For the last DEJ, I read “What Are Your Values?”. I learned how important it is to identify your values as that will make you successful. Understanding your core values is important as it can help you make decisions that align with who you are, instead of others persuading you towards something else. When you trust your values, you live to be a better version of yourself and it can bring you great opportunities in the future. While taking this class, I have gained a deeper understanding of my core values and how those have developed me into who I am. I have been able to express my values this semester as I have been involved in many group projects. Throughout this semester, I have had to use my best values to allow our project to be successful. A big one that everyone showed was respect. Respecting your group members is important as you need everyone to be interested and willing to learn the same thing, and put in the same effort as everyone else. Being trustworthy was the most important one to me as showing trust to team members is the make-it-or-break-it point in a group. It is important to have group members that you can trust to get their work done on time and have a consistent schedule as to when it is due, or working together. Having trust in one another allows everyone to be successful. Using these values has led me to greater confidence, and even brought me closer friendships as we shared the same values, or bounced off one another. Developing values is very important in today’s world and it is a must that everyone can bring an important value to a group, or into your work environment. 

https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values

In the article “strong ethics provide guidance”, I learned how critical of a role ethics play in leadership and decision making. Ethical leadership sets the tone for organizations and can help create a healthy environment. Having a good leader can guide you through difficult times, even if it is something little. Ethics can provide frameworks for those and guide you to help. Having trust within another is important for success in an organization. When I worked with the Carolina Hurricanes as a community events staff member, we were led by a leader who exemplified the qualities of a good leader. If anyone ever had any questions about the job we were doing that day, he would be there and give us a detailed explanation of exactly what needed to be done to run a smooth and successful event. He trusted us with anything we needed to do and allowed us to try new things to test things out if it would benefit us for future events. Being surrounded by a workplace who wants you to be successful in the long-term brought me and all my co-workers joy. We knew if we needed anything in the future he would be there for us and give his honest opinions on what we need to do. Even though sometimes you want to hear something different, it is good to get coached and criticized nicely as you are owning up to your mistakes and fixing that for the future. Having strong ethics can take you a long way in the workplace as it can do all things talked about above. Having a strong team will bring success to you in the future, and it is good to get on good terms with co-workers as they could be hiring you for potential new jobs in the future.

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654267/mod_resource/content/1/Strong_Ethics_Provide_Guidance.pdf

In the article “Needed: Leaders who inspire, listen”, I learned what the power of listening is and how effective leaders who inspire others are. While reading I learned the attributes of an authentic leader who can inspire others. Being an authentic leader means honoring those that are working under you. This means letting others know how important they are to the job that is being done, and how much they can bring to the team/organization. Just listening to those can go a long way as you are attentive to what they are discussing with you and are openly accepting their thoughts that are on their head. Building trust with your organization is a huge one as you all need to be honest and transparent with one another to be successful in the real world. I have been an authentic leader before as I had to take over for my boss at Finley Day Camp one day as she was not feeling well. I told all my co-workers that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed and that if they need anything to tell me. I was being open and allowing them to feel comfortable with me, even though I am normally not the one in charge. I made sure to listen to all the thoughts and ideas other counselors gave me as it would help me come up with possible things we could do to keep the camp running smoothly. Trusting each other is the most important thing to allow Summer camp to run smoothly as if we aren’t trustworthy of each other, nothing will be done how it is supposed to and camp would crash and burn. Being a leader involves fundamentals that people may have never thought of. When leading a team you need to think of things that can make you an authentic leader and lead your team/organization to success in the future. 

