Due to social media and being in the information age we hear so much more about ethical
situations and dilemmas but it doesn't seem like many people find that as motivation to make
more ethical decisions. After taking my assessment it showed that I am and idealist and I
would agree with that. I have served in our church in different capacities and we have run
into more ethical dilemmas than I would like to admit. By using the 3-step approach to solve
ethical problems that we are presented with could be a huge help to me. My idealistic
mindset can leave me a little one tracked minded when it comes to ethical dilemmas and by
stepping into a more objective problem solving mindset would make helping solve these
issues without passing judgement or possibly hurting feelings. There was a recent situation
where funds were provided to fulfill a very specific need and the need quickly changed
however the funds were not returned. There were a lot of emotions involved and words got
heated by using the 3 step approach I think it would help to specifically label the problem
and allow to objectively look for a solution. About four years ago, it was recommended to
me to transfer to another position in our department to further my career, by my manager.
My manager recommended this move because she encouraged me to apply for a position
that I did not get. This position would give me more exposure so that I would be in a better
position to move up another level. Being that position didn’t go anywhere either. I defined
the problem, that the new manager I reported too was not that experienced in being a leader
and she would act unethical by discussing her frustrations about me to my peers like water
cooler talk. The things she would say about me would get back to me. She would talk about
those same peers to me every day. I never lacked in my performance even though I was not
trained properly.
Identifying the problem: My manager had a lack of managerial training and feared that I was
taking over her position. She has a wealth of knowledge but didn’t want to delegate
responsibilities to free her time to work on more pressing issues and project. She also, kept
all the knowledge in her head and had nothing written down.
Solution: I had a talk with her prior to having a discussion with her manager, regarding her
trying to assonate my character with my peers and coworkers. I reassured her that I was put
on her team to help decrease her workload and not to view me as a threat. In addition, I will
go to HR and put it on record if I hear any further talk about me on the work floor. After 4
years under this person and no promotions, she was demoted, and I got a new manager.I was
an assistant manager at an Italian restaurant and doing the liquor inventory every week was
one of my responsibilities. Each week I was coming up short on my beer count for 2 kinds
of beer. Beer was missing and unaccounted for.There are several variables that could be
throwing off a liquor count; a miscount by myself, an order not put into the inventory
software correctly, bartenders giving beer to customers and not charging for it, employees
taking beer and not paying for it.To narrow down what the actual problem was several
things happened at once. I started doing recounts, orders were put in the system by only one
person, bartenders were watched more closely during their shifts with cameras and the beer
was moved to a locked cooler. In a very short period the mystery was solved, the kitchen
staff started bringing in their own beer. When their shifts were almost over they were
walking around the kitchen with beers. My inventory problem was solved, but now I had a
whole new issue on my hands concerning these employees who were initially taking the
restaurants beer and now that they couldn’t, had resorted to bringing in their own liquor and
drinking while on the clock. Needless to say, the necessary action was taken, we had a new
kitchen staff the next day. Getting to know your employees is key. Should an issue arise,
having some background knowledge of the individual(s), helps with sorting through the
details. The 3-step problem solving process helps with the approach necessary toward
reaching a resolution. Currently, I am having to address an employee who feels over-
utilized, under paid and (she) is displaying outward behavior more frequently which is
unacceptable.
First, defining the problem is the employee's feeling of being devalued. While having a
discussion to better understand the employee's position, it appears that there are more
'personal feelings and issues' which may be overshadowing the employee's work value.
Secondly, identifying the cause which I shared, with the employee that it made her appear as
though she did not want to engage with the team or any of the team training. I posed
questions in order to better understand how she felt and how she would like to proceed.
Lastly, I offered some outsourced tools for the employee to access, if needed. This is the
final step, which is to make recommendations and take action to try and improve her
personal situation in order to grow and be more productive professionally.
In my earlier career with my current company I was not selected for an award for
performance for the year. I then at that time reacted emotionally due to not being selected
based on the numbers within the performance showing that I should have been selected. At
this time, I know I did not use the 3-Step Approach. What I would have done differently
with the growth and knowledge and channeling my emotional intelligence, I would use the
3-Step Approach.Not being selected as the winner of a yearly performance in my current
position.
