Discussion 4
In what ways will you implement critical reasoning in your lives going forward? How will you share what you’ve learned with family, friends, and colleagues? Are there any specific concepts you’ve learned that you have found particularly helpful?
A Critique of Lockheed Martin
In this assignment you will be asked to review Chapter 4, the final chapter of Terris’ book, and to spend some time applying your critical thinking skills in evaluating Lockheed Martin’s efforts.
Address the following in your paper:
1. What do you think about the notion presented by Terris that Lockheed’s ethics program does little to prevent ethical breaches at the highest level of the organization?
2. Are the efforts put forth—such as making sure higher level executives participate in training—enough to help executives navigate what Terris calls the ‘ethical minefield’ faced by leadership in such an organization?
3.What are some things that could be done to address the issue related to ethics at higher executive levels of the organization?
4.Terris points out that the company’s program is overly focused on individuals and that it doesn’t really address group dynamics that can impact ethical situations.
For instance, there can be a tendency for groups to ‘go with the flow’ of the group decision making process and overlook ethical issues in the process. What would you recommend that Lockheed Martin do to address this situation?
(Hint: reviewing p. 128 and the following pages – before section headed “Personal Responsibility, Collective Innocence” – of the text might be helpful).
Write a 3- to 4-page paper, not including title page or references page addressing the issue and upload it by the end of this module.
Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate reference page. Make sure you cite your sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Mental health and gun violence
Paper detalis:
ETHICS: PHIL 103 Signature Assignment
For your signature assignment, you will be applying two ethical theories to an ethical problem.
Examples of such problems are euthanasia for terminal patients, capital punishment: capricious and arbitrary, police brutality, abortion, simulated killing, and so forth.
Your topic will have to be approved by me, so send me a brief synopsis as soon as you know what you want to write on. Your essay should be at least 6-7 pages. The body of the essay should be around 1000 words.
In the early modules, we discussed ethical theories. These are ethical relativism, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, Kant’s deontology, and natural law theory/virtue ethics.
In the later modules of the course, we discussed several problems in applied ethics. You may choose from those applied ethics cases or choose one of your own.
Structure of the Essay
1. Introduction to the topic
Give a brief history and background of your topic. Following this, you must state your. Your must make a stand on the ethical problem. For example, ‘euthanasia for terminally ill patients is an ethically right choice to make in many cases.’ The main arguments you present in this essay will defend this position.
2. Body of Essay
a. Select two ethical theories to use in the main body of your essay. The first theory will be the one that supports your. State and explain this theory and apply it to your moral issue.
b. The second theory will give the opposite analysis. If your thesis is that “X is morally right,” then the counterargument will try to show that x is morally wrong.
n this way, you will be giving a balanced account of your topic.Moreover, it would be good to provide some of your own arguments for why the counter-view is faulty.
You thus support your original thesis in a better and stronger way. Academic sources are good at this point of your essay as well.
c. Compare and contrast how the two ethical theories you have chosen are different. You may label one section of your essay, “Comparing the Theories.” The next section might be labeled, “Contrasting the Theories.”
3. Conclusion
In your conclusion, you should reaffirm your and the ethical theory that supports your argument; as well, you need to include a final section on why that ethical theory also helps make other ethically right decisions when faced with other difficult ethical decisions.
This part of your conclusion describes your ethical stance moving forward and your confidence in the ethical theory you have chosen.
The paper itself must be an academically formatted paper (APA). Your academic support must include at least 3 credible academic sources that discuss either the ethical issue you chose or the ethical systems you describe in the paper.
Your paper should be in the following APA format:
1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Main body
4. References
Here are more resources to help you with formatting:
Purdue Owl on APA formatting
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html
Use an APA template for your paper
https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/format/
Discussion 2
In much of the public discourse following George Floyd’s murder, and the social movement following, the topic of implicit bias has been front of mind.
Implicit bias is a bias or belief that one may hold that they are not conscious of, but may be expressed in certain ways (ex. a white woman and black man are walking towards each other on the street, and the white woman clutches her purse a little tighter as they pass each other.).
Do you think that elements of critical reasoning, or learning critical reasoning, could help combat implicit bias? Why or why not?
(There is not a right answer that looking for — would just like for you to reflect on this topic).
Recently we have gone through (and are still going through) a pandemic, a massive social movement for racial equality, a financial crisis, and we just came out of an election year.
