Module 1 discussion
Ethics and Emotions
in Business
The discussion board for this course will cover some
fundamental ethical principles that are commonly discussed in ethics courses.
You will be asked to apply these concepts to a business setting after reviewing
an interactive learning tutorial and/or listening to the same materials
discussed in an audio format.
In this module I would like you to consider the relationship
between ethics and feelings as discussed in the tutorial and podcast materials
provided on the background readings page. After reviewing these materials,
identify an ethical issue that you encountered in a business setting and
discuss this in terms of how the scenario impacted you emotionally and how it
might be considered from the position of intuitionism (or based on other
concepts presented in the tutorial).
In each discussion forum, students are expected to respond
to the prompt by providing an informed, rigorous, and professional post. The
initial post should be at least 150 or more words. In addition, students are
required to respond at least 2 times to their classmates’ posts in a similarly
informed, rigorous, and professional manner. Peer replies should be at least
100 or more words in order to qualify as substantive. Refer to the discussion
rubric for more details.
Module 2 discussion
Utilitarian Theory
In this module we will be discussing the concept of utilitarianism.
After reviewing the presentation from Pearson Learning Solutions and/or the
podcast in the background materials, consider an ethical issue that occurred in
a business setting that might be examined using utilitarian ethical principles
and assess the situation from a utilitarian perspective. Comment on the
usefulness and some of the problems with this approach in relation to
evaluating situations from an ethical position.
In each discussion forum, students are expected to respond
to the prompt by providing an informed, rigorous, and professional post. The
initial post should be at least 150 or more words. In addition, students are
required to respond at least 2 times to their classmates’ posts in a similarly
informed, rigorous, and professional manner. Peer replies should be at least
100 or more words in order to qualify as substantive. Refer to the discussion
rubric for more details.
Module 3 discussion
Freewill and
Determinism
After reviewing the Pearson Learning materials in the
background page of this module, respond to the following:
Viktor Frankl (1905–1995) once said: "Everything can be
taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's
attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Dr.
Viktor Frankl was a Jewish Austrian neurologist and psychologist who survived
the concentration camps during World War II. Frankl had his opinion on human
freedom. Respond to the following questions:
Explain whether you agree with Frankl's opinion that it is
important for a person to have the freedom to choose one's attitude in a given
set of circumstances and to choose one's own way.
Describe a personal example in a business setting that
supports your explanation. For instance, you might want to discuss how people
deal with edicts from on high in a given organization vs. situations where
employees have a voice in the decision making process.
To what extent you believe that freedom or the right to
choose is important from an ethical perspective and how does this choice impact
business success?
In each discussion forum, students are expected to respond
to the prompt by providing an informed, rigorous, and professional post. The
initial post should be at least 150 or more words. In addition, students are
required to respond at least 2 times to their classmates’ posts in a similarly
informed, rigorous, and professional manner. Peer replies should be at least
100 or more words in order to qualify as substantive. Refer to the discussion
rubric for more details.
Module 4 discussion
Social Contract
Theory
After reviewing the tutorial and/or podcast in the
background section, discuss social contract theory and apply social contract
theory to a business situation you are familiar with. To what extent does SCT
help to explain differences in ethics and ethical perspectives in a culturally
diverse setting?
What is the efficacy of SCT in describing issues related to
business ethics?
In each discussion forum, students are expected to respond
to the prompt by providing an informed, rigorous, and professional post. The
initial post should be at least 150 or more words. In addition, students are
required to respond at least 2 times to their classmates’ posts in a similarly
informed, rigorous, and professional manner. Peer replies should be at least 100
or more words in order to qualify as substantive. Refer to the discussion
rubric for more details.
Module 4 reflective
discussion
Business Ethics
In this course you have been exposed to a number of issues
that involve ethical consideration. Please take some time to reflect some of
the issues you have been asked to contemplate over the past four modules. How
will you apply these concepts to your life/job in the future?
Module 1 - Case
THE HISTORY OF
BUSINESS ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN AMERICA
Assignment Overview
The first part of your reading in Daniel Terris’ book will
include an overview of Lockheed Martin’s organization and will lay out the
research plan that Terris used to obtain information necessary for his work.
This will be followed by a general overview of the evolution of business ethics
in America.
Case Assignment
Based on your readings, describe what you consider to be the
responsibility of top leadership in a large organization with respect to
reaching a balance between profits and stakeholder concerns. Please support your position by giving some
examples from the text or from other sources where CEOs did a good or poor job
of finding this balance.
