EDD 8442 Ethics and
Social Responsibility
Session 1: Blended
Dr. Karen D. Bowser
Leaders Cast Shadows
Are you defusing bombs or lighting
them in YOUR workplace?
Variations on a Theme: Leaders
Cast Shadows
• Deny having knowledge that is in their
possession.
• Withhold information that followers need.
• Use information solely for personal benefit.
• Violate the privacy rights of followers.
• Release information to the wrong people.
• Put followers in ethical binds by preventing
them from releasing information that others
have a legitimate right to know.
Johnson, C. E. (2009). Ethical challenges of leadership.
Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.
Leaders Cast Shadows
Are you defusing bombs or lighting
them in YOUR workplace?
What are ethics?
Developing an Ethical Perspective
• Theories of Ethics
• Ethical Concerns of Organizations
• Ethical Organizational Perspectives
Ethics
1. The discipline dealing with what is good
and bad and with moral duty and
obligation
2. A system or set of moral principals;
3. A set of moral issues or aspects: a theory
or system of moral values; the principles of
conduct governing an individual or a
group; a consciousness of moral
importance (Merriam –Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary, 2011)
Ethics—What’s Changed?
1. The rules of conduct governing a particular
class;
2. The branch of philosophy dealing with
values relating to human conduct, with
respect to the rightness or wrongness of
motives or ends (Webster’s, 1995).
Ethics
• How to behave
• How to be responsible
• The purpose of ethics is not to make people
ethical; it is to help people make better decisions
(Brown, 2000).
• Does not provide answers, but gives people the
possibility of asking better questions and
discovering the answers themselves
What is social responsibility?
How is social responsibility like
ethics?
How is it different?
Is it possible for a leader to make
ethical decisions for his or her
team that he or she might not
personally make for himself or
herself?
What do the objects in the
background that I have chosen
say about ethics and/or social
responsibility?
Variations on a Theme
• What have you found?
• You’re the stars!
ROLE OF VALUES, MORALS,
AND EMOTIONS
The Knowing-Doing Gap
Pfeffer, J. and Sutton, R., (2000).
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When knowing what to do is not enough
When talk substitutes for action
When memory is a substitute for thinking
When fear prevents acting on knowledge
When measurement obstructs good judgment
When internal competition turns good friends into
enemies
How Could You Do That? The Abdication of
Character, Courage and Conscience (Schlessinger, L., 1996)
• “Yeah, I know…but… (Where’s your
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character?)
“I know it’s wrong…but… (Where’s your
conscience?)
“I know it’s right…but…(Where’s your
courage?)
Thinking “Poor Baby” keeps you one
(Where’s your self-respect?)
Of course I have values…Umm, What are
they again? (Where are your morals?)
For Brutus Is an honorable man…Yeah, right
(Where’s your integrity?)
Eenie, Meenie…Oh, I hate decisions (Where
are your principles?
Ethical Talk: Ground Rules
Some good advice from Weston (2009)
• What Does Work
• Slow down and listen.
• Speak calmly and listen a lot.
• Connect
• Seek common ground.
• Keep the focus on the main points.
Ethical Talk: Ground Rules
Some good advice from Weston (2009)
• What Does Work
• Welcome openings and opportunities
• Stay engaged
• See a discussion as a search for better understanding
and creative solutions.
• Treat facts as tools.
Common Ground Approach
Pro-Life
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Pro-Choice
Post 1
• Pay particular attention to the excerpt on p. 49
of the Weston book (“Can God define the
Good?”).
• What or who defines “right” and “wrong,”
“good” and “bad”? How are these constructs
defined? Be specific and support your answer
in a scholarly way.
Post 1
• Please be sure to respect different frames of reference
and avoid references to personal religious beliefs and
values. We are all from different walks of life, different
religious and cultural backgrounds, so try to see beyond
the individual perspective.
• Push your thinking past the automatic responses we all
tend to have, like “My parents taught me right from
wrong” or “The Bible teaches us right from wrong.” Try to
look for the meanings beyond these statements. You
should approach your response from an academic and
objective perspective, understanding that there are
many differing beliefs and value systems.
Post 2
Describe an event in your professional life that was
an occasion for ethical learning. The operative
phrase here is “ethical learning.” There are many
occasions for learning, in general, but that is not
the focus of this task. The event must involve some
type of ethical issue, compromise, behavior, or
circumstance. You must describe the ethical nature
of the event.
What were the specifics of the event, who or what
did it involve, and what specifically did you learn?
What made this ethical learning possible? (Weston,
p. 8 and Brown, Chapter 3).
10 Ethics Trends for 2010
1. Leader misconduct will become more
public!
Employees will use these tools to discredit their
leaders.
2. Fair Labor Standards Act claims will grow
and expand into “nontraditional”
applications.
Example: Lawsuits against companies that do not
pay salaried employees overtime.
Paskoff, S. M. (20009). 10 ethical trends for 2010. Workforce Magazine.
10 Ethical Trends for 2010
3. Employee Free Choice Act—
developments will make it easier for
unions to organize
4. Employers will use the Internet and social
networks to learn about applicants because
they are cost-effective tools.
Paskoff, S. M. (20009). 10 ethical trends for 2010. Workforce Magazine.
