item factors (framework and fulfillment).
How would you assess the success of an ethics-training workshop?
Your Answer: 1) evaluating if the ethics training workshop material presented has been learned by the participants 2) evaluating if the workshop participant's objectives have been met, and based on this information 3) providing more effective instruction in the future by building on what worked previously and modifying what didn't work. By observing and utilizing these stages we can evaluate and develop a better version of an ethics training workshop.
Discuss the steps involved in facilitating an ethics dialogue workshop through application of the systematic rational ethical decision-making framework.
Your Answer: Step 1: Distribute the 7-Question Systematic Rational Ethical Decision-Making Framework and review it using a sample business problem. Step 2: Distribute a real-life situation to workshop participants, read it out loud, and have participants apply the Systematic Rational Ethical Decision-Making Framework to derive a moral conclusion that supports one of the decision options. Step 3: Count the votes for each recommendation. Step 4: Develop position rationale in small groups. Step 5: Empower the minority position. Step 6: Reach a conclusion. Step 7: Explain the logic of the established decision from multiple points of view, and explain why the ethical standards are best to be followed- even if it is just because this way, people won't lose their jobs.