Much of the public discourse surrounding all of these current issues shows polarized viewpoints and an inability for viewpoints to change when presented with new information, an openness to hearing others’ views, or generally a desire to engage in critical reasoning.
How do you think critical reasoning could help to move these issues in a positive direction, and how can that be applied in a way that people do not feel threatened?
You do not have to respond with references to the reading, but it may be helpful for you to think about this question in reference to the reading.
For your SLP assignment,read the following article.
Gnazzo, P. J. (2011). The chief ethics and compliance officer: A test of endurance. Business & Society Review (00453609), 116(4). Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Also, spend some time researching other sources to help you develop your key arguments.
Bageac, D., Furrer, O., & Reynaud, E. (2011). Management Students' Attitudes Toward Business Ethics: A Comparison Between France and Romania: JBE. Journal of Business Ethics, 98(3), 391-406. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Jaffe, E. D., Kushnirovich, N., & Tsimerman, A. (2018). The Impact of Acculturation on Immigrants’ Business Ethics Attitudes: JBE. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(4), 821-834. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Mihelic, K. K., Lipicnik, B., & Tekavcic, M., (2010). Ethical leadership. International Journal of Management and Information Systems, 14(5), 31-41. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Oates, V., & Dalmau, T. (2013). Instilling ethical leadership. Accountancy SA, 38-41. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Cavico, F. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2017). Wells Fargo's fake accounts scandal and its legal and ethical implications for management. S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal, 82(2), 4-19.
Venezia, C. C., Venezia, G., Cavico, F. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2011). Is ethics education necessary? A comparative study of moral cognizance in Taiwan and the United States. The International Business & Economics Research Journal, 10(3), 17-28.
The following tutorial provides detailed information that can be applied to the topics of this course. There are a number of videos and lessons on ethics.
Assignment Details:
The Chief Ethics Officer
In this assignment you will be asked to consider the role of organizational leaders with respect to ensuring companies work to create an ethical workplace culture. It is important for all upper level leaders to ‘walk the talk’ so to speak. In addition, many larger companies have a Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer who provides leadership and oversight to the company’s business ethics related endeavors. Recall that Lockheed Martin has such an executive level position. However, not all companies have such a position. In this assignment you will be asked to discuss the contributions of executive leaders and of the Ethics Officer with respect to building an organization that values workplace ethics.
What do you believe are the most important characteristics of ethical leadership?
Describe the relationship between the ethical leader and the follower.
Why is this relationship important for organizations that are attempting to do the right thing?
Based on your readings (both the articles provided and Terris' text), what is the role of the Chief Ethics Officer and how does the role of this person relate to the success of the ethics related endeavors within large organizations?
Your paper should be 2–3 pages, double-spaced and in 12-point type size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate reference page. Make sure you cite your sources.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module.
Ethical Decisions in the Workplace
After reading your background readings, review the following scenario and address the questions at the end.
Jerry Stevens heads up an excavation crew for the municipal utilities district in a city in Nebraska. A sewer line needs to be replaced and it has been excavated with a back-hoe.
The trench is 7 feet deep. The municipality's safety rules indicate that employees should not go into the trench without a trench box.
This rule is to prevent employees from being buried if the trench walls collapse. People die every year from trench cave-ins.
The trench box won't arrive on site for another 6 hours and the city promised residents that the sewer would be fixed by the end of the day, which now seems impossible.
The City Administrator called Jerry on his cell phone and indicated that it was imperative that the sewer be fixed as soon as conceivably possible because a City Council member is served by that sewer line and will raise a fuss if it’s not fixed by the promised time.
One of the more experienced workers states, "It's only going to take 30 minutes to dig under the pipe and loosen the fittings. We don't need the trench box.
We used to do this all the time before we were required to use one of those darn things."
Jerry knows he's right. He used to do it himself before the rule was put in place. Also, the soil is clearly a cohesive soil and it's highly unlikely that it will collapse.
And although there is an organizational policy to use a trench box for trenches deeper than 5 feet, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have jurisdiction over municipalities in Nebraska because municipalities are political subdivisions of the State.
The only entity regulating safety policies is the City's Safety Director and he took the day off.
In this scenario, to what extent do you think allowing the crew into the trench without a trench box would be pushing (or exceeding) the limit?
Discuss any ethical grey areas in this scenario?
What in your mind is the right thing to do?
What is the value of having an ethics program (and related programs like safety programs) and what are the responsibilities of front line leaders/supervisors and the workers when they face dilemmas such as the one described?
Take some time to review the materials and take a position on the issue.
