Discussion Questions

“Ensuring that all employees are consistently engaging in ethical behavior is a daunting task, especially for larger organizations. Recognizing some of the danger signs is important. One of the biggest dangers for a company is not having an established, written Code of Ethics. Employees need to understand the company's ethics code and having a written document outlining the expectations will help tremendously. Another danger is not having a clear set of procedures created for handling ethical problems. Again, the company does itself a huge disservice by not having written policies and procedures. Another pitfall a company can have is a desire to have a simple "quick fix" solution for ethical problems. This could damage a company, as they have not spent the time weighing all of the consequences that could occur. Spending the time to create a clear and easy to comprehend Code of Ethics, coupled with comprehensive policies and procedures for handling ethical problems are worth the time and effort - and could save a lot of time and money with the consequences that could ensure if these steps are not followed.”

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“Encouraging employees to consider if they would like to see the actions that they take, on the front page of a newspaper is called the "sunshine" principle (Bateman & Snell, 2013, Chapter 5). I found this principle to be of interest and, likened it to a principle that a former manager once discussed with me. The company was being sued, and she had to be deposed. On very large boards, were printed a number of email exchanges between a sales agent and another party. My boss was asked to give her opinion to the sales agent meant by the statements made in the emails that were now displayed for all to see. My manager's principle varied from the sunshine principle a bit - she advised me to always think before I put anything in writing, and to always consider that it could someday end up on a huge piece of poster board in a court room. Lesson received, processed and learned!”

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“Many companies have corporate ethics programs, which include committees that create the policies, investigate potential violations and create plans of action to ensure the company and its employees conduct themselves in an ethical manner representative of the company's position. There are often compliance based ethics programs, developed in conjunction with corporate counsel to oversee and punish legal violations. The company I work for has a very robust compliance program, because we are a highly government regulated industry. In addition to ethical codes of conduct, we have an extensive compliance code that must be followed at all times. We have frequent trainings for ethics and compliance through online classes that must be completed, along with a test at the end that must be passed. Executives must sign an annual code of ethics and compliance to attest that the activities they participate in outside of work hours, does not conflict with the organization rules. For example, there are certain boards that an executive cannot sit on, because it could be perceived as a conflict of interest. Before accepting a board position, the Executive must gain written approval from the company's Compliance team.”

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“There are some more problems that should be easier to solve for than others. For instance, to cheat or not cheat on a test, should be an easy solution - don't do it. Other issue are not as easy to resolve as there are many different factors that people take into consideration. People will have varying ethical codes that could clash with other people and their codes. As an example, abortion rights hit upon religious, personal and even scientific considerations. There are camps of people that are one hundred percent "for" or "against" abortions, period. Then there are others who waiver on their support, considering factors such as gestation length, rape or incest and the imminent danger of the health of the woman. The right to abortion has been vetted and argued in every arena - in religions, in court, in the news and in personal conversations. Just like we as a world, will never chose one religion to be the "correct" religion, I do not foresee us ever agreeing upon on side or the other when it comes to this hot topic.”

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“Religious absolutism is the belief that moral principles that people should employ are those accepted by the "correct" religion (Rosenstand & Silvers, 2012), I believe that this type of belief is at the crux of a lot of the discord and violence we see in the world today. There are a lot of different people in the world, practicing a lot of different religions that think their religion is the "correct" religion to follow. Extremists in these religions are the most vocal and display the most violence in the name of their "correct" religion. More moderate followers of some religions may not display the violent tendencies of more radical sects, but still view their religion as the "correct" one to follow, and tend to base their ethical standings on that religions teachings. Stances on abortion rights and homosexuality are two hot buttons that even moderately religious people could use their religion's beliefs to base their own thoughts upon. As I doubt there will ever be global consensus on what the "correct" religion is, we will continue to see conflicts arise from the varying opinions. “

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