
Principles, qualities & beliefs held by a
person

From society, family, community, leaders

Difficult to change

Can influence ethical & moral behavior

Principals of right & wrong conduct

Personally driven

Moral behavior guided by personal
values

Standards, behaviors & principles that
guide behaviors

Professionally driven
› Agency
› Professional association
› Community

Different than morals???...

Morals
› Individual
› About beliefs

Ethics
› Groups
› Behaviors, actions

Aggregate of features & traits that form
the individual

Existence of or lack of virtues such as
honesty, integrity, trustworthiness

Character Counts
› Trustworthiness, caring, respect,
responsibility, fairness, citizenship
Lying
Deception
Stealing
Harming

Lying
› Telling someone something we know not to
be true with the intention of misleading them
› Prominence…fib, embellishment, stretch the
truth, overstate, distort, dupe, white lies
› Lies
 Calling in sick
 Can’t work for someone because of an
appointment
 Application decision dates
Santa & the tooth fairy exist.
 I loved my gift.
 I thought I sent that e-mail.
 Your baby is beautiful.
 I wasn’t feeling well.
 I’ll call you.


You have an employee who is
chronically late. When asked about it,
she says her spouse changed hours and
can’t drop off the kids at school this
week. You learn that is a lie.

Deception
› Failing to correct an inaccurate impression,
feigning ignorance, not telling the whole
truth, withholding information, sugar coating
the truth, or overusing tact
› Examples
 Employee evaluations
 Pub vs. restaurant sponsors
 Others??

Your boss comes in looking for one of
your staff. She says “I see Julie is still at
her meeting. I will talk to her tomorrow.”

You sent Julie home early & told her not
to claim vacation time.

Stealing
› Procurement of property that does not
belong to you that is taken w/o permission
from the owner
› Examples
 Underpaying at a store
 Software on numerous computers
 Travel $$ for uneaten meals
› Often leads to termination

You are moving into a new house on
Saturday. You have access to a moving
truck that belongs to the agency. The
schedule for he truck says it is not in use.

Harm
› Putting a person or business at risk for injury or
damage
› Examples
 Strategically choosing bidders for contracts
 Public agency fitness center

You are offering a wine tasting dinner for
$75 per person. It is a 5 course meal with
a class of wine per course.

Do what is most convenient
›
›
›
›

Copy homework, cheat, plagiarize
Keep extra change at a restaurant
Keep same facility schedule ea. yr
Keep lower performing instructors
Do what we must to win
› Council keeps tough issue off agenda
› BPRD afterschool sports
› Close facilities (pool v golf course)

Rationalize choices with relativism
› Compare our behaviors to those we feel are
worse
› Justify behavior
› Ethical standards change based on
circumstances
› Go easy on ourselves
› IPRA – attend 2 sessions vs 1, 0
› Print personal things at work

Unethical behavior becomes the norm
› Taking office supplies
› U of I connections admissions
› IL legislature overtime pay
› Increasing salary for retirement purposes
› Other examples??
1.
2.
3.
Consequences theory
Duty based/rules based theory
Virtue ethics theory

Consequences theory
› Actions are selected based on the best
possible outcomes for those involved
› Scuba instructor scenario….

a scuba instructor is paid contractually
where they get a percent from each
person enrolled in the class. The class
maximum is set at 10 based on the one
instructor and the available equipment.
The class fills and two additional people
ask to register. The instructor has two
older sets of scuba equipment she can
use and agrees to take the additional
participants.

Instructor

Students

Instructor
› Make more money
› Spread thinner

Students
› 2 have to use old
equipment
› participants split
instructor time with
12 people rather
than 10
› safety is
compromised
› Decreasing
experience to
increase $

Consequences theory
› What should the scuba instructor choose??
› Utilitarianism
 Seek the maximum good for the greatest
number
 Weakness is minority interests…

2 pools built at the same time & need
renovation, which do you renovate
based on utilitarianism?
Middle and upper income neighborhood
Low income neighborhood

Other area pools - a YMCA pool, two
country club pools, and a housing
association managed pool

Other area pools - None

25,000 visitors per year

5,000 visitors per year

200 programs per year

50 programs per year

Breaks even

40% subsidized
Which has the most consequences?

Kant’s Duty Based Theory/Rules Based
› Actions should be taken regardless of the
consequences
› Actions should be morally right & well
intended
› Duty to do what is right
› Eg…

Kant’s Duty Based Theory/Rules Based
› Volunteer b-ball coach for 8 year olds has to
decide:
 Play best players until victory is assured & then
put in weaker players?
 Give everyone the same amount of playing
time?
 1 player has a physical disability. Does he/she
get equal or equitable playing time?
 What is his/her duty as a youth sports coach?
 Does age matter?