Terris discusses the history of business ethics in America
since the late 1800s with respect to anti-competitive practices, seeking unfair
advantage through immoral arrangements with suppliers and public officials,
failing to adhere to laws and regulations, and lack of transparency. Discuss to what extent you believe things to
be better or worse in the present day for businesses in general.
Describe welfare capitalism and its role as a forerunner of
the contemporary business ethics movement.
On page 41, Terris discusses the ideas of Howard Bowen
regarding the evolution of social responsibility of businesses. To what extent do you think his predictions
held true since 1953?
Assignment Expectations
APA Points:
According to the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association, there are three reasons why we need to use proper
citations and references.
They are:
“To ensure the accuracy of scientific knowledge” (p.11). –
How do we know if what you are reading is really the truth? We can look at the citation and the reference
and do further research to make sure what you are reading and what you are
basing your research on is correct.
“To protect the rights and welfare of research participants”
(p.11). – People deserve to get credit for their work. When you earn a degree and go on to do
research, you will want credit for the work you have published.
“To protect intellectual property rights” (p.11). – When we
refer to inventions, we should give credit to the person who invented the item,
trademarked the item, or developed a design. This protects their work.
A reference system also allows the reader to use the in-text
citation and reference page to find out how to do further research when they
find a topic of interest. It can save a lot of time.
As educated students, we should know the APA Style rules and
work to perfect them.
Below are three common mistakes that cost Trident
Students. Reviewing these examples
should help you improve your grade and also make future assignments easier.
APA Point 1: Where does
the period go?
The use of a period.
The period indicates the end of a sentence. However, if we put the
period before the in-text citation, we are actually beginning the next sentence
with the citation. Therefore, the period goes after the citation.
Another misuse of the period is putting it before the
citation and another after the citation.
This is not correct. The period goes after the in-text citation.
Example:
Intercultural Communication is quite important in how we deal with
individuals from different Countries and even from different neighborhoods of
our cities (Pearson, 2015b). – Notice where the period is.
APA Point 2: Do we
need to use Quotation Marks?
When using information word for word from someone else’s
work, quotation marks are necessary. This example illustrates the use of quoted
material at the end of the sentence, followed by a citation and reference. The reference will also include the page numbers.
Example: When we are writing a Negative Letter, there are
numerous authors who recommend starting the letters with a buffer. Remember, “Openings for negative messages are
often called Buffer Beginnings because they are designed to buffer the negative
message that will follow” (Bowman, 2002, p. 1).
APA Point 3:
Arranging entries on a reference list.
Once again as we dive into our Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association, we get guidance on how to arrange our
references on the reference page.
“Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the surname of the first
author followed by initials of the author’s given name” (p. 181).
One may ask why. When
there are two or three references, it does not make a great amount of
difference. But with numerous references, it is much easier if we arrange the
references by the author’s last name.
Remember, one of the purposes of a reference page is to help readers
find additional information. If there
are 10 or more references listed in random order, it is difficult to find the
appropriate reference. So let’s use the alphabetical ordering.
Go to any of the “Background Pages” in our Modules to see an
example of a reference page.
Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type
size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page containing the full citations corresponding to the in-text
citations you choose to use in the body of your paper. So in addition to the 4-
to 5-page body of your paper you will have a title page and a reference page.
So overall, you will be submitting a 6- to 7-page document.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module.
Module 1 - SLP
THE HISTORY OF
BUSINESS ETHICS AND STAKEHOLDER THEORY IN AMERICA
Business Ethics and Stakeholder Management
For your SLP this session you will be asked to review
articles on business ethics from the Trident Online Library. You will review
one or more articles each in Modules 1 through 4 dealing with different ethical
concepts.
In this SLP we will be reviewing articles that cover the
concept of stakeholder management. Stakeholders are important to consider in
significant business related decisions. This is because organizational
decisions – especially substantial decisions involving significant resource
allocations/re-allocations – tend to impact various stakeholder groups as you
will be reminded in your reading. These stakeholders may have the power to impact
the organization’s success.
Assignment Instructions:
In this assignment you will be asked to apply stakeholder
management theory to the following scenario:
A public corporation of 980 employees manufactures a popular
brand of garments (mostly jeans) that are primarily made and sold in America
nation-wide. It has a large contingent of employees in several small rural
communities in the Eastern US and is the primary employer in all of those
communities. Two if its 5 shops are unionized but the union and management have
a good working relationship. The company has traditionally marketed its
clothing line as “Made in the USA” and attracted a bit of a “cult like”
following as a result, but an outside consulting firm has suggested that
significantly greater profits are possible if a different strategy is employed.
