Identifying an Ethical Problem

Your weekly journal assignments and final writing assignment for this course will be conducting a project in "Professional Practices in Ethics." Its purpose is to apply classroom concepts to real problems in your present and future professional life. During the class, you'll be identifying an ethical dilemma from the work place, apply classroom concepts to working through, do your own research and propose a solution. Each week, you'll work on a different part of the project, and report on your progress in your journal. At the end of the course, you'll be writing a memo proposing a solution to this problem.

Phase One: Identifying an Ethical Problem
Using the format from the Ethicist column in The New York Times (and discussed in the first week’s Professional Practices), identify two ethical problems and write them out, remaining neutral in presenting the problem and framing what you think the relevant concerns are. Each of these should be at least 100 words. Step One: Practice with a personal example. We’re going to use a professional example for the course, but start by thinking of a dilemma in a personal context. Real dilemmas are best for this, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be something that you faced personally. It could be a dilemma that you’re aware of but needs to be something that you’re comfortable sharing with someone you trust. Write out the problem in the same format that we saw in the advice problems (you are the person seeking advice here), and then read it out loud to someone you trust. Solicit the following feedback from him or her:

● After hearing your explanation, does he or she understand what the dilemma is?
● Does he or she feel that you presented the dilemma in a non-prejudicial way (leaving bias out of your account)?
● What questions, if any, does this person have? Is additional information that you didn’t provide needed to make sense of the problem?

Step Two: Now that you’ve tried a personal example, take the same concept and apply it to a dilemma that has arisen in your place of work. This will be the problem that you’ll be working with throughout the course, so think carefully about where you think the trickiest dilemmas you’ve faced lie. By the end of the course, you’ll be writing a memo proposing a solution to the problem. As with the practice step, read this aloud to someone you trust and solicit feedback from them. 

After hearing your explanation, does he or she understand what the dilemma is?
● Does he or she feel that you presented the dilemma in a non-prejudicial way (leaving bias out of your account)?
● What questions, if any, does this person have? Is additional information needed that you didn’t provide to make sense of the problem?
In your journal, please include your questions and summarize and reflect on your work.