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654268/mod_resource/content/1/Needed_Leaders_Inspire_Listen.pdf

The article “Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model”, there were many things I learned. To start off, three important definitions were given. Moral issues, moral agent, and an ethical decision. I learned about the complexity of ethical decisions and how people overlook the complex part. High moral intensity will be recognized as a moral intensity instead as a low intensity. Moral intensity has times when your actions can affect others. When I was working at the YMCA as a camp counselor, there was a time my co-worker never showed up for work. This affected me greatly because I was stuck with 24 kids by myself, which created stress upon me. Another example is when my co-worker would not pay attention to me and listen to directions as the kids were out of control, and he was egging them on. Those were times when my co-workers’ actions affected me and led to issues that had to then be resolved. While working at NC State football, there were times when us interns had to go and research our recruits that were coming on tours that upcoming weekend. We had to look over their social media accounts and look for any suspicious activity that they have posted as this could affect their scholarship or offer opportunities. If there was any suspicious activity that was posted, we had to contact them immediately to take it down from their account and if that did not happen, they would not come on their visit. It is very important to make good decisions as an individual when you are working with someone, or in a team environment.  

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654253/mod_resource/content/1/Ethical_DM_Individuals_Organizations.pdf

In the article “Ethics Awareness”, I learned how acting ethically is always the right thing to do, but it’s not always easy. When discussing unethical behaviors, that could get people into big trouble as it can lead to criminal charges, lawsuits, wasted time, fraud, and so much more. It is important to make ethical decisions to avoid those unethical behaviors from happening. There were six listed core ethical values that were listed on the article which were trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, fairness, caring, and citizenship. I have experienced these core values many times throughout my life as I have had jobs where these have been required. While working as an intern at NCSU football, I used respect. I always wanted to treat others with respect and was considerate of their options they listed or listened to ideas they had. I treated my other interns with respect as I would want them to treat me with respect. Caring was also used as we had to care for one another during difficult situations that occurred. We would always be there for each other and would be there for each other if anyone needed help. Making ethical choices in a workplace can be difficult but there are seven steps that can better you as a person, and allow you to make good decisions. Stop to think is one of the most important steps to me, as that is the start of the process. Allowing yourself to stop and think about all possible outcomes and options can create lots of opportunities for you to come ahead. Along the way there will be consequences. It is important to think about those who will be affected, and what you might need to do to take ease off of people this is affecting. 

https://blink.ucsd.edu/finance/accountability/ethics-awareness.html

In the article “Do The Kind Thing” I learned many important lessons that are a must in life. The whole lesson this reading taught me was that having kindness can bring you a long way. Kindness is one of the most powerful things that will forever have an impact on someone, or something. Kindness leads to more powerful relationships which can lead to a more positive world. Kindness is used in my everyday life as I want to have the best relationships with anyone I am around. While reading we learned how Lubetzky incorporated kindness into the business world of things and how that has impacted how he sees things. There were examples of personal stories that he had experienced throughout the article which led to a better understanding of how little something is, it can have such a large impact. When I have had to meet new people in classes throughout my years in college, I have always shown kindness towards them. I always want to be the nicest person I can be and show others that being kind can take you a long way. I met this friend freshman year, and from the start of our friendship we both showed kindness. This built a connection between us as she is now one of my closest friends here at school. Overall I learned that just doing the little things can result in kindness which can lead you to personal growth and bring positivity out of others. Kindness can strengthen a community and bring people together, just like having a ripple effect. 

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654233/mod_resource/content/2/Lubetzky_Do_The_Kind_Thing_Chap7_Transparency%20and%20Authenticity.pdf

In the article “Personal Values and Corporate Strategy” I learned how personal values can influence corporate decision making and what their overall strategy is. While reading the article the alignment of values stuck out to me the most. Understanding the importance of aligning personal values with corporate strategies as this will increase motivation and drive. Understanding the values that are mentioned in the article is very important as we can see how those influence our decision making and culture. Having different values can flourish into different things that could lead to ethical considerations. I have experienced this in a team dynamic as each member had different personal values. We had to create an item that we thought would fascinate our target market and had to market our product. The group consisted of 5 people and each of us had a different personal value. While having different values, we had to communicate better and figure ways out that would work for us to get our product done in time. It was nice to experience everyone having a different value as it challenged each one of us to explore things in different ways and learn along the way. I believe this made our group stronger and allowed us to have a good relationship that created a positive group environment. After reading this article, I see how important personal values are to a group environment as that can determine how decision making could be done. Overall this article taught me to have a values approach that can make sure we have long term sustainability and ethical practices within organizations. 