I would then ask questions to those that made the selection of the winner and asking what
was used to determine the selection. I would take those numbers and see if it was fairly
picked based on the criteria and research how this selection was done and if it was done
fairly.At this time I discovered the time in which we both were promoted was close in dates
with the individual that won. Although I was overall the winner this individual was in her
role a couple of days longer than I. I made a recommendation that performance is the
ultimate way of our cultural so I made a suggestion of having it be based off that in the
future. An example I could apply the 3-step approach to solve an ethical problem could be
ordering parts from somewhere, which is cheaper than ordering parts from somewhere that
could arrive faster. Let me explain. I work at Napa Auto Parts and am the store manager. I
do everything from hiring to letting go of individuals. When my job holds special sales for
people, my guys are supposed to order out of our warehouse and the DC. The DC charges
about 3% more than our warehouse does for these parts. Some counter guys will not care
about this and order from the wrong DC's make that store not make money. These guys do
this because they could be upset with the company. So, first, I have to define the problem.
The problem is the store losing money on special sales. Identifying the cause is the next step.
I can identify this problem cause and see which counter guy is ordering from the DC's and
not the warehouse. The last step would be the solution to this. I could pull the counter guy
into my house and have a chat with him. I could explain why counter people can only order
these particular parts from the warehouse. It's good to have a fresh start at a new class so I'm
going to hit this hard. Back in 2010 I received orders to deploy on a Submarine for a West
Pac tour, this tour usually can range from 6 to 8 months at sea. You might see where I can
be going with this, it's a long haul process of being away from enjoyment, family, friends,
fresh air, and even sunlight. Morale was the biggest concern after a while and it led to a
toxic environment. There are rules that are followed and we voice to each other about equal
opportunity, but what wasn't being told and behind close doors led to people finding out that
our supervisors gave favoritism over performance, which goes against rules and
regulations.This led to a organizational problem and a active survey conducted on our
command was taken place and people have been fired. Good sailors lost and favorites kept
around, damage has been done. However when this topic was a hot one and spoken about
towards others across the fleet, it did not stop. It became a huge issue when women came
into the submarine force. A long time ago, I held a position as a deli manager. At the time, I
had two assistants. One worked the afternoon shift and one worked the evening/weekend
shift. In doing my weekly audit, I began to notice a shortage of deli meats that could not be
accounted for. I defined the problem as theft. We did not have security cameras at that time,
so, even though I suspected the late day weekend assistant as being the culprit, the only way
I could prove it was to change around some shifts and make excuses to come in at different
times. I also spoke with some customers whom I trusted and asked them if they had seen
anything. As it worked out, I did personally catch the employee in the act. In identifying the
cause of his actions, I discovered that he was going through a bad time in his life. The
solution that was used was termination, but I did not terminate him with malice, rather, I was
able to help him with his issues and gave him a recommendation for another place of
employment.I saw my former employee a few years later. He was doing very well. He had a
job that he liked very much and a wife and a new-born son. He thanked me for my help that
day and gave me a hug. I was very glad that I was able to give him a chance. I know that
ethically we must handle theft, but there are times when we can put ourselves in another's
shoes and see that the reasons aren't always malicious in intent, and the perpetrators are not
always repeat offenders. The example that I will be using for this post is in a past work
place, where I was the manager for the department. The department I'm referring to is the
poke, where we make poke bowls and side dishes of other items. There is a process of the
way we incorporate the ingredients into mixing the different pokes. So besides the counter
service workers, we also have specific employees that does the mixing as well as customer
service. But these select few are the only ones to do the mixing because it has to be
consistent. We also followed a criteria that no new poke is to be mixed after 5 pm, to make
sure that waste is controlled. So, that usually is my role when I'm working, and there are 2
others certified for that when I'm not there. I left for the dat, which is at 5, but when I got
home around 5:30, I get a call from one of the employees in my department. She told me
that the store manager had them mix more of the ahi poke after I left, which is a no go,
because that employee is not trained and certified to do so. Because of this, I reached out to
my supervisor, which is on another island, and informed her of the situation. Mind you this
was the third time that this manager has had this done, and I already had talked to him about
it, after he did it on the second time. But because he did another time, I contacted my
supervisor, where she flew in the next day so we could have a meeting with this manager. It
was resolved at the meeting, and he was made to understand why we run the poke
department this way. So, after this meeting, we never had the problem again. My example
for this was that even though I was a manager as well, and talked to this manager before, it
took someone higher than us to get the situation resolved. Sometimes you can resolve it
yourself, but other times it would take a person of higher authority to get the point across
and the situation resolved. When been an employee or inter at a company or firm, major of
the time you got to have skills and albitites that makes you stand out from others. Been able
to solve problems and brainstorm daily in many ways no matter the situation while been
flexible is great traits to have. In chapter one it talked about the contingency approach where
it calls for people to use the OB concepts and tools that best suit the situation. For example,
the chapter stated what worked with one employee may not work with another. I agree with
the OB concepts everyday at the law firm we treat ever case with respect no matter the
situation but just because someone have the same kind of case doesn’t mean they will get the
same outcome. Sometimes we must take different approaches when it comes to certain
situation. That mean using the tools that best fits the situation. You must also know how to
understand others and the ethics just like the organizational behavior theory stated in the
chapter. The chapter also stated that employers want hard and soft skills I agree because ever
day you got to know how to react to people at work in the best manner possible while still
taking the job/task serious. I am a manger at my work place and I had a situation where a
staff was not running clients plans appropriately(I had been working with this staff member
for months to help her to understand the importance of running plans). It wasn’t till a few
months had gone by I ended up with a staff member that wanted immediate action which
many times is not the best route. The staff that saw the issue we’ll say staff B after I spoke
to staff B because I was already home when the situation happened I told him his 3 options
the one I recommended was to wait to speak to Staff A (the person out of compliance) till I
could be their to mediate. Staff B could of done an incident report resulting in an
investigation of the situation or Talk to staff A in that exact moment. Staff B chose to talk to
staff A in the moment. The result of a staff speaking to another staff without mediation was
a grievance through the union for harassment, this gave me two situations to solve.
