THE PURPOSE of this assignment is to get to a personal ethics statement which is different from a personal work statement. You are exploring what you value and what helps you determine when an action is right or wrong. You are also trying to get to a statement that will guide you when you are faced with a hard decision of what is the right or wrong thing to do. For example, a statement of “I believe in hard work” if more of a work ethic statement but not an ethics statement. If a person is stealing at work, how does “I believe in hard work,” guide me as to what to do?
A. Describe yourself. What are you about? What do you like to do? How would a friend describe you to someone else?
B. What do you believe or value? List the FIVE most important values or beliefs you have for your life and explain what you mean when you list that value. These are the things most important to you (health, happiness, security, family, faith, challenge, courage, truth, harmony, growth, risk, etc.). If you took Lead 3010 last semester, we did a values exercise. Revisit those values to see if they are still your five most important values. LIST AND EXPLAIN.
C. How do you determine what the right thing is to do at work when faced with an ethical situation?
D. Think about the moral philosophies in this module (right’s view, utilitarian view, fairness/justice view, relativist view and values view). When you find yourself saying to others, that something is not right – which philosophy do you most often use? Give an example.
E. How do you want others to describe you in the work place? This will also give more information about what you believe is important to you.
PART TWO: Your Personal Ethics Statement
Before drafting your Personal Ethics Statement, review these webarticles about the values of personal ethics statements:
Developing Personal Ethics: Examples and Tips
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/developing-personal-ethics
You Need a Personal Code of Conduct. Here’s Why.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericaarielfox/2022/02/16/you-need-a-personal-code-of-conduct-heres-why/?sh=4af9223f20cc
Given what you have identified as being important to you and how you hope others will regard you, write a personal ethics statement to guide you in the workplace. This statement needs to be short (fits on a business card) and needs to give you direction on how to make personally ethical decisions in the work place when faced with ethical dilemmas.
PART THREE: Testing and Improving Your Personal Ethics Statement
Now, test your Personal Workplace Ethics Statement to see if it guides you as to what to do in the following situations:
A. You have been working at ABC Inc. for five years and have been working with Jordan for the past two years. Recently, you came back to lunch sooner than typically and found Jordan was in the file room looking through files labeled confidential. These files are typically kept secured with a lock but for some reason Jordan had access to them. This did not make any sense. What should you do?
What does your statement guide you to do? Use language from your statement to show how your statement led you to this action.
B. You work for a company that produces snack products marketed and consumed by school age children. You are responsible for quality control and recently noticed that upon reviewing the latest lab results, that the food was dangerously high in fat and salt content. You decide to mention this at the next managers meeting. You also notice that the levels of contaminants are nearing a dangerous level although not high enough to trigger a recall. At the managers meeting, the VP asks whether the lab results were reviewed and modified by Dr. Smith yet? Dr. Smith’s assistant replies that he has been out of the office on medical leave and did not get a chance to work his magic before the surgery. The VP replies to you that there is nothing to worry about because Dr. Smith has not adjusted the numbers. “Why are the numbers adjusted,” you ask. The VP replies that every study has a range of error, so we just adjust the numbers in our favor for the degree of error. He then moves on to the next agenda item. What do you dO?
What does your statement guide you to do? Use language from your statement to show how your statement led you to this action.
C. You are on a hiring committee looking to hire a new mid-level employee. The hiring committee is reviewing the 200 applicants to narrow it down to a pool of 15 candidates. The Human Resources staff person outlines the process that must be used and reminds the committee that it is illegal to consider one’s race, ethnicity, gender and age and then leaves the room. It is now up to the committee to determine what it will do to identify 15 candidates. The chair of the committee states “if we each take 15 names and Google them tonight, we should have a sense of who fits the company and who does not. Come back tomorrow with one or two people that are your top candidates.” The chair hands out the lists to each committee member and adjourns the meeting. What do you do?
What does your statement guide you to do? Use language from your statement to show how your statement led you to this action.
D. As a marketing associate, you are working on a new ad campaign for a new mobile game application that uses GPS information. You are directed to put in the advertisement that Tribal Hunt (new game) provides the highest level of privacy protection but you are not sure that is the case. “Are you sure that we are protecting people’s privacy?” you ask your supervisor. The supervisor responds, “Just do as I say. I’ll take the heat. I don’t know what it does but we can’t take the heat that Pokemon Go has taken over privacy. Do you want to lose your job over this?” What do you do?
What does your statement guide you to do? Use language from your statement to show how your statement led you to this action.
E. Based upon how well your statement guided your actions above, improve your statement. If your statement did not provide you with much direction on what to do, then modify it. Stay true to your values but write the statement in such a way that it guides you. Share your revised statement below: