Management

MGT 552.G01 • Personal Ethics Project • Guidance document ckw rev 18 Aug 2018 Page 1 of 2

MGT 552.G01 • Stakeholder Theory and Social Responsibility

Fall 2018 • Weidner

Some notes on the Personal Ethics Project (PEP)

This assignment asks you to respond to one simple question:

“How will you bring who you are to what you do?”

What is implied in that question is that we are talking about *what you do* in the context of organizational life.1

Since students vary widely in terms of their perspectives on life, work, leadership, ethics, etc., I expect that each project will reflect that diversity. Thus, there is *no* hard-and-fast outline I can provide you for this project as I can with the research project (sorry!). I can share with you a couple of the ways past students have approached this paper:

1. Describe your own framework for acting with character (i.e., ethically) at work. Analyze your framework, explain it, and trace its origins. What are the implications of your framework? What does your framework tell you, and why?

2. Start at the beginning (this is a popular approach). What values were you taught and what lessons did you learn early in your life, formative to who you are (or that you have rejected outright)? How do you incorporate those values in how you do your work? What challenges have you faced in your career so far that has tested those values? What do you anticipate might test your values in the future?

3. Pose - and answer - a number of the questions Maister (and, if you like DesJardins) explicity asks you in his writing. e.g.: What are your values? What are you intolerant of? What do you stand for (and why)?

4. (Purely thought-starter here) What you do believe about ethics so deeply that you would want to pass those beliefs on to a mentee, a child, or a niece or nephew?

Other comments:

a. For any approach you take, think of this paper as a living document that you plan on revisiting every year or two to see if your values have changed.

1 Even though our lives may include potentially long periods of time when one is not "working" in an "organization" (e.g., serving as a caretaker for a parent, as a stay-at-home parent, as a full time student), we all still are faced with decisions everyday. Some of those decisions undoubtedly will involve decisions, power (both its use and its potential abuse), and how we come to terms with difficult issues.

MGT 552.G01 • Personal Ethics Project • Guidance document ckw rev 18 Aug 2018 Page 2 of 2

b. The PEP is *not* graded on how much you reveal, it is graded on how extensively you work with that which you are comfortable sharing. Example: A couple of years ago, two papers (by students in the same section) started with nearly the same first sentence (loosely paraphrased as), “The Holy Bible provides the guiding values in my personal and professional life.” From that point, the two papers diverged nearly 100%. One paper explained what “guiding values” meant in specific terms, and related those values to concepts and examples we discussed in class. The second one merely skimmed across the top of the idea, as if the writer was singing “because the Bible tells me so.” The latter was relatively unsubstantial; the former was a terrific (I dare say riveting) paper.

c. One student opened their paper with (again, loose paraphrase), “This assignment comes at an interesting time for me, because for the past year and a half my spouse and I have engaged in a self-directed program of spiritual exercises and retreats. Thus, most of what I will write about in this paper reflects conclusions about life and values I have identified prior to the start of this course.” I should add that the author did a terrific job of connecting those experiences and values with a number of things we discussed in the class.

“How will you bring who you are to what you do?”

I hope this helps (everyone). Please post questions, etc. to the clarifications discussion board. Thanks in advance.

Turn-in instructions

E-copy Please turn in post an electronic version of your PEP on our Canvas course site in Assignments | A5 PEP. Please only post your document in PDF format – so I receive exactly what you intended me to receive. You may turn in your PEP as soon as it is completed – the assignment is actually set up to accept papers now; there is no grade benefit (or penalty) for early turn in, but some folks do find it easier to have fewer things remaining over their head. Your electronic copy should be posted by 6:30 pm EST on Thu 13 Dec (our final exam period).