Ethics
is something that should be taught throughout our lives because we can all use
a reminder of how ethics affects our daily lives, those of our families, our
work environment and even strangers that may come into our lives at some
point. Overall I feel that this class
taught me many things. Most were
reminders of how we should live our lives and others an eye opener of how
others are treated because of the color of their skin, their gender and even
their religious background. Tolerance is
something that we must all learn in many regards in order to adapt and move to
the next level.
The
three things I have taken away from this class are the Golden Rule, Living Morally and Ethics & Organizations. Each of these elements brought out a better
understanding of what ethics is about.
Some are obvious such as the golden rule and living morally but it also
serves as a reminder that ethics is so very important in the business
world. What you do affects those that
look up to you in the organization so your actions good or bad will observed
and even repeated in some cases.
The
Golden Rule is something that I try very hard to live by and to instill in my
daughter as well. Reading the articles
and chapters helped me realize that sometimes we cannot live by the golden rule
when it comes to certain situations that may cause our golden rules to be
compromised such as lying and stealing or even killing if it means protecting
our family. Everyone wants to be treated
with respect so we should treat others the way we want to be treated. This may not be possible in every situation
such as lying to protect a loved one from harm or to spare their feelings. Or if someone was breaking into our homes and
threatening our family, we would take every measure to keep them safe even if
it meant taking another’s life. We
should all have a firm understanding of what is morally right and wrong and try
to keep to those standards as well as following the Golden Rule. Who doesn't want to be treated with kindness
and respect? Give it to get it.
Living
morally, we all do this don’t we? Perhaps
but chapter 13 helped to bring this perspective to the forefront for me. LaFollette listed five factors that he broke
into three groups; knowledge of the context, psychological factors, and
interpreting others behaviors. Being
able to understand how we may have some bias in these areas can help us to be
more cautious and learn to face these bias and work to overcome them. Knowledge of the context…basically you need
to be sure you have all the information before you make a judgment about a person
or a situation. We have all heard the
sayings, “don’t judge a book by its cover” or “walk a mile in my shoes before
you judge”. If you don’t have all the
facts don’t make a judgment call it is as simple as that.
Psychological
factors remind us how important it is to look at the big picture by zooming out
and then being able to look at the details by zooming in to get a better
understanding of it all. We can question
how things are done, what can be done to improve them and then to be able to
explain how to make corrections as needed.
And lastly interpreting other’s behavior…you can’t take things
personally when you don’t have all the facts.
It can be very easy to jump to conclusions and requires us to think
critically about the situation and ask ourselves how to approach it with an
open mind. Sometimes you can’t take something
at face value you have to get to know the person, problem, etc. before you
interpret why someone is doing, saying or acting a certain way.
The
last one Ethics and Organizations was a great learning lesson for me. I am a firm believer that there should be
some type of code in place in the work place. A formalized code would be good BUT it isn’t
enough to just throw together some guidelines and say here you go now manage
these people. There should always be training inside and out of the company. A
good leader should want to continue to strive for the best. There are companies such as Zappos that have
proven that having a code in place works.
It doesn’t need to be super detailed but it should be the right fit for
your organization. These codes need to
apply to everyone in the company not just those at the bottom or at the
top. It has to flow up and down to make
it work.
We
were asked to create our own code and I felt that mine could be applied both at
work and at home:
·
treat your employees fairly
·
truly listen to your employees and be sure
that information is flowing both up and down
·
be sure to provide training so that your
employees can continue to expand their knowledge
·
trust and faith in your employees
·
common curiosity and open communication
·
be willing to continue your own training to
learn all areas of what your employee deal with on a daily basis
I really enjoyed this
class and everything that I have learned and been reminded of as well. I feel that the material we covered was
really good and current. The only thing
I feel that could have been covered better was the racism chapter. I did like how LaFollette broke down the
barriers as there were many things I didn’t know about however one would think
that racism is just a black and white issue. Sadly it is much bigger than that.
We have racism against religious groups, gays and lesbians, and other ethnic
groups. This needs to be exposed so that
we can understand why it happens and we can do something about it by teaching
tolerance at all levels and stop judging on the surface. I am down to my last three classes and I look
forward to learning more about leadership development and being able to
continue to put what I have learned to good use.
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