Examples of ethical dilemma and ethical lapse

Ethical Dilemma Vs. Ethical Lapse

Describe the difference between the terms “ethical dilemma” and “ethical lapse” using a minimum of one scholarly and/or credible source from the library to defend your answer. Provide an example from your life, or of someone you knew, who was faced with an ethical dilemma in the workplace. Without mentioning the name of the organization, describe the situation and the decision that was made. Explain an alternative solution to the dilemma. Then think of a time where you or someone you knew demonstrated an ethical lapse. Describe the situation and the decision. Then provide an alternative solution to the situation.

Guided Response: Review several of your peers’ posts, responding to at least three of them by Day 7. Respond substantively to at least three classmates throughout the week, suggesting aspects that they may have overlooked. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and interactive discourse in this discussion forum. Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 and respond robustly to anyone who replies to your initial post.

2 Collaboration, Interpersonal Communication, and Business Etiquette

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001620#P7001012451000000000000000001624) List the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams, describe the characteristics of effective teams, and highlight four key issues of group dynamics.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000016f0#P70010124510000000000000000016F4) Offer guidelines for collaborative communication, identify major collaboration technologies, and explain how to give constructive feedback.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000177a#P700101245100000000000000000177E) List the key steps needed to ensure productive team meetings.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000017e4#P70010124510000000000000000017E9) Identify the major technologies used to enhance or replace in-person meetings.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001809#P700101245100000000000000000180E) Identify three major modes of listening, describe the listening process, and explain the problem of selective listening.

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000188d#P7001012451000000000000000001891) Explain the importance of nonverbal communication, and identify six major categories of nonverbal expression.

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000018d0#P70010124510000000000000000018D4) Explain the importance of business etiquette, and identify four key areas in which good etiquette is essential.

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Cemex www.cemex.com (http://www.cemex.com)

You probably have been on a lab team or other project team that had trouble collaborating. Maybe you couldn’t get everyone in the same room at the same time, or important messages got buried in long email threads, or good ideas were lost because the right information didn’t get to the right people at the right time.

Imagine trying to collaborate when you have thousands of potential team members spread across dozens of countries. The Mexican company Cemex is one of the world’s largest producers of concrete and its two primary components, cement and aggregates (crushed stone, sand, and gravel). Cemex faces teamwork challenges on a global scale, with 44,000 employees in more than 50 countries. After a period of worldwide expansion that began in the 1990s, the century-old company now operates quarries, cement plants, and other facilities on every continent except Antarctica.

Concrete and cement are two of the oldest products on earth and might not spring to mind when most people think of innovation. However, innovation is key to Cemex’s long-term success, for several reasons. First, architects and builders continue to push the envelope by creating designs that require concrete with new performance and handling qualities. Second, Cemex’s ability to operate pro�itably depends on running ef�icient operations, from raw material extraction to processing to transportation. Third, the production and distribution of concrete-related products have signi�icant environmental impacts, including the acquisition and consumption of heating fuels required by high-temperature cement kilns.

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An innovative collaboration platform helps the global cement company Cemex operate with the agility and �lexibility of a small company.

Pressmaster/Shutterstock

To stay competitive and pro�itable and to minimize the environmental effects of its operations, Cemex knew it needed to accelerate the pace of innovation. Company leaders �igured the way to do that was to enable better collaboration, and the way to do that was to enable better communication.

The company’s response to this multilayered challenge is a comprehensive online collaboration platform called Shift, which combines social networking, wikis, blogs, a Twitter-like microblogging system, social bookmarking, videoconferencing, a trend-spotting tool called Shift Radar, and more. A custom mobile app lets employees access the system wherever their work takes them.

By connecting people and information quickly and easily, Shift helps overcome the barriers of geography, time zones, and organizational boundaries. Employees and managers can tap into expertise anywhere in the company, workers with similar responsibilities can share ideas on improving operations, and problems and opportunities can be identi�ied and brought to management’s attention in much less time.

