Methods for discussing ethical disagreements productively

Create a six-slide, 12-minute presentation briefing a team on a potential ethical dilemma.

In the career for which you are preparing, where will you look for ethical guidance?

Employer: contractual obligations, employee handbook, corporate culture.
Colleagues: fellow workers, deserving respect, productive relationships.
Clients: honest treatment, service with dignity, contractual obligations.
Profession: fellow practitioners, counterbalance to employer, code of conduct.
Personal: individual commitments, personal responsibility, integrity.
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All of these overlapping concerns may create conflicted situations. Professional association codes of ethics commonly deal with a number of concerns:

Expertise: qualifications for practitioners, continuing education.
Research: informed consent, plagiarism, shared publication credit.
Privacy: record keeping, protecting confidentiality, public statements.
Relationships: harassment, conflicts of interest, workplace behavior.
No matter how extensively the professional code is spelled out, it cannot cover everything, and it often overemphasizes enforcement. It is more helpful to take a positive approach, thinking aspirationally about how best to handle challenging situations.

Questions to Consider

To 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.

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What concrete situations in your workplace might give rise to ethical dilemmas?
Does the professional code of conduct provide any relevant guidance for these cases?
Assessment Overview

Imagine management at your future workplace tasks you with making a formal presentation to your team discussing a workplace ethical dilemma they might face. You consider an appropriate professional code of conduct, but only to the extent that it might offer useful guidance in this situation. The central task is to help everyone work together productively in resolving tricky issues.

For this assessment, fulfill the management task and create an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics to common workplace situations. Submit your work as a narrated visual presentation in the courseroom submission box. You may develop a series of annotated PowerPoint slides, for example, using Kaltura to record the audio portion of your work. If you are more familiar with other presentation software, you may use that, so long as your submission satisfies all of the required elements of the assessment.

Assessment Instructions

Include the following in your narrated visual presentation:

Apply a professional code of ethics to this workplace situation.
Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the selected professional code of ethics.
Explain methods for resolving ethical disagreements productively.
Describe areas of one's personal disagreement with professional standards.
Note: Include in your presentation slides or annotations a full APA-style citation of any quotation or paraphrase from the professional code or other sources you choose to employ.

Your instructor may provide video feedback on your work, in addition to completing the official scoring guide for the assignment.

Submit this assessment to your ePortfolio.

Additional Requirements

Communication: Create an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics to common workplace situations.
Media presentation: Create a minimum of 6 slides, 12 minutes total in length, with notes or a transcript to ensure accessibility to everyone. Upload the presentation.
Resources: There is no minimum number of resources required; however, use your judgment to ensure your topic is thoroughly researched.
Print

Ethics in the Workplace Scoring Guide

CRITERIA

NON-PERFORMANCE

BASIC

PROFICIENT

DISTINGUISHED

Apply a professional code of ethics to a workplace situation.

Does not apply a professional code of ethics to a workplace situation.

Explains a workplace situation in the context of a professional code of ethics.

Applies a professional code of ethics to a workplace situation.

Assesses an appropriate professional code of ethics as applied to a workplace situation.

Assess the advantages and disadvantages of a professional code of ethics.

Does not describe the advantages and disadvantages of a professional code of ethics.

Describes the advantages or disadvantages of a professional code of ethics, but not both.

Assesses the advantages and disadvantages of a professional code of ethics.

Analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of a professional code of ethics.

Explain methods for resolving ethical disagreements productively.

Does not mention methods for resolving ethical disagreements productively.

Mentions methods for resolving ethical disagreements productively.

Explains methods for resolving ethical disagreements productively.

Assesses methods for resolving ethical disagreements productively.

Describe areas of one's personal disagreement with professional standards.

Does not describe areas of one's personal disagreement with professional standards.

Lists areas of one's personal disagreement with professional standards.

Describes areas of one's personal disagreement with professional standards.

Explains areas of one's personal disagreement with professional standards.

Create an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics to a workplace situation.

Does not create an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics to a workplace situation.

Creates an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics, but the presentation lacks detail or does not reflect a workplace situation.

Creates an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics to a workplace situation.

Creates an audiovisual presentation that applies a professional code of ethics to a workplace situations, and the presentation is engaging and detailed.