Write a 2- to 3-page assessment of the authors’ claims, and your assessment of what might be done in a place of business to prevent the "moral amnesia" phenomenon from taking a foothold in a place of business.
Required Readings:
For your SLP assignment, read the following article.
De Cremer, D., & de Bettignies, H. (2013). Pragmatic business ethics. Business Strategy Review, 24(2), 64-67. Retrieved from Trident Online Library.
Also, spend some time researching other sources to help you develop your key arguments.
Snell, R. (2013). Teaching rules-based and values-based ethics. Journal of Health Care Compliance, 15(1), 29-32. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Cavico, F. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2017). Wells Fargo's fake accounts scandal and its legal and ethical implications for management. S.A.M.Advanced Management Journal, 82(2), 4-19.
The following tutorial provides detailed information that can be applied to the topics of this course. There are a number of videos and lessons on ethics.
Beekun, R. (2010). Effects of justice and utilitarianism on ethical decision making: A cross‐cultural examination of gender similarities and differences. Journal of Business Ethics, 19(4), 309-325.
After reading Chapter 2 of the text, write a 4-5 page essay that addresses the following:
Lockheed has an interesting history that seemed innocent enough up until around the 1950s.
You’ll note on p. 56 of Terris’ book that the company began to engage in some questionable sales strategies with other nations in an effort sell the F-104 Starfighter so as to recoup costs when their US sales strategy failed.
Describe some of the unorthodox strategies covered by Terris during this era that made Lockheed become “…a byword for the shady practices of American multi-national corporations, and a major impetus for new legislation…”.
On the issue of overseas bribes, Terris asks the questions, “Who was hurt by the [overseas bribes to secure sales of aircraft]?
The competitors, of course, but what was unethical about beating out the competition that was playing by the same rules?” (p.59).
What do you think about a situation where underhanded and back door deals are the way the game is played if everybody is on the same playing field? That is to say, if everybody is playing by the same shady rules, is it unethical to compete?
In your reading you will note that defense contractors continued to find themselves in hot water well into the 1970s as a result of overpricing and additional charges of bribery.
In the late 70s Lockheed established its first code of ethics and later the major defense contractors came to the table to level the playing field with the Defense Industry Initiative (DII), by agreeing on a set of ethical principles.
This was an important turning point as was bringing Norman Augustine on board.
Why was the DII so important to the eventual success of Lockheed Martin’s ethics program?
Discuss Norman Augustine’s and Dilbert’s contribution in helping Lockheed Martin turn the corner with its ethics program.
One nice thing about this course is that you will find your background reading page rather short—but there will still be a respectable amount of reading to do. The reason is that you will be using a textbook for your Case Assignments. Well, it’s actually more of a narrative of the history of Lockheed Martin’s (LM) ethics program than an actual textbook.The first part of the text provides a general history of the company and also provides the setting for the creation of the company’s ethics program. Military contractors like LM tend to find themselves in the unique position of manufacturing weapons of war which they sell for a profit. But those weapons also provide a military superiority that helps to protect our troops in the field.With this said,read pages 1-48 for this module from the following book in the Trident Online Library:Terris, D. (2013). Ethics at work: Creating virtue at an American corporation. Waltham, MA: Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.For your SLP assignment you will be asked to spend some time reviewing an article on stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is foundational to the practice of business ethics. This is because typically when a company player does something unethical, stakeholders are the ones impacted. As always, some stakeholders may benefit and others may lose, but stakeholders will always be involved. Balancing stakeholder concerns is subsequently an important aspect of ethical decision making. This article provides a good overview of stakeholder management.Howitt, M., & McManus, J. (2012). Stakeholder management: An instrument for decision making. Management Services, 56(3), 29-34. Retrieved from Trident Online Library (ProQuest).Harrison, J. S., & Wicks, A. C. (2013). Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(1), 97-124. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.