Technology is only part of the solution, however. Many companies that have implemented social platforms struggle to get employees to change ingrained behaviors and use the new tools. By getting top-level executives on board early, Cemex achieved nearly universal adoption, with 95 percent of employees using Shift and forming more than 500 online communities based on technical specialties and shared interests. That level of engagement is paying off in numerous ways, such as launching a new global brand of ready-mix concrete in one-third the expected time, nearly tripling the company’s use of renewable energy, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by almost 2 million metric tons.

Perhaps most impressive, Shift has lived up to its name by shifting the entrenched hierarchical culture of a large, old-school company to a more agile and responsive social business that is better prepared to face the future in its highly competitive markets. As Gilberto Garcia, Cemex’s innovation director, puts it, social collaboration “can make a big company look like a small company” by connecting people and ensuring the free exchange of ideas.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AAA)

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2.1 Communicating Effectively in Teams LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 List the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams, describe the characteristics of effective teams, and highlight four key issues of group dynamics.

The interactions among the employees at Cemex (pro�iled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) represent one of the most essential elements of interpersonal communication. Collaboration (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001998) —working together to meet complex challenges—is a prime skill expected in a wide range of professions. No matter what career path you pursue, it’s a virtual guarantee that you will need to collaborate in at least some of your work activities. Your communication skills will pay off handsomely in these interactions because the productivity and quality of collaborative efforts depend heavily on the communication skills of the professionals involved.

Collaboration—working together to solve complex problems—is an essential skill for workers in nearly every profession.

A team (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019DA) is a unit of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for working to achieve a common goal.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AAC) Problem- solving teams (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019C8) and task forces (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019D4) assemble to resolve speci�ic issues and then disband when their goals have been accomplished. Such teams are often cross-functional, pulling together people from a variety of departments who have different areas of expertise and responsibility. The diversity of opinions and experiences can lead to better decisions, but competing interests can cause tensions that highlight the need for effective communication. Committees (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P700101245100000000000000000199B) are formal teams that usually have a long life span and can become a permanent part of the organizational structure. Committees typically deal with regularly recurring tasks, such as an executive committee that meets monthly to plan strategies and review results.

Team members have a shared mission and are collectively responsible for their work.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TEAMS

When teams are successful, they can improve productivity, creativity, employee involvement, and even job security.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AAE) Teams are often at the core of participative management (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019C5) , the effort to involve employees in the company’s decision making. A successful team can provide a number of advantages:4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AB0)

Effective teams can pool knowledge, take advantage of diverse viewpoints, increase acceptance of solutions the team proposes, and achieve higher performance.

Increased information and knowledge. By pooling the experience of several individuals, a team has access to more information. Increased diversity of views. Team members can bring a variety of perspectives to the decision-making process—as long as these diverse viewpoints are guided by a shared goal.5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AB2) Increased acceptance of a solution. Those who participate in making a decision are more likely to support it and encourage others to accept it. Higher performance levels. Working in teams can unleash new levels of creativity and energy in workers who share a sense of purpose and mutual accountability. Effective teams can be better than top-performing individuals at solving complex problems.6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AB4)

ETHICS DETECTIVE

Solving the Case of the Missing Team

When the company president assembled the team to �ind creative solutions to the company’s cash �low problems, few people thought it would succeed. Through plenty of hard work, however, you and your colleagues have found new sources of investment capital. Now it’s time to present your accomplishments to the board of directors, and your entire team has been looking forward to this meeting for weeks. Because appearing in front of the board can be a major career boost, the team planned to present the results together, giving each person a few minutes in the limelight.

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However, Jackson Mueller, the chief �inancial of�icer and leader of your team, had a surprise for you this morning. He’d received word at the last minute that the board wanted a short, concise presentation, and he said the best way to comply was with a single presenter. No one was happy about the change, but Mueller is the highest-ranking employee on the team and the only one with experience presenting to the board.

