Issue Identification

Overview

Identify and explain a potential ethical dilemma facing a real-world organization and discuss the current relevance of the issue.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

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Competency 1: Evaluate the parameters for ethical decision making in 21st century multicultural business environments.

Describe an ethical issue that can be resolved by an organizational policy.
Evaluate why an organizational policy would be needed to resolve an ethical issue.
Examine the current relevance of an ethical issue.
Evaluate the importance of resolving an ethical issue.

Competency Map

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Toggle DrawerContextThe word ethics usually evokes a strong emotional reaction or opinion from most people. Having a keen eye and observing reactions (yours as well as others’) in a nonjudgmental manner will serve you best as you pursue the objectives of this course.

SHOW LESSBusiness ethics can be a gray area. As conditions and environments change, people’s behaviors change. The regulations intended to create fair standards in the world of business also subsequently change. Examining the hard-to-define parameters of ethics should help us to develop our perceptiveness and skills in analyzing the best solutions to ethical dilemmas.

There are a range of models for ethical decision making and analysis of ethical dilemmas. Different prevailing theories underlay the reasoning approaches to ethical issues and challenges. No one approach is considered best for all situations. However, by knowing these approaches, and applying them to different ethical problems, you can become a valuable participant in creating ethical solutions.
Toggle DrawerQuestions to ConsiderTo deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.

Based on your experience, which of the following dimensions do you think has influenced the biggest changes in business ethics over the last decade?

Individually unethical persons.
More complex situations without sufficient guidelines.
Inadequate laws.
Unreasonable organizational goals.

Consider the number of crisis situations you have experienced. Reflect on the crisis response process, and whether all stakeholders were well served in a fair and ethical manner. Analyze whether it was the best response for all stakeholders involved.
Based on your experience, do you think regulations work to maintain an ethical environment, or do you think people are the central drivers of creating ethical cultures? Consider whether the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (often referred to as SOX) supports ethical behavior. You are encouraged to review Title III of SOX. Do you think SOX worked for financial institutions in the recent financial crisis? You might also refer to the “CEO and CFO Rules” section of Chapter 1, “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: How We Got Here, and What It Means,” from the The Complete Guide to Sarbanes-Oxley e-book.

Toggle DrawerResourcesSuggested Resources

The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.

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Assessment Instructions; 

A person cannot evaluate the ethicality of organizational policies until he or she identifies the issues that those policies are intended to address. In this assessment, you will do just that.

Complete the following:

Identify a potential ethical dilemma from a real-world organization. As an example of an ethical dilemma, consider the following scenario: an organization may choose to videotape the office and read employee e-mails. The conflict here may be that employees feel these practices are a violation of their privacy, and that they have a right to a certain level of privacy. However, organizational stakeholders defend these practices because their concern is whether the employees are getting their work done.

Choose any organization about which you can find sufficient information to complete the assessment. For example, you might use the organization for which you currently work, where you used to work, or where an associate of yours works.
If there is any concern with disclosing confidential information, substitute a made-up name for the organization’s name and indicate you are doing so.
The ethical issue or problem selected must affect the organization, potentially affect the organization, or involve the organization.

Explain the issues involved, including the following:

Identify the stakeholders.
Identify the concerns of the stakeholders.

Explain why you chose this particular issue and why the issue is important.
Examine the current relevance of the issue.

Is the issue currently in the media spotlight?
Are there any recent incidents or reasons why this issue has come to the public’s attention?