Overview

This exercise enables managers to explore their own ethical standards on a particular issue and to compare them to those of their colleagues. They may subsequently decide to adjust their own standards on the basis of this comparison.

Purpose

To develop awareness of ethical standards—one’s own as well as those of colleagues.

To engage participants in the learning process known as peer learning.

Group Size

Any number of individuals can participate. The group should be divided into subgroups of four or five.

Room Arrangement

Ideally, arrange table groups that accommodate four or five participants.

Materials

Flipchart and marking pens

Handout 39.1, “Ethical Issues”

Procedure

1.Introduce the purpose of the exercise, viz., to develop awareness of ethical standards.

2.Briefly discuss the meaning of Emerson’s quotation, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Discuss the importance of not remaining consistent over an entire lifetime. Explore how and why and when values undergo shifts—for example, as a teen-ager, you may have empathized with Romeo and Juliet and the value they placed on love. As a parent, however, you may be more inclined to view the love story from a parent’s perspective and might, thus, value life over love. Segue to the hope that participants will remain open to ideas that may conflict with their own.

3.Ask the group for suggestions about ethical quandaries that managers often have to face. List these on chart paper. If no suggestions are forthcoming, write up your own list. Suggestions follow.

Hiring based on “who you know” rather than “what you know.”

Using paid time for private phone calls, Internet, e-mails, et cetera.

Putting pressure on employees to work overtime, weekends, et cetera to meet client workload.

Permitting “different strokes for different folks” or treating everyone the same.

Wining and dining clients: What’s acceptable? What’s not? Why not?

Bending the rules for special circumstances: death in the family, prolonged illness, et cetera.

Taking responsibility for employee welfare.

Facilitating employee career development. (How far should this extend outside the current company career path?)

Communicating honestly: To what extent are “white lies” or “sins of omission” acceptable? Toward employees? Toward clients?

4.Ask participants to vote on the issue (or issues, depending on the time allowed) that interest them most. Tally the votes and record the numbers next to each item on the flipchart.

5.Next, form discussion subgroups based on their selections. Those who voted for the first item, for example, would constitute the first group, and so on.

6.Give each group Handout 39.1, “Ethical Issues,” and sufficient time to complete it—at least 30 minutes.

7.Bring the subgroups back together and let each in turn present its findings.

8.Highlight the differences in the standards of different individuals.

9.Lead a discussion regarding the causes of the differences. Determine, if possible, if the differences are acceptable in the organizational culture or climate.

10.Ask participants to share the extent to which the exercise influenced them.

11.Bring closure by asking each person to tell if his or her standards were altered at all after listening to colleagues’ viewpoints. (If the group is large, allow time for subgroup discussion and then ask a spokesperson from each subgroup to present a synopsis.)

Variation

Ask everyone to think about a workplace issue involving ethics and to write his or her position regarding this issue on a scrap of paper. (For example: the issue of using company equipment for personal use or engaging in rumors or deliberately making false promises during the hiring process.) Call on five people (assuming a class size of 25) to stand and state their positions. Then ask the remaining participants to join one of the five groups that each of the five volunteers will lead. Participants should make their selection on the basis of their own feelings (of agreement or disagreement) regarding the positions taken by the five volunteers.

Allow the subgroups time to explore one another’s viewpoint but also to achieve consensus, if they can, on a corporate position that should be taken regarding this particular issue.

DISCUSSION

To what extent does the organization have the right to regulate personal freedom issues, such as groups of employees speaking a language other than English or the primary language in your workplace if it is not English?

Could it be dangerous to open certain topics to discussion? If so, how? Which topics? How are they dangerous?

What current events may have or should have influenced your own organization’s ethics policy?

Quotation

“Questions focus our thinking. Ask empowering questions like ‘What’s good about this?’ ‘What’s not perfect about it yet?’ ‘What am I going to do next time?’ ‘How can I do this and have fun doing it?’”

–Charles Connolly

Points of Interest

The sample issue of Positive Leadership provides an ethical checklist, consisting of questions to help in the formation of both individual and organizational ethics policies.

Is it legal?

Is it fair and balanced?

How will I feel when it’s done?

MIKE enjoys the process of discovering what it means to be a human being. He sees organizations and organizational development as the product of—and the current environment for—the further development of and interplay between individuals. He facilitates both organizational and individual staff development in the roles of trainer, coach, consultant, and change manager.

HANDOUT 39.1