Disappointment turned to dismay as you and your teammates watched from the back of the conference room. Mueller deftly compressed your 60- minute presentation down to 20 minutes, and the board showered him with praise. However, he never introduced any of the other team members, so your potential moment in the sun passed without recognition.

ANALYSIS

1. Did Mueller behave unethically by not introducing you and your colleagues to the board? Explain your answer. 2. Later, you complain to a colleague that by stressing “my team” so often, Mueller actually made the presentation all about him, not the team. But

one of your colleagues argues that the team’s assignment was to solve the problem, not to score career points with the board, so that goal shouldn’t have been such a top priority. Explain why you agree or disagree.

Although teamwork has many advantages, it also has a number of potential disadvantages. At the worst, working in teams can be a frustrating waste of time. Teams and business leaders need to be aware of and work to counter the following potential disadvantages:

Teams need to avoid the negative impact of groupthink, hidden agendas, excessive costs, and employee overload.

Groupthink. Like other social structures, business teams can generate tremendous pressure to conform with accepted norms of behavior. Groupthink (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019B3) occurs when peer pressure causes individual team members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinions. Teams af�licted with groupthink can be so focused on protecting group harmony that they oversimplify problems, ignore information that threatens consensus, and fail to consider risks and negative consequences.7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AB6) Hidden agendas. Some team members may have a hidden agenda (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019B6) —a private, counterproductive motive, such as a desire to take control of the group, to undermine someone else on the team, or to pursue a business goal that runs counter to the team’s mission. Cost. Aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts of a project can eat up a lot of time and money. Overload. Some companies have embraced collaborative work approaches to such an extent that they’re overloading employees with team assignments. Moreover, as a company’s best contributors gain a reputation for helping others and getting things done, they often �ind themselves assigned or invited to even more team efforts. As a result, team activities can take up so much of a person’s day that individual responsibilities get pushed to nights and weekends, leading to exhaustion and lower productivity.8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AB8)

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS The most effective teams have a clear objective and shared sense of purpose, have a strong sense of trust in each other, communicate openly and honestly, reach decisions by consensus, think creatively, know how to resolve con�lict, and believe that their work matters.9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001ABA) Teams that have these attributes can focus their time and energy on their work, without being disrupted by destructive con�lict (see page 41 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001620#page_41) ).

Effective teams have a clear sense of purpose, open and honest communication, consensus-based decision making, creativity, and effective con�lict resolution.

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Google’s research into effective teamwork

Google used its world-class data analysis capabilities to identify �ive factors that most effective teams consistently exhibit. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

In contrast, teams lacking one or more of these attributes can get bogged down in con�lict or waste time and resources pursuing unclear goals. Common reasons for dysfunctional team efforts include management expectations that are either unclear or not accepted by all team members, a reluctance by team members to prioritize team goals over their personal goals, reward systems that don’t recognize team contributions, and leadership that tolerates negative

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and counterproductive behaviors.10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001ABC)

GROUP DYNAMICS

Group dynamics are the interactions and processes that take place within a team.

The interactions and processes that take place among the members of a team are called group dynamics (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019B0) . Productive teams tend to develop clear norms (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019BF) , informal standards of conduct that members share and that guide member behavior. Group dynamics are in�luenced by several factors: the roles team members assume, the current phase of team development, the team’s success in resolving con�lict, and the team’s success in overcoming resistance.

Assuming Team Roles

Each member of a group plays a role that affects the outcome of the group’s activities.

