Transcript CH. 12 – Doing the Right Thing Lesson #1

Cooperative Work Experience
Education (CWEE) Fall 2010
Ethics Defined
eth·ics
–plural noun
1. ( used with a singular or plural verb ) a system of moral
principles: the ethics of a culture.
2. the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of
human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical
ethics; Christian ethics.
3. moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal
of a confidence.
4. ( usually used with a singular verb ) that branch of philosophy
dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to
the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the
goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such
actions.
Did You Bring Your Ethics to
Work With You Today?
 Think
you are a person of
integrity and that you bring your
highest standards of ethics to
your workplace each day? You
may reassess your thinking as we
explore the topic of workplace
ethics this semester.
Workplace Ethics
Despite hundreds of pages of policies,
codes of ethics, codes of conduct,
organizational values, carefully defined
work environments, and company cultures,
lapses in workplace ethics occur every day.
 Lapses in workplace ethics result from
inappropriate officer behavior such as
insider stock trading, expense account
fraud, sexual harassment, and involvement
in conflicts of interest.

Workplace Ethics
Lapses in workplace ethics do not need
to rise to that level to impact the
workplace environment you provide for
employees though.
 Lapses in workplace ethics can occur
because of simple issues such as toilet
paper, copy machines, and lunch signup
lists.

Lapses in Ethics
In her article on Workplace Ethics, Susan
Heathfield recalls the trouble companies
have had. “In a nationally important
workplace ethics case, Hewlett-Packard
company's, successful CEO, Mark Hurd,
(now former H-P CEO), became embroiled
in workplace ethics issues. I have no
insider knowledge, but the public statement
from the company indicated that Mr. Hurd
left because he violated the company’s
expected standards of conduct.”
Lapses in Ethics
Ms. Heathfield continues, “Cathie Lesjak, HP's chief financial officer, who was
appointed interim CEO until the company
can find a permanent replacement for Mr.
Hurd, asked employees “to remain
‘focused’ and said ‘Mark had failed to
disclose a close personal relationship he
had with the contractor that constituted a
conflict of interest, failed to maintain
accurate expense reports, and misused
company assets.’”
Lapses in Ethics

While most of us don’t have as far to fall as Mr.
Hurd, and unfortunately, he is not the first high
profile executive to bite the dust over personal
conduct in recent years, lapses in ethics occur
in workplaces every day.

You can violate the spoken and unspoken,
published and unpublished, code of conduct in
your organization without a CEO title and
without your actions rising to the level of
conflict of interests and questionable expense
accounting.
To Earn Credit....
Answer the following question to earn class credit
for this presentation:
Think about your workplace. What kind of ethical
dilemmas have you witnessed?
Email your answer to
[email protected]. Please make
sure you write in complete sentences. Please
observe correct spelling, grammar, and
punctuation. You must email your answer by
Friday, September 24th.