The corporation is subsequently considering whether to off-shore its
manufacturing facilities to a poor nation to save money on labor. It would also
discretely discontinue its “Made in the USA” marketing ads and hopefully ride
the wave of its previous marketing campaigns for a while. It is estimated that
total cost per unit of production will be decreased by one third which equates to
tens of millions of dollars.
Please write a 3-page paper in which you respond to the
following:
1. Provide a paragraph summarizing the concept of
stakeholder management based on your readings.
2. How do you think the following stakeholder groups in the
above scenario will be impacted?
Employees/unions
Communities
Stockholders
3. What would you recommend the employer described above
should do?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your 3 (or more) page paper should be double-spaced and in
12-point type.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and if you are
using any in-text citations then a separate reference page.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module
Module 2 - Case
ETHICAL DECISION
MAKING IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Assignment Overview
Moving Toward an Ethical Workplace
As you can see from your reading for the case assignment Lockheed
Martin has a very interesting history and this history has had an impact on
where the company is today with respect to its existing ethics program.
Case Assignment
After reading Chapter 2 of the text, please write a 4-5 page
essay that addresses the following:
Lockheed has an interesting history that seemed innocent
enough up until around the 1950s. You'll note on p. 56 of Terris’ book that the
company began to engage in some questionable sales strategies with other
nations in an effort sell the F-104 Starfighter so as to recoup costs when
their US sales strategy failed.
Describe some of the unorthodox strategies covered by Terris
during this era that made Lockheed become "…a byword for the shady
practices of American multi-national corporations, and a major impetus for new
legislation...".
On the issue of overseas bribes, Terris asks the questions,
"Who was hurt by the [overseas bribes to secure sales of aircraft]? The
competitors, of course, but what was unethical about beating out the
competition that was playing by the same rules?” (p.59). What do you think
about a situation where underhanded and back door deals are the way the game is
played if everybody is on the same playing field? That is to say, if everybody
is playing by the same shady rules, is it unethical to compete?
In your reading you will note that defense contractors
continued to find themselves in hot water well into the 1970s as a result of
overpricing and additional charges of bribery. In the late 70s Lockheed
established its first code of ethics and later the major defense contractors
came to the table to level the playing field with the Defense Industry
Initiative (DII), by agreeing on a set of ethical principles. This was an
important turning point as was bringing Norman Augustine on board.
Why was the DII so important to the eventual success of
Lockheed Martin’s ethics program?
Discuss Norman Augustine's and Dilbert's contribution in
helping Lockheed Martin turn the corner with its ethics program.
Assignment Expectations
Your paper should be 4 to 5 pages, should be double-spaced
and in 12-point type size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page. Make sure you cite your sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper to by the end of the module.
Module 2 - SLP
ETHICAL DECISION
MAKING IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Ethical Decisions in the Workplace
After reading your background readings, please review the
following scenario and address the questions at the end.
Jerry Stevens heads up an excavation crew for the municipal
utilities district in a city in Nebraska. A sewer line needs to be replaced and
it has been excavated with a back-hoe. The trench is 7 feet deep. The
municipality's safety rules indicate that employees should not go into the
trench without a trench box. This rule is to prevent employees from being
buried if the trench walls collapse. People die every year from trench cave-ins.
The trench box won't arrive on site for another 6 hours and
the city promised residents that the sewer would be fixed by the end of the
day, which now seems impossible. The City Administrator called Jerry on his
cell phone and indicated that it was imperative that the sewer be fixed as soon
as conceivably possible because a City Council member is served by that sewer
line and will raise a fuss if it’s not fixed by the promised time.
One of the more experienced workers states, "It's only
going to take 30 minutes to dig under the pipe and loosen the fittings. We
don't need the trench box. We used to do this all the time before we were
required to use one of those darn things."
Jerry knows he's right. He used to do it himself before the
rule was put in place. Also, the soil is clearly a cohesive soil and it's
highly unlikely that it will collapse. And although there is an organizational
policy to use a trench box for trenches deeper than 5 feet, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have
Jurisdiction over municipalities in Nebraska because
municipalities are political subdivisions of the State. The only entity
regulating safety policies is the City's Safety Director and he took the day
off.
In this scenario, to what extent do you think allowing the
crew into the trench without a trench box would be pushing (or exceeding) the
limit?
Discuss any ethical grey areas in this scenario?
