Overview

For those who manage employees but have not yet established a code of ethics, this exercise first asks participants to read a monograph regarding standards and then to incorporate specific values into a set of principles by which employees can interact honestly and respectfully.

Purpose

To create a set of ethical standards for use in the workplace.

Group Size

Any number of individuals can participate. Participants will first work alone and then in subgroups of three to five participants.

Room Arrangement

Arrange flexible seating that allows the formation of subgroups.

Materials

Handout 38.1, Monograph: “Integrity Gauges”

Procedure

1.Introduce the activity by asking if anyone has a special ethical principle—such as “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”—that governs everyday behavior. Briefly discuss these and then explain that they’ll be working today to prepare a set of such principles for the workplace.

2.Distribute Handout 38.1, Monograph: “Integrity Gauges.” Allow at least 10 minutes for participants to read “Integrity Gauges.” Encourage them to underline points they find interesting and to write questions and comments in the margins. Point out that a code of ethics can take many forms: a series of words (Pride, Passion, Perfection) or a series of sentences or even a series of questions.

3.Ask them to take 5 minutes to review their underlinings/notes and to formulate a set of ethical principles, simply stated, to govern interactions in the workplace. (Encourage originality. Ideally, their principles will not sound like the questions posed in the monograph-handout.)

4.Form subgroups of three or four and have participants discuss the questions in the handout. They will need about 15 minutes to do this.

5.Then, each person in the subgroup will share the set of ethical principles he or she created. The group will take another 10 minutes for this sharing/discussion.

6.Once they’ve had a chance to hear and think about several sets of ethical principles for the workplace, they will next formulate one synthesized set of statements. (Their statements could be in the form of declarative or interrogative statements.)

7.Ask a spokesperson from each subgroup to leave the room with the list of his or her group’s synthesized principles. In a breakout room (or a corner of the classroom, if no other room is available), ask the subgroup representatives to collaborate to produce one comprehensive list that would serve in any workplace.

8.As they do so, guide a discussion with the remaining participants, using the Discussion questions, Quotation, and/or Points of Interest as guideposts. Ask them to relate, for example, the six considerations cited by Frisch in the Points of Interest to the implementation of a new ethics policy in their own organizations.

9.Bring closure to the exercise by having a spokesperson from the group composed of subgroup representatives report on their work.

Variation

If the group is willing to have their work made public, ask for a volunteer to obtain permission from management to have these principles printed and distributed throughout the organization.

Assign different subgroups different sections of the monograph so that subsequent reports can be made on the monograph as a whole.

Discussion

What principles that you acquired during childhood still guide you today?

Do you think America has become a “kinder, gentler” nation since President George H. Bush first hoped we could, more than a decade ago?

In your opinion, what ethical guidelines govern your organization’s treatment of employees, customers, and others directly or indirectly affected by the product or service you provide?

Quotation

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

–Aristotle

Points of Interest

Gerald Frisch, president of GFA, Inc., and managing director of the National Cost Reduction Institute, recommends policy-implementers first consider six areas before they attempt to establish a new policy, such as a code of ethics for everyone to follow:

The Big Picture

History

Memory

Conferences

Dialogue

Payoff

HANDOUT 38.1