The Ethics Group Project involves each group reviewing onecase study of an ethicaldilemma or an issue of Corporate Social Responsibility and preparing a consolidated response to 6 questions.
The purpose of the project is for student to recognize "ethical moments" when they arise in the work environment, to understand the choices that are presented, and to become acquainted with the consequences of abdicating ethical responsibilities in either business, government, or in our own academic environment.
CASE STUDIES
I have selected 12 video case studies and have assigned one to each group. Although they vary in length, they are typically between 30 and 60 minutes in length. Each of the videos address a significant government or business scandal that that was either negatively or positively affected bythe decisions of a single person. All of the case studies reflect either strong, ethics-based actions or the seeming lack of ethical awareness.
The videos selected provide a good overview and backdrop of the issues. For some of the topics I included additional short videos and have provided them for the group. The group is encouraged to consult other sources and view other videos in responding to this assignment and to reference their research in the final presentation.
The Case Studies are as follows:(See Blackboard: Assignments>Proj #1 -Ethics Case Studies to find what case has been assigned to your group.)
• Enron (Investment decisions that destroyed a major US Corporation and over 1.5 million people)
• Flint Michigan Water (Decision to relax water control standards resulted in polluting the City's water supply)
• Enhance Interrogation Techniques (Decision to use torture on detainees in hopes that the practice would provide useful intelligence to the war effort)
• The murder of Enrique Camera and DEA's response. (Decision by DEA executive to kidnap a Mexican national in an effort to seek justice for this horrific crime)
• Thomas Drake and Media Leaks (Decision by whistleblower to provide classified information to the media)
• Virginia Governor Bob McDonald (Decision by a sitting g governor to provide special government access to a business associate)
• King of Coal (Decision by a coal mining executive pertaining to the safety of underground coal mines)
• Concussion Watch (Decisions by NFL executives how to address the problem of concussions and long-term injury and disability of former players)
• Scandal at the Veterans Administration (Decisions by VA executives to defer/delay action on serious problems associated with the treatment of war veterans)
• Countrywide Mortgage (Decisions by company executives to pursue reckless investment strategies that seriously affected millions of homeowners.
• The Resignation and Conviction of LA County Sheriff Lee Baca (Decision to prevent the FBI from investigating possible crimes within the LA County Jail)
• The Conviction of Penn State University President Graham Spanier (Decisions to not aggressively pursue child molestation charges against an Assistant Football Coach)
ASSIGNMENT
Each member of the group should review the video (or videos) assigned to his/her group early in the week and be prepared to discus the project with your group.
1. Group Leaders should have been selected last week. I would like the group leader to convene a group discussion with his/her group. If you have not selected a group leader yet, you must do so to start the project A.S.A.P. The group leader's responsibility is to simply facilitate communication, lead discussions about the project, and oversee the assembly of the final product and its submission. Group leaders will be recognized in the overall class participation grade.
2. I'd like the Group Leader to facilitate a discussion within the group in which all 6 questions are discussed. Each member of the group should be assigned to answer ONE question by creating a power point slide that provides "taking points" for the specific question. Each slide submitted by the group member should contain the answer to the question in full sentences and will be graded on the basis of both content and written presentation. Groups will need to put together a poster-board of all of the slides and will be asked to present the board the following week.
3. The PowerPoint presentations should be a "consolidated group response" reviewed and edited by the entire group before it's posted as the groups collective response to the case study. The initial response should be a "draft" with each student submitting his/her slide to the group leader so there is a group package.
But once the package is assembled, the entire group should review it and collectively critique it so that the final product represents a collaborative group effort. NOTE: This project is not simply the collection of individual slides - but the result of a group discussion in which each member of the group ways in on the quality of each slide in the presentation.
4. Be sure that the name of the student who was assigned to work on the question and who provided the primary input is clearly noted for each question. I'd like the combined submissions submitted in the assignment folder.
5. In addition, each student will prepare and submit to me with the FINAL presentation - a TWO-page written document. On the first page, the student will provide a written answer to his/her assigned question. The answer should not exceed ONE page and should describe the PowerPoint slide he/she prepared.
On the second page, the student will describe his/her contribution to the overall project. Both the completed PowerPoint and the TWO-page paper must be reviewed by the entire group prior to submission. The PowerPoint and the paper should both include edits that reflected the final group review. I'd like the Group Leaders to collect and assemble the papers so that they are all contained in s single document, making sure that student names are on each page and that both the slide deck and the paper are covered with a Title Page and a Table of Contents.
6. The project grade will be based on both the quality of the group work - including your level of collaboration - evident in the PowerPoint slide AND the individual work submitted by each student. The project grade will give a weight of 75% to the PowerPoint presentation and 25% to the individual paper.
7. I suggest you use the "Group" functions to facilitate the review and edit of this project, or some other collaborative tool. I encourage groups to make extensive use of ZOOM in their group discussions.
8. The grade will be based on both the quality of the work evident in the PowerPoint slide of the individual presentation, and the quality of the group interaction. I suggest you use the "Group" functions to facilitate the review and edit of this project (Group discussion board, file exchange, etc.)
CONTENTS
Each group will present their poster to the class with each student briefing the question they developed
Below are the 6 questions to be answered by each group in their presentation. There are a few groups with 5 students and a few groups that have 7 students. Group leaders can contact me for information on how to make this work.
1. SITUATION: Briefly describe the situation that set up the ethical dilemma.List the stakeholders in the decision and the ethical considerations that require their equities to be taken into account. Describe those equities.
2. ETHICAL MOMENT: Identify what you consider to be the primary "ethical moment" in the case study, in which an individual was faced with a difficult choice would have a major impact on other people and the overall situation.What were the choices available to the person facing the ethical dilemma?
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3. DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE: Does the case study involves circumstances in which it may be considered appropriate to violate procedures, mislead someone, look the other way, or lie? In general, do you believe these actions are EVER appropriate? Provide an explanation that would be used by the "bad guy" in this case. Do you find it at all plausible? Under what circumstances?
4. HOW DIFFICULT: On a scale of 1 to 5, how difficult does your group believe this choice is? Explain why you think it is an easy or difficult choice and explain why you think others may view differently. Describe what you believe the outcome would be If a highly ethical decision was made versus an outcome if the ethics was somewhat compromised.
5. AWARENESS: A key issue about most ethical dilemmas is that people are challenged to make very difficult decisions that are NOT in their own best interests - personally, professionally, or financially. So it's easy to understand why some people may "avoid" making them or choose to "look the other way". What can an organization do, in your opinion, to make it easier for people to make the hard ethical decisions?
6. GROUP CHOICE: What choice would your group have made, if confronted with the same circumstances? Explain your reasoning. Does this project make it more likely that you will make well-reasoned moral/ethical decisions in your own career/life? How so?
SUMMARY
To summarize, the project will consist of the following:
1. Review and discuss in your group the assigned case study.
2. Assign one topic to each student, who will prepare one power point slide to summarize his/her position.
3. Discuss with your group as to how the entire story comes together.
4. Develop a Group poster board (will need to also submit the power point slide) describing the issue and all the answers, as well as the group's recommendation.
5. Present in class beginning on Weds 2/14.