Required Reading
Bossuyt, S., & Patrick, V. K. (2018). Assertiveness Bias in Gender Ethics Research: Why Women Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(3), 727-739. Available in the Trident Online Library.Terris, D. (2005). Ethics at work: Creating virtue at an American corporation. Waltham, MA:. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.Howitt, M., & McManus, J. (2012). Stakeholder management: An instrument for decision making. Management Services, 56(3), 29-34. Retrieved from Trident Online Library (ProQuest).Harrison, J. S., & Wicks, A. C. (2013). Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(1), 97-124. Retrieved from the Trident Online Library.Emerson, W. M., Alves, H., & Raposo, M. (2011). Stakeholder theory: Issues to resolve. Management Decision, 49(2), 226-252.Stieb, J. A. (2009). Assessing Freeman's stakeholder theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(3), 401-414.Vlachos, P. A., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. A. (2013). Feeling good by doing good: Employee CSR-induced attributions, job satisfaction, and the role of charismatic leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(3), 577-588.Schweitzer, M. E., & Gibson, D. E. (2008). Fairness, feelings, and ethical decision-making: Consequences of violating community standards of fairness. Journal of Business Ethics, 77(3), 287.The following tutorial provides detailed information that can be applied to the topics of this course. There are a number of videos and lessons on ethics. review the materials in this tutorial and save the tutorial for your future assignments. (At the end of the tutorial, there is an “exercise” that is NOT required for you to complete.)
Assignment Overview
The first part of your reading in Daniel Terris’ book will include an overview of Lockheed Martin’s organization and will lay out the research plan that Terris used to obtain information necessary for his work. This will be followed by a general overview of the evolution of business ethics in America.
Case Assignment
Based on your readings, describe what you consider to be the responsibility of top leadership in a large organization with respect to reaching a balance between profits and stakeholder concerns.
support your position by giving some examples from the text or from other sources where CEOs did a good or poor job of finding this balance.
Terris discusses the history of business ethics in America since the late 1800s with respect to anti-competitive practices, seeking unfair advantage through immoral arrangements with suppliers and public officials, failing to adhere to laws and regulations, and lack of transparency.
Discuss to what extent you believe things to be better or worse in the present day for businesses in general.
On page 41, Terris discusses the ideas of Howard Bowen regarding the evolution of social responsibility of businesses.
To what extent do you think his predictions held true since 1953?
Assignment Expectations
APA Points:
According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, there are three reasons why we need to use proper citations and references.
They are:
“To ensure the accuracy of scientific knowledge” (p.11). – How do we know if what you are reading is really the truth? We can look at the citation and the reference and do further research to make sure what you are reading and what you are basing your research on is correct.“To protect the rights and welfare of research participants” (p.11). – People deserve to get credit for their work. When you earn a degree and go on to do research, you will want credit for the work you have published.“To protect intellectual property rights” (p.11). – When we refer to inventions, we should give credit to the person who invented the item, trademarked the item, or developed a design. This protects their work.A reference system also allows the reader to use the in-text citation and reference page to find out how to do further research when they find a topic of interest. It can save a lot of time.As educated students, we should know the APA Style rules and work to perfect them.Below are three common mistakes that cost Trident Students. Reviewing these examples should help you improve your grade and also make future assignments easier.
APA Point 1: Where does the period go?
The use of a period. The period indicates the end of a sentence. However, if we put the period before the in-text citation, we are actually beginning the next sentence with the citation. Therefore, the period goes after the citation. Another misuse of the period is putting it before the citation and another after the citation. This is not correct. The period goes after the in-text citation.
Example: Intercultural Communication is quite important in how we deal with individuals from different Countries and even from different neighborhoods of our cities (Pearson, 2015b). – Notice where the period is.
APA Point 2: Do we need to use Quotation Marks?
When using information word for word from someone else’s work, quotation marks are necessary. This example illustrates the use of quoted material at the end of the sentence, followed by a citation and reference. The reference will also include the page numbers.
Example: When we are writing a Negative Letter, there are numerous authors who recommend starting the letters with a buffer. Remember, “Openings for negative messages are often called Buffer Beginnings because they are designed to buffer the negative message that will follow” (Bowman, 2002, p. 1).
APA Point 3: Arranging entries on a reference list.
Once again as we dive into our Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, we get guidance on how to arrange our references on the reference page. “Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author followed by initials of the author’s given name” (p. 181). One may ask why. When there are two or three references, it does not make a great amount of difference. But with numerous references, it is much easier if we arrange the references by the author’s last name. Remember, one of the purposes of a reference page is to help readers find additional information. If there are 10 or more references listed in random order, it is difficult to find the appropriate reference. So let’s use the alphabetical ordering.
Your paper should be double-spaced and in 12-point type size.
Your paper should have a separate cover page and a separate reference page containing the full citations corresponding to the in-text citations you choose to use in the body of your paper.So in addition to the 4- to 5-page body of your paper you will have a title page and a reference page.So overall, you will be submitting a 6- to 7-page document.
Use APA style, and proofread your paper.
Upload your paper by the end of the module.
