trident eth301 full course latest 2017/ethics and emotions in business

Week
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.
Week 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.
Week 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.
Week 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.
Week 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
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.
Privacy P
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..