https://hbr.org/1965/09/personal-values-and-corporate-strategy

In the article “Moral Person and Moral Manager”, I learned two dimensions of ethical leadership, strategies for development, and challenges for ethical leadership. On page four, there is a diagram that shows the two pillars of ethical leadership. I have experienced Moral Person as I have been in jobs that I have had to be open and communicate with peers I did not have a strong connection with. Having the traits of a moral person has allowed me to gain connections with peers in my industry, and have an environment of people to go to if I need help with anything. Moral Manager I have used when I have had to set an example for a team I was in when I was leading. I wanted our team to have high standards as I knew what was expected to be done. Having a supportive environment allowed me to show attributes of a moral manager to my team. On page twelve, we learned about sharing our values as an ethical leader. In this, it mentioned it is difficult to maintain as there are many standards that you have to follow. I have experienced senior leadership as I have been under a team where I had a leader who had a higher role than all of us who led us to success. There were many challenging factors along the way, but it allowed me and my team to learn from our mistakes. Overall having clear expectations for a team and following the guidelines will allow you to make it to the finish line. Using these morals will create an environment that is needed to be successful.

https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654206/mod_resource/content/1/Trevino_Moral_Person_Moral_Manager_Ethical_Leadership.pdf

In the article “Ethical Role of the Manager”, I learned more about ethical leadership, ethical decision making frameworks, and moral development. While reading about ethical leadership on page one, I could connect to it in many ways. When working in a team you have to have integrity, honesty, and trustworthiness. I had a job last semester with the football team in recruiting which I got to see a lot of those traits. While working with your department, you had to work together to get the job done that was assigned whether you enjoyed it or not. As one big team we would have to communicate with each other and show honesty with each other for different challenges that we had to face. We had to gain each other’s trust individually as we would randomly be assigned to work together on game days. On page four and, moral development was talked about. This brought up the codes of conduct, and gave an example of large corporations using it. This was used during recruiting as we had to understand how important it was talking to our recruits that came in as we wanted to give them the most honest answers we could. Transparency was used as we wanted to make it clear what our program could offer to the player and what some expectations would be. Showing these attributes can enhance the program’s reputation and allows potential growth for the recruits. Recognizing ethical leadership and frameworks in a workplace will improve relationships with your peers and can create a positive work environment for those around you. 

​​https://moodle-courses2425.wolfware.ncsu.edu/pluginfile.php/654207/mod_resource/content/1/Ethical_Role_of_the_Manager.pdf 

In the article “Thinking Ethically” it discusses the five different approaches to values to deal with moral issues. The most important approach mentioned is The Utilitarian Approach. This is seen in the business world almost everyday when it comes to making decisions. A big one we see quite often are employees getting laid off. This just happened at CISCO for some people as it affected thousands of people. In doing this, it is saving the company money, which will benefit the remaining employees. Health and safety policies are overlooked as well in the business world as some companies are looking to invest in updated safety equipment. This prioritizes the employees well-being and is a benefit in the long run. The second most important approach stated in the article is The Rights Approach. This is seen in different work environments on a daily basis as many places are fighting for worker rights. This means employees are fighting for fair wages and a safe working environment. Strikes are being held worldwide which is showing an action being done by employees to voice their concerns. Workers have the right for fair treatment and deserve a safe workplace that they should be allowed to feel safe in everyday going into work. Both of these approaches are very important as they can guide employees, peers, and workers in the right direction, but it is important to understand when moral issues are taking place and when action should be done. 

https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/thinking-ethically/