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#1 2007-06-20 18:05:11
- annmaria
- Administrator
Ethics: It's personal
Preparing our new course on ethics in tribal leadership, I reviewed a couple of other on-line courses. At first I was worried that these would be competition and we would have a hard time selling our course. On the contrary, they were as boring as watching paint dry. I did not understand how someone could take an interesting subject and make it boring. The big problem was they all talked about ethics in theory while ethical decisions are really personal.
If you wouldn't mind, please post here your examples of ethical decisions, both positive and negative. For example,
Negative: Abusive bosses - years ago, I had a boss who came in and told me that "my research i^*(ing sucked" . I was at first shocked that I must have made some major error in the article just submitted. When I asked what was the matter, the article was thrown on my desk with the order, "Fix this! I can't believe you are so stupid as to give me some &*(( like this." In fact, when the boss had calmed down the next day, it turned out that there were a few sentences that another colleague had suggested be re-worded and a comma or two left out. The article ended up being accepted for publication. The really crazy thing about this example is that I, and several others who worked for this same person, ended up quitting because we got tired of this kind of treatment. Our boss never got it. We were well paid, had good benefits, interesting work - what was our problem?
Positive:There have been so many of these! When I was in graduate school, Dr. Richard Eyman was my advisor for my dissertation and the foremost statistician in the School of Education. I really looked up to him and he had done some well-known research on development of people with different levels of mental retardation. Someone pointed out to him an error in his earlier work. He could have told the younger researcher to mind his own business or threatened his career. He did neither of these things. He wrote a second article where he discussed the flaws in his earlier work. I asked him (having been exposed to some less ethical role models in my short career already) whether he thought of trying to hide his mistakes. He looked at me genuinely surprised by the thought and said, "Young lady, the data show what they show. That's what you have to report. That's what makes the difference between research and creative writing."
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#2 2007-06-20 23:53:21
- Willie
- Member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
My Ethical question and hypotetical example, relates those co-workers who have no Work Ethic. For instance, there is a possibility of completing 10 tasks in a day - all of which provide information to clients on eligibility. But, instead they spend most of their day talking to others. Both in their own offices or talking to family on the phone. My point, is that I do not believe teaching them to prioritize tasks, write them down, plan things in advance, etc., would not work, unless you delve into their personal life style. Because, I believe how a persons lives reflects upon how they will perform on the job - in most cases.
Last edited by Willie (2007-06-20 23:58:14)
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#3 2007-06-25 22:24:51
- jessica
- Member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
I have seen some positive and negative examples in my short work experience, mostly from watching my friends. I have some friends who use their company card for "business lunches" and since they work for large corporations, no one ever watches this or checks on them. Then I know other people who don't even check their personal email at work. Some companies even have a way of blocking certain email sites or instant messaging chat sites. I think that this depends on the individual person, and also on their place of employment and what standards are set for the employees. In order to expect good ethics, a job should set an example of what they will and will not take from their employees.
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#4 2007-06-27 22:54:23
- Willie
- Member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
I still think that no matter what, a company can set up all the perameters to protect against employee abuse, but if a person just does not have a good work ethic or is not task oriented, then I do not believe all the training or in-serving they will get will make a difference. Unless you are able to change to pesons way of thinking or how they perform, anything else they are expected to do, will just be put on the back burner.
Last edited by Willie (2007-06-27 22:55:47)
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#5 2007-06-29 17:48:18
- Bree
- Member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
I have to agree with Willie that people with little or no work ethic will never really change. I too also believe that this type of behavior exists on my reservation. I always hear "rumors" about this behavior that range from having a certain councilman embezzling money from our tribe and using it to purchase stocks in big companies to allowing tribal employees to punch each other in on the time clock. Unfortunately I think that this behavior will continue because there will always be someone who thinks they can get away with it without getting caught.
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#6 2007-07-02 17:45:40
- annmaria
- Administrator
Re: Ethics: It's personal
In the ethics course we are creating there is a section on by-standers. I understand your point about how some people just don't have much in the way of work ethic and maybe that is a personal character flaw. However, I can't help but think that some of that is contributed to by the people who know about these violations and say nothing. After all, it is easier to believe that it is "no big deal" to work 25 hours a week and get paid for 40 if no one ever makes a big deal of it.
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#7 2007-08-20 16:16:29
- Bree
- Member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
I think the by-stander section will be very important in the ethics course because of the influence by-standers have in the workplace. I know from experience that when you first start a new job you watch how your coworkers behave and you eventually learn what type of behavior will be acceptable in the workplace. If they sit around and gossip all morning or they leave the office frequently to “run errands” then it is likely that you too will start doing these things. However, when you have coworkers that show up at their job on time everyday and stay busy in their offices you have no choice but to do the same because they will not make any exceptions for you. I also think that by-standers can include supervisors and directors. Their behavior can greatly influence the staff so it’s really important that they model the type of behavior they want from the staff.
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#8 2007-08-20 16:45:22
- tj
- New member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
What about when you have a boss that doesn't workk all her hours and then comes in and hollers at other people because the work isn't getting done? I had a boss like that once. She would come in around 9:30 and we were all supposed to be there at 8. So everyone took to coming in at 9:15. The whole staff cheated five hours a week and the boss cheated about 10 hours a week because she went home early too. Is annmaria saying we were stealing because we didn't work those five hours? And whose fault is that?
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#9 2007-08-21 15:24:13
- Bree
- Member
Re: Ethics: It's personal
That's a good question Tj. Is it the employee's fault for getting paid for those 5 hours or is the supervisor/director's fault for allowing this to occur? Also, what if the employee is getting all the work done? Would that still be considered stealing? Referring to Willie’s post with the hypothetical situation where the employee has a day to complete 10 tasks but instead chooses to talk to others or chats on the phone. What if that employee completed those tasks with a few hours to spare at the end of the workday? Should that employee go home and lose hours since the work is done for the day?
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