Virtue Ethics Theory
› Focus on character & virtue rather than
consequences & duty
› Do what someone of your character would
do

Virtue ethics
› Same penalty?
 DUI - VP of Marriott hotel operations & front
desk shift supervisor
 Domestic battery – Chicago Cubs infielder &
Chicago Cubs sales manager

Allow staff to wear agency identified
shirts in bars

Allow staff to wear agency identified
shirts in bars

Have alcohol sponsors at public p & r
softball complexes

Allow staff to wear agency identified
shirts in bars

Have alcohol sponsors at public p & r
softball complexes

Allow your pre-school instructor to work
part time as a stripper

Allow staff to wear agency identified shirts
in bars

Have alcohol sponsors at public p & r
softball complexes

Allow your pre-school instructor to work part
time as a stripper

Interoffice dating

Written document that provides
guidelines to encourage ethical
behavior by company stakeholders







General employee
conduct
Conflicts of interest
Outside activities &
employment
Relationships with clients
and suppliers
Gifts, entertainment &
favors
Kickbacks and secret
commissions
Organization funds and
other assets






Organization records
and communications
Dealing with outside
people and
organizations
Prompt communications
Privacy and
confidentiality
Service to the
community
Protection and
conservation of natural
resources

There will be no discrimination between the
participants on the basis of race, gender, ethnic
origin, religion, philosophical or political origin, marital
status or other grounds.

All doping practices at all levels are strictly
prohibited. The provisions against doping in the World
Anti-Doping Code shall be scrupulously observed.

All forms of participation in, or support for betting
related to the Olympic Games, and all forms of
promotion of betting related to the Olympic Games
are prohibited.

When one or more roles we play are at
odds with what is in the best interest of
the agency
› Employee & softball player
› Board member & participant

Conflict or not???....

A board member’s husband owns a
local t-shirt printing business that has
submitted a $12,000 bid for the annual tshirt contract.

What do you do?

The nephew of the resort’s CEO is
contracted to do landscaping for the
resort. This contract had previously been
held by the same company for 10 years.
The company had received positive
reviews each year and was suddenly
terminated.

Conflict?

A major donor at the YMCA calls the
CEO to “put in a good word” for their
neighbor, who has applied for a much
coveted aquatics position.

What do you do?

Establish C of I Policy

Require any potential C of I situations be
reported

The person involved in the conflict should
be required to disengage themselves
from the situation.

Gift
› something given without an expectation of
return

Bribes
› something given to persuade or induce an
action

Kickbacks
› an illegal payback from a previous
exchange

IPRA endorses a youth sports training
program that they know is inferior to
another one. The inferior program pays
IPRA $10 per coach trained.
Gift, bribe or kickback?
 Ethical?


An ISU athlete gives a faculty member
free tickets to a game.
Gift, bribe or kickback?
 Ethical?


Coca-Cola is hoping to get the soft drink
bid for the entire agency. They must
submit a sealed bid. The sales manager
takes the agency’s marketing director
out to play golf prior to the opening of
the bids.
Gift, bribe or kickback?
 Ethical?


Should religion influence ethics?

Morals?

Separation of church & state
› Gvt should not interfere with church business
› Church should not interfere with gvt.
› Ethical???....

Should the local parks and recreation
department have a gospel night in the
park since the gospel choirs in town are
all affiliated with a church?

A miniature golf course has a loud
speaker that pipes music from a radio
over the course. Should the golf course
be allowed to play the local religious
station? Does it matter if the golf course
is public, nonprofit, or a commercial
sector agency? Could this impact
business?

A youth soccer coach asks her team to
pray before the start of the soccer game
each Saturday. The league is run through
the local Y. Should the coach be
allowed to pray with the team?

What if the agency is the local p & r
dept?

You get a reference call on a current
employee who is not very good. You
really want him to find another job.

What type of reference do you give?

You have a superintendent of recreation
who is not well skilled. She doesn’t even
do basic programming well. You are
considering assigning her tasks in
maintenance, and you run recreation.
You don’t feel you can fire her because
she is a “townie” and quite popular with
the participants in this small town of 3600.

Is reassigning her the right thing to do?

Your friend in the neighboring park
district is interviewing a candidate you
have experience with. The candidate is
a terrible employee & will be nothing but
trouble. However, her father is well
known and respected in the profession.

Do you call your friend to discuss the
candidate “off the record”?