Members of a team can play various roles, which fall into three categories (see Table 2.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001620#P7001012451000000000000000001677) ). Members who assume self-oriented roles (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019CE) are motivated mainly to ful�ill personal needs, so they tend to be less productive than other members. “Dream teams” comprising multiple superstars often don’t perform as well as one might expect because high-performing individuals can have trouble putting the team’s needs ahead of their own.11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001ABE) In addition, highly skilled and experienced people with dif�icult personalities might not contribute, for the simple reason that other team members may avoid interacting with them.12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AC0) Far more likely to contribute to team goals are members who assume team-maintenance roles (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019DD) to help everyone work well together and those who assume task-oriented roles (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P70010124510000000000000000019D7) to help the team reach its goals.13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AC2)

Allowing for Team Evolution

Teams typically evolve through a number of phases on their way to becoming productive. A variety of models have been proposed to describe the evolution toward becoming a productive team. Figure 2.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001620#P7001012451000000000000000001692) shows how one commonly used model identi�ies the phases a problem-solving team goes through as it evolves:14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AC4)

Teams typically evolve through a variety of phases, such as orientation, con�lict, brainstorming, emergence, and reinforcement.

TABLE 2.1 Team Roles—Functional and Dysfunctional

Dysfunctional: Self-Oriented Roles Functional: Team-Maintenance Roles Functional: Task-Oriented Roles

Controlling: Dominating others by exhibiting superiority or authority Withdrawing: Retiring from the team either by becoming silent or by refusing to deal with a particular aspect of the team’s work Attention seeking: Calling attention to oneself and demanding recognition from others Diverting: Focusing the team’s discussion of topics of interest to the individual rather than of those relevant to the task

Encouraging: Drawing out other members by showing verbal and nonverbal support, praise, or agreement Harmonizing: Reconciling differences among team members through mediation or by using humor to relieve tension Compromising: Offering to yield on a point in the interest of reaching a mutually acceptable decision

Initiating: Getting the team started on a line of inquiry Information giving or seeking: Offering (or seeking) information relevant to questions facing the team Coordinating: Showing relationships among ideas, clarifying issues, and summarizing what the team has done Procedure setting: Suggesting decision- making procedures that will move the team toward a goal

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1. Orientation. Team members socialize, establish their roles, and begin to de�ine their task or purpose. Team-building exercises and activities can help teams break down barriers and develop a sense of shared purpose.15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AC6) For geographically dispersed virtual teams, creating a “team operating agreement” that sets expectations for online meetings, communication processes, and decision making can help overcome the disadvantages of distance.16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001AC8)

2. Con�lict. Team members begin to discuss their positions and become more assertive in establishing their roles. Disagreements and uncertainties are natural in this phase.

3. Brainstorming. Team members air all the options and fully discuss the pros and cons of each. At the end of this phase, members begin to settle on a single solution to the problem. Note that although group brainstorming remains a highly popular activity in today’s companies, it may not always be the most productive way to generate new ideas. Some research indicates that having people brainstorm individually and then bring their ideas to a group meeting is more successful.17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001ACA)

4. Emergence. Consensus is reached when the team �inds a solution that all members are willing to support (even if they have reservations).

5. Reinforcement. The team clari�ies and summarizes the agreed-on solution. Members receive their assignments for carrying out the group’s decision, and they make arrangements for following up on those assignments.

Figure 2.1 Phases of Group Development

Groups generally progress through several stages on their way to becoming productive and reaching their objectives.

Sources: B. Aubrey Fisher, Small Group Decision Making: Communication and the Group Process, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), 145–149; Stephen P. Robbins and David A. DeCenzo, Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2004), 334–335; Richard L. Daft, Management, 6th ed. (Cincinnati: Thomson South-Western, 2003), 602–603.

You may also hear the process de�ined as forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning, the phases identi�ied by researcher Bruce Tuckman when he proposed one of the earliest models of group development.18 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001ACC) Regardless of the model you consider, these stages are a general framework for team development. Some teams may move forward and backward through several stages before they become productive, and other teams may be productive right away, even though some or all members are in a state of con�lict.19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000198f#P7001012451000000000000000001ACE)

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Three factors that distinguish smart teams

Common sense might tell you that smarter individuals make for a smarter team, but these researchers discovered otherwise. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.