SLC 300 (601) Fall 2024 Leading with an Ethical Perspective

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

I wanted to make a text-to-self connection between the text “Ethics Awareness” and myself. As I was exploring this information, I found it relevant to some of my experiences I have had learning about the intentions of universities. It talks about cultivating an ethical institution and I am reassured thar NC State is cultivating an ethical institution. I remember when I was looking for schools and NC State stood out as a school that promoted their ethical environment. They did this by telling me what I should expect from the school, shared reliable resources and had employees/professors that set the example for the students to see. As NC State is known for their excellence, the university continues to be respected and supported by students, fans, staff, etc. Their integrity is also built because of this level of excellence.

As I have taken time to really learn more about my own values, I have explored the “why” behind the core values that I live by and make me who I am. According to the article, “Ethical decision-making is based on core character values like trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship. Ethical decisions generate ethical behaviors and provide a foundation for good business practices.” I think it is interesting that core values I have defined based on who I am translate into decision-making in the business world. This is reassuring that my personal career and professional career are very much tied together in a similar way. I think it also speaks to the fact that the work I put into myself is shown through my professional decisions.

Ethics Awareness

I thought that the article ” Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model” was interesting. I would like to make a text-to-world connection here. On page 374, it highlights the components of moral intensity. It shares how moral intensity involved the magnitude of consequences. It states, “The magnitude of consequences of the moral issue is defined as the sum of the harms (or benefits) done to victims (or beneficiaries) of the moral act in question. ” I think this is interesting because in our world there are a lot of terrible things that happen to people and the people who commit those things have to consider the consequences. I also think it is interesting that the weight and magnitude of a consequence to one person doesn’t necessarily hold the same magnitude or weight for another person. I think this is why a lot of the time one person’s rational thoughts are another person’s last choice.

In terms of within an organization, the text states, “Further, because moral issues are present in most organizational decisions, people concerned with minor issues would be morally agitated most of the time. Because people are not constantly agitated over moral issues, it is assumed that many moral issues fail to reach a threshold of magnitude of consequences.” I think this speaks to the common sense that most employees have within the organization. Most people naturally understand the appropriate way/ morally correct way to handle conflict, agitation, anger, etc. within the workplace.

Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model

Within the Principles of Management book, a few highlights from the Decision Making chapter caught my eye. The story of Bernard Ebbers is a good one to learn from because it speaks of rapid growth and of the temptation to settle when it comes to new issues. When WorldCom grew, they found themselves in a place where it was difficult for them to keep up with the new expectations and staff. This started from the top down however, as Ebbers was shying away from any issues and only wanted to hear of issues solved. This really isolated his employees and put a burden on them while he was not involved in the process at all. This led to many of the employees fraudulently putting out false financial reports along with other dishonest techniques when it came to their operations. This made me realize how important it is for a leader to get within a problem alongside his or her followers. Leaders should be servants in a sense where they would be the first to look at the problem and formulate a plan, rather than setting a bad precedence of ignorance. The employees at WorldCom were looking to a bad example which eventually bit their leader back for the worst. Instead, Ebbers should have welcomed the problems the new change saw put forth, to encourage and show employees that with more comes more ethical responsibilities, not permission to bend around ethical decisions.

One thing I appreciated in reading about UC San Diego’s ethical awareness article was the fact of being up front with what is ethical or not within a workplace. i think it can be dangerous for many companies or other organizations to go about their work assuming that everyone is on board with their ethical assumptions. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. I think it can be quite dangerous for organizations to assume these things, and it is best to clarify what is expected, even if it seems mundane or obvious. I appreciated the article articulating a 7 step path needed for individual ethical choices, which include stopping and thinking, considering consequences, and looking over the options before making an ethical decision. I think this is important to equip people with personal tools to then build up the culture of the company. Finally, accountability is important as well. This is where UC San Diego highlighted good internal control that promotes competence of staff. There was me a well run internal control team to make sure that ethical subjects are not just promoted, but maintained.

In the article, Ethical Decision Making by Individuals In Organizations, talks mainly about how to introduce concepts not present in prior models and to offer a model that supplements, but does not replace, other models. I want to talk about the 3 definitions that were the main part of this article that pertains to real life situation which is moral issues means a moral issue is present where a person’s actions, when freely performed, may harm or benefit others. A moral agent is a person who makes a moral decision, even though he or she may not recognize that moral issues are at stake. We all know what ethical and unethical decisions mean. I want to mainly talk about how moral issues can be translated not only in business but in the world. For instance the election and Donald Trump becoming president and certain things on his agenda can hurt certain groups of people such as women and children and minorities, but certain things on his agenda can benefit others such as rich people with the tax cuts. Also, with having a lot of republicans in the senate and congress and by pushing his agenda, a lot of people can be harmed or benefitted by their decision on certain topics and it can affect our country.

