I would like to make a notable connection between the article “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making” and the world. When this article explained what ethics is, it chose to compare ethics to religion which I thought was very interesting. I think our world sees ethics and this idea of morals as following a religion. In the article it says, “Ethics is not the same as religion. People are not religious but act ethically.” Then it goes on to say the same applies vice versa. This reminds me of the word morals and when people say “you have good morals” and assume you follow a traditional religion or grew up in a household that was religious. I am at fault for that assumption a lot and sometimes it is true, but other times there are people who have strong ethical beliefs and that is simply it. This idea is also supported through the different lens’. The common good lens described in the article can support why people just act in a respectful and compassionate manner because ethically they believe that is how their actions can contribute to a good and well-lived life. On the other end, there could be people who believe in God and have a heart for Him and live in a way that would be in accordance with His desires. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with ethics, but rather your personal beliefs. The reasoning behind people’s actions in our society are for a number of different reasons which is why ethics is not a religion and religion is not ethics.

A Framework for Ethical Decision Making – Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (scu.edu)

After reading this source, the conclusive results indicate that, “One of the greatest challenges for undergraduate teams seems to be establishing and implementing an equitable division of the workload; MBA teams still struggle with this issue, but often to a lesser extent. Equality may predict performance for undergraduate teams because equality concerns are their greatest impediment to performance, and once resolved, allow the team to move forward and complete its work.” I think this connection is very relevant and important to recognize because a lot of the time work is divided based on reliability and what people say they are willing to do. 

I will make a text-to-self connection here. Undergrad classes involve a lot of collaboration and group work. A good example of this is this class. We are expected to responsibly approach group work by communicating with each other and holding each other accountable without really knowing anything about each other personally or professionally. We don’t know what everyone’s work ethic, accountability, motivation, time management, etc is like and we have to put our grade on the line in hopes the team can successfully divide and complete work successfully. I can agree with the conclusion that this source provided because it shows that if work is divided unevenly then it can affect the quality of work done. I feel like times when I have felt I got handed more work or the “bigger parts” or even “more difficult sections” I was frustrated because my group members got off the hook. 

The reading on Moodle titled “How to link personal values with team values” is the reading I felt best related to my personal life experiences. So what does the word value mean? According to the reading it says, “A principle, standard, or quality considered inherently worthwhile or desirable.” Everyone has many desires, beliefs and values! Not everyone is going to have the same set of values, beliefs, or desires as you and that is not a bad thing! Diversity is good and can promote action in a team setting. I believe it also allows people to grow to learn how to accept other values and maybe even adopt some of them as their own. The reading says, “But in most teams, there’s a diversity of value and beliefs. To work better as a team and make decisions that lead to commitment and action, it’s necessary to recognize the range of values that can influence decision making and to agree on their priority.” This shows the importance of diversity of values within a team dynamic and how it doesn’t have to lead to negative results. 

In my own personal life, I have experienced an environment with a variety of values within the team setting. At work we have a small team of 3 people that world to produce social media content. This source has reminded me of the experience I had trying to adjust to the differences we had and recognize that we just had different values that produced different behaviors when it came to collaborating and working together as a team to successfully complete tasks at hand. I can relate to the points made in this because after learning how to work together through our differences, we have been able to see from new perspectives and create quality work. Aside from my work environment, it makes me think of some of my friendships and how I do certain activities with certain friends. This is because our values are different and produce different behaviors!

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