What in your mind is the right thing to do?
What is the value of having an ethics program (and related
programs like safety programs) and what are the responsibilities of front line
leaders/supervisors and the workers when they face dilemmas such as the one
described?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Please take some time to review the materials and take a
position on the issue. Write a 2- to 3-page assessment of the authors’ claims,
and your assessment of what might be done in a place of business to prevent the
"moral amnesia" phenomenon from taking a foothold in a place of
business.
Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type
size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page. Make sure you cite your
sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module.
Module 3 - Case
BUILDING AN
ETHICS-BASED WORKPLACE CULTURE
Assignment Overview
Ethics Program Implementation
As you can see by your reading, a lot of energy goes into
the implementation of an organizational ethics program. And Lockheed Martin has
clearly allotted considerable resources to assuring their program is
successful. In this assignment we’ll be focusing on what the company did to
ensure the implementation of a successful program that was flexible enough to
accommodate the changing needs of the organization.
Case Assignment
Please address the following questions:
On p. 83 Terris discusses the company's ethics code. Why is the code considered important to the
company's ethics program?
Discuss the importance of ethics training and employee
involvement. What are some of the things
Lockheed does to make the training process interesting and worthwhile?
How does Lockheed measure success with respect to ethics in
the workplace?
What are some of the things Lockheed does at the operational
level to make their ethics program work?
Assignment Expectations
Write a 4- to 5-page paper, not including title page or
references page addressing the issue and upload it by the end of this module.
Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type
size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page. Make sure you cite your
sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module.
Module 3 - SLP
BUILDING AN
ETHICS-BASED WORKPLACE CULTURE
The Chief Ethics Officer
Assignment Overview
In this assignment you will be asked to consider the role of
organizational leaders with respect to ensuring companies work to create an
ethical workplace culture. It is
important for all upper level leaders to ‘walk the talk’ so to speak. In addition, many larger companies have a
Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer who provides leadership and oversight to
the company’s business ethics related endeavors. Recall that Lockheed Martin
has such an executive level position. However, not all companies have such a
position. In this assignment you will be asked to discuss the contributions of
executive leaders and of the Ethics Officer with respect to building an organization
that values workplace ethics.
What do you believe are the most important characteristics
of ethical leadership?
Describe the relationship between the ethical leader and the
follower.
Why is this relationship important for organizations that
are attempting to do the right thing?
Based on your readings (both the articles provided and
Terris' text), what is the role of the Chief Ethics Officer and how does the
role of this person relate to the success of the ethics related endeavors
within large organizations?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your paper should be 3–4 pages, double-spaced and in
12-point type size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page. Make sure you cite your
sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper to by the end of the module.
Module 4 - Case
ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS
AND CSR
Assignment Overview
A Critique of Lockheed Martin
In this assignment you will be asked to review Chapter 4,
the final chapter of Terris’ book, and to spend some time applying your
critical thinking skills in evaluating Lockheed Martin’s efforts.
Case Assignment
What do you think about the notion presented by Terris that
Lockheed's ethics program does little to prevent ethical breaches at the
highest level of the organization?
Are the efforts put forth—such as making sure higher level
executives participate in training—enough to help executives navigate what
Terris calls the 'ethical minefield' faced by leadership in such an
organization?
What are some things that could be done to address the issue
related to ethics at higher executive levels of the organization?
Terris points out that the company's program is overly
focused on individuals and that it doesn't really address group dynamics that
can impact ethical situations. For instance, there can be a tendency for groups
to ‘go with the flow’ of the group decision making process and overlook ethical
issues in the process. What would you recommend that Lockheed Martin do to address
this situation?
(Hint: reviewing p. 128 and the following pages – before
section headed “Personal Responsibility, Collective Innocence” - of the text
might be helpful).
Assignment Expectations
Write a 4- to 5-page paper, not including title page or
references page addressing the issue and upload it by the end of this module.
Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type
size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page. Make sure you cite your
sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module.
Module 4 - SLP
ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS
AND CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility
Assignment Overview
In this assignment please read the articles in your
background readings and respond to the following:
Describe corporate social responsibility.
Describe corporate social irresponsibility.
Where do you stand on the issue of CSR v CSI? Do
corporations have a right to ignore their responsibility to some stakeholders
in order to add to the short term bottom line? Provide a well-reasoned response
and do some of your own research to provide some examples to support your
arguments.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your paper should be 3–4 pages, double-spaced and in
12-point type size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate
reference page. Make sure you cite your sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper to by the end of the module..