In the Decision Making article, they talk about different decision making tactics that you can sure in your company, but these decision making tactics can help in real life situations. Making rational decisions whether that means in business and in life, for example, for me being able to make a decision on going to a college for basketball. College is supposed to be the best 4 years of your life and making that decision is a big part of your life, but it’s hard. The first step of that is that I know I want to go to college for basketball, but the next step is to the see what’s the important factors that I want in the school that I want to go to. Which is to go to a winning program, having a great relationship with coaches and team, family atmosphere and where I could get my degree. I ended up choosing Mississippi State University and based off of the factors that are important to me, I left to come to NC State and it’s been the most amazing 4 years here. So even if you make a decision there are always better options that benefit you.

Based on Thomas M. Jones’s “Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model,” the author suggests in this paper that ethical decision-making is influenced by moral intensity—that is, the traits of the ethical issue itself. Given my own background, I can relate to Jones’s thesis on moral proximity in light of a situation in which I had to make a difficult choice at employment. Whether or not to expose a close colleague for a minor policy infraction presented a dilemma. Though I knew the injustice was wrong, my relationship to this person affected my unwillingness to intervene. Jones names this phenomena as “proximity” changing moral assessments. The idea that moral closeness could influence ethical decisions emphasizes the reality that some interpersonal interactions can make objective assessment challenging to reach. Jones’s analysis of the pressures corporations confront and the reactions society has to ethics reminds me of the present corporate scandals including the Volkswagen emissions case. Jones’s theory holds that situational circumstances affect ethical behavior, so the executives of the company were under a lot of pressure to perform and hence engaged in immoral activities. The story shows how acts with great consequences in the actual world could be influenced by the moral intensity of employees of a corporation as well as by its culture. Finally, Jones’s approach provides insightful analysis of the difficulties in ethical decision-making. It implies that determining people’s moral behavior mostly depends on their personal relationships and the surroundings of the choice.

This module’s hot topic article “Parents ‘crossed a line’ in U.S. college scandal, prosecutor tells jury” by Nate Raymond reminded me of the Netflix documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal. I eagerly watched the documentary when it premiered in 2021 because I had heard of the case and was interested in learning more about it. I enjoy most of Netflix’s documentaries and think the director is an amazing storyteller. The director of Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal is Chris Smith who also directed Fyre the documentary about the failure of Fyre Festival. He produced Tiger King and directed Sr. the documentary about Robert Downey Sr. He works closely with Netflix and is responsible for many of Netflix’s greatest documentaries. 

I think that Smith is an amazing director and producer because he manages to navigate the ethical ramifications of telling difficult stories in an entertaining yet respectful way. It is clear to me, as a fan and someone who has watched many of Smith’s films, that he prioritizes delicately telling sensitive stories. He manages to captivate and honestly tell a well-rounded story. After being reminded of the college scandal documentary and learning that so many of the documentaries I have enjoyed that tie back to topics discussed in class were directed by Smith, I wanted to know more about him. In an interview with the Academy of Motion Pictures, he said, “Every film is a window into another perspective, another life, which is an opportunity for you to learn and grow,” I think this gives great perspective into his psyche and morals. He doesn’t go into projects trying to expose people or ruin their lives, he goes into projects to learn and tell a raw, transparent story. 

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/final-arguments-expected-1st-us-college-admissions-scandal-trial-2021-10-06/

https://www.netflix.com/title/81130691

https://aframe.oscars.org/what-to-watch/post/chris-smith-5-movies-that-shaped-me-as-a-filmmaker

The UC San Diego Ethics Awareness webpage is extremely informative. I admire the transparency they have in explaining why ethics are important, the consequences of acting unethically, and most importantly, they offer a clear plan of how they advise UC San Diego departments to help cultivate an ethical institution. Their words of what it means to be ethical are met with actions of how to commit to following through. It is amazing to see that they list four succinct points of action that outline what fostering a high level of integrity in institutional departments means. These points offer a framework for how to create a healthy environment. 

The points they list are:

1. Tell people what is expected of them.
2. Set the example.
3. Give the message and repeat it often.
4. Use the resources available to you.

Telling people what is expected of them is the first step, and it creates the foundation of understanding. It levels the playing field and eliminates people being unsure of the expectations. Next, they encourage people to set an example. I believe that this is one of the most important steps because it takes the point to a new level. The department must embody the expectation of integrity and ethical values. The more people within the department that model the fundamental ethics will create a domino effect that allows the culture to spread across the department. As a department head, they have the responsibility to set the standard, and be an example. They also must give the message and repeat it often. This is a continuous process that must be exercised. The final point given is to use the resources available. The Ethic Awareness webpage is an amazing resource, and it should be utilized. 

How Do We Cultivate An Ethical Institution?