The immediate problem I then had to address was the grievance and making sure harassment
was not happening between staff A and staff B. The cause of this issue was staff B’s
communication style and not having enough training in having these types of conversations.
The solution make sure training was given in how to have a crucial conversation to staff B.
I spoke with staff B asked that they bring any issues to me and I will have the conversation
until training could happen. I spoke to staff B about keeping to facts, keeping emotion out of
the conversation, I asked that if staff B needs to have a conversation, then to be empathetic
hear the other person, then dive into the problem slowly and with ease and problem solve, do
not get into any power struggle sometimes you have to step back from an issue in order to
find a solution because just because you see the solution the other person may not see it as a
solution. I also discussed with staff B about how being in a supervisor roll, the people
supervised are not friends always treat people at the work place like it is nothing but a
professional relationship even if you have a relationship outside of work this way lines don’t
get crossed. This was just the start of a long journey of teaching how to communicate.
My boss found the solution for staff A not following the plan and that was to find a better fit
and see where her strengths could really be utilized and help clientele thrive . I believe that
all ethical problems in a workplace should definitely be handled and brought to someone
higher up attention. The 3-Step Approach includes defining the problem, identifying the
cause, and last making recommendations. An ethical issue that could occur in a workplace
could be a employee taking credit for another coworkers work. Step 1 approach is to define
the problem and I would do so by speaking with my supervisor about the issue making
him/her aware. Step 2 is identifying the cause of the problem which in this case could be the
employee wanting praise or recognition for work that he/she did not do. Or maybe the
employee did not know how to do it and instead of asking for help just decided to take their
coworker's credit so that their supervisor do not find out that he/she does not know how to
do the work. Step 3 which is the last step in the approach is recommendations which should
e recommending training for the employee that is taking one's credit. I believe that the 3-
Step Approach really helps when dealing with problems at work. In my opinion, ethics is a
big part of the workplace. About 3 years ago I used to work as a manager in a small
company. My boss had hired 2 new people. For me, it was fine because it meant that I would
have more help in the office. A few weeks after, the newly hired started saying unethical and
wrong things about me. As explained in step 1, I defined the problem with my boss. I let
him know what was happening. We both talked about the potential issues. I believe that my
coworkers didn't like me being their manager because they were older than me. I
recommended to my boss, that maybe instead of me assigning the task he should. I would
just supervise them and help my coworkers if they needed it. That helped the situation for a
few weeks. Later on, I quit. I believe that I had taken several steps to resolve the issue but in
the end, no good outcome came out of the situation. I believe that my decision was the best
for me and the company. Organizational behavior can be used to achieve goals throughout
the every day life. Such as having a great attitude and preparing yourself for ethical situation
that will be posed in the every day life. This could lead to a better workspace with peers in
the work environment. These things can play a big role on your sociology. Being prepared
for an ethical work environment in a every day changing world. Displaying great work
ethics also displays how far you will go in life and who would need your advice to excel in
life themselves. Being well organized also shows how well you can organize and put things
in perspective to be understood and utilized/ or accepted. There are a lot of factors that come
to play with the mind and how it conducts business and your conduct as well. Being well
rested also compose for a great productive day so you don't pose risks to yourself or others.
There are many things that I would do to conduct myself more efficient and ethically. These
things play a valuable part on how life can plan out from here on out. Making sure you are
physically and mentally ready to prepare you for challenges in the day that you may not see
coming. These organizational behavior strategies can be used to perform and manage the
every day daily life.
