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Organizational Ethics

Ethics is key to successful organizations of all types, from community groups to non-profits to professional associations and corporations.

Overview

All organizations face ethical challenges in their management structure, working environments, leadership style, and the objectives the organization strives to achieve. A significant goal for behavioral ethics research is to find ways to structure organizations in order to make it easier for people to do the right thing and harder for them to do the wrong thing.

The resources in this section explore a variety of behavioral ethics concepts that, if known, can help to develop and sustain ethical organizational culture. For instance, many social and organizational pressures people face, such as the tendency to be like those around them and the desire to please authority, can cause even the most well-intentioned people to make poor ethical choices. Learning about these pressures can help organizations develop strategies to safeguard against these influences.

This section also introduces the skills necessary to be an ethical and effective team member, and explores some of the psychological biases which can hamper ethical decision-making on an organizational (and individual) level.

Start Here: Videos

Moral Myopia

Moral Myopia

Moral myopia is a distortion of moral vision that keeps ethical issues from coming clearly into focus.

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Obedience to Authority

Obedience to Authority

Obedience to authority describes our tendency to please authority figures. We may place too much emphasis on that goal and, consciously or subconsciously, subordinate the goal of acting ethically.

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Role Morality

Role Morality

Role morality is the tendency we have to use different moral standards for the different roles we play in society.

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Start Here: Cases

Pao & Gender Bias

Pao & Gender Bias

Ellen Pao stirred debate in the venture capital and tech industries when she filed a lawsuit against her employer on grounds of gender discrimination.

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Stangl & the Holocaust

Stangl & the Holocaust

Franz Stangl was the most effective Nazi administrator in Poland, killing nearly one million Jews at Treblinka, but he claimed he was simply following orders.

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Teaching Notes

Begin by viewing the “Start Here” videos. They introduce key topics such as framing, role morality, and moral myopia. The leadership videos offer best practices for creating ethical culture and explore the specific biases that leaders of organizations face. Watch the whole Giving Voice to Values Series for a detailed approach of how values-driven leadership supports ethical organizational culture.Read through these videos’ teaching notes for details and related ethics concepts. Watch the “Related Videos” and/or read the related Case Study. “Additional Resources” offer further reading, a bibliography, and (sometimes) assignment suggestions.

Show a video in class, assign a video to watch outside of class, or embed a video in an online learning module such as Canvas. Then, prompt conversation in class to encourage peer-to-peer learning. Ask students to answer the video’s “Discussion Questions,” and to reflect on the ideas and issues raised by the students in the video. How do their experiences align? How do they differ? The videos also make good writing prompts. Ask students to watch a video and apply the ethics concept to course content.

The case studies examine ethical challenges in a variety of organizations, including nonprofits, government, and the private sector. Cases are an effective way to introduce ethics topics, too, and for students to learn how to spot ethical issues. Select a case study from the Cases Series or ask students to read a video’s “Case Study” and answer the case study “Discussion Questions.” Then, ask students to reason through the ethical dimensions presented, and to sketch the ethical decision-making process outlined by the case. Then, challenge students to develop strategies to avoid these ethical pitfalls. Suggest students watch the case study’s “Related Videos” and “Related Terms” to further their understanding.

Ethics Unwrapped blogs are also useful prompts to engage students. Learning about ethics in the context of real-world (often current) events can enliven classroom discussion and make ethics relevant and concrete for students. Share a blog in class or post one to the class’s online learning module. To spur discussion, ask students to identify the ethical issues at hand and to name the ethics concepts related to the blog (or current event in the news). Dig more deeply into the topic using the Additional Resources listed at the end of the blog post.

Remember to review video, case study, and blogs’ relevant glossary terms. In this way, you will become familiar with all the ethics concepts contained in these material. Share this vocabulary with your students, and use it to expand and enrich ethics and leadership conversations in your classroom. To dive deeper in the glossary, watch “Related” glossary videos.

Many of the concepts covered in Ethics Unwrapped operate in tandem with each other. As you watch more videos, you will become more fluent in ethics and see the interrelatedness of ethics concepts more readily. You also will be able to spot ethical issues more easily – at least, that is the hope! As your students watch more videos, it will be easier for them to recognize and understand ethical issues, and to express their ideas and thoughts about what is and isn’t ethical and why. Hopefully, they will also come to realize the interconnectedness of ethics and leadership, and the essential role ethics plays in developing solid leadership skills.

Additional Videos

Additional Cases