10 Ethical Trends for 2010
5. Learning will become far more important
than training. Learning is what sticks and
employees apply; training is something
that is taught.
6. Two key trends for those in their 20s.
They will become entrepreneurs. Ex. aps writers
They will seek stability with one company.
Paskoff, S. M. (20009). 10 ethical trends for 2010. Workforce Magazine.
10 Ethical Trends of 2010
7. New emphasis on finding people who have
analytical and creative skills rather than a
specific skill like accounting.
8. Because the economy has enraged
workers, more juries will be siding with
the employee in claims of discrimination.
Paskoff, S. M. (20009). 10 ethical trends for 2010. Workforce Magazine.
10 Ethical Trends of 2010
9. In periods of reduced resources, companies
must focus on fair treatment. The business
risks of not doing so will be too expensive.
10.“Lean and clean” will replace “lean and
mean.” Because of all the corruption in
recent years, corporate values will return to
values like integrity, etc.
Paskoff, S. M. (20009). 10 ethical trends for 2010. Workforce Magazine.
Ethics of Systems: Does YOUR
Code of Ethics Do This?
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The written and unwritten rules
Must protect individuals
Must be fair or just
Must generate power (be energizing)
Ethical Concerns of Organizations
• An organization is a network of power and
a network of people
• Organizations become places where people
make themselves into something as they
make something for the organization.
People are moral agents—they
can be held accountable for their
own actions.
Therefore, members of
organizations are moral agents!
Organizations as Moral Agents
• Corporations are decision-making systems.
• Corporate Internal Decision [CID] French, 1984.
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Flowchart or organizational chart
Procedural rules
Corporate policies
Once it goes through these three elements, an action has
been done for corporate reasons.
Organizations as Moral Agents
• Motive – Reason for acting
• Intention – Choosing a particular
action
• What role does motivation play in our
ethical decisions?
Organizations as Moral Agents
• In an organization, one acts on behalf of another
or others.
• An organization is a process through which
actions occur.
• To make the right choice, all the resources
available must be used.
• Ethical reflection increases the chances that the
correct choice will be made.
Ethical Concerns of Organizations
• Decision-making process
• Systems of production and maintenance
• Culture
Ethical Concerns of Organizations
• Decision-making process
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Every decision is value-laden
Not to decide, is to decide
Value judgments usually cause conflict
What are the chances, then, that decisions will
cause conflict?
Ethical Perspectives of Organizations
• When the same event is interpreted in
different ways
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Political spin
Interest groups
Media
Culture
Location
Key Indicators of an Ethical
Perspective
• Language –the jargon of a particular view
• Connotative and denotative meanings
• Denotative—Particular interpretation of a particular setting
(context)
• Connotative—emotional meaning
• Danger in labeling something “ethics” when it is really
something else
• Assumes that people have the freedom and power
to respond
Key Indicators of an Ethical
Perspective
• Focuses on action rather than behavior
involved in doing the action
• Looks for reasons to justify acts rather than
reasons to explain behavior
• Acknowledges the gap between ought to
and is
What is versus what ought to be
• Descriptive ethics
• What is
• Explanation
• Behavior
• Normative ethics
• What ought to be
• Justification
• Action
Post 3
• Select a leader and a recorder for your small
group.
• Be prepared to identify the ethical issues
and your team’s conclusions about the
merits of “slow medicine.”
Post 3: Small Groups
• Briefly summarize the main points presented
including the ethical dilemmas.
• Present your thoughts on the concept of “slow
medicine.” Examine how well “slow medicine”
fits with your personal beliefs and what you
believe to be U.S. society’s perception of the
concept. Note, your personal beliefs may not
necessarily match what you believe to be the
social perception.
Post 3
• Finally, discuss if society should play a role in
whether individuals have a right to exercise “slow
medicine.”
• Most importantly, after you present whether
society should or should not, discuss how you
personally would feel with the scope (or limit) you
are suggesting for society’s role in determining the
use of “slow medicine.”
Slow Medicine
Slow Medicine
People as moral agents.
• Accountability for actions
• Can consider alternatives
• Must have the freedom and power to choose the
right thing
• Must consider the impact
“The choices we make dictate the
life we lead.” (Danny DeVito in Renaissance Man)
“We do not get to choose the time
we enter or exit this world. The
only thing we get to choose is how
we spend the time we are given.”
(Lord of the Rings)
No man is an island. No man
stands alone. Each man’s joys
are joys to me. Each man’s
grief is my own. John Donne
In every community the dynamics of
self-development and community
development remain interdependent.
Post 4
• After reviewing the Toffler interview, post a
response to the following: Frequently the source
of unethical behavior in corporate environments is
financial gain. In educational and social service
environments, financial gain is not always an
issue, yet ethical breaches still occur. Barring
psychological problems, most adults know the
difference between what is legal and illegal, and
most have a mutually agreed upon sense of “right”
and “wrong.” So, then, why does anyone behave
unethically?
Post 5
• What is the relationship between the
concept of “empowerment” and ethics?
Provide and discuss at least three recent
(last 5-7 years) sources (books, journal
articles) that discuss and develop the
concept of empowerment in an
organizational setting.
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Stay in touch with one another!