PERSONAL ETHIC EXPERIENCE
Brandy A. Lee
ORGL 503 - Ethics
March 4, 2010
PerSONal Ethic Experience
Introduction
Ethical issues arise each day in many shapes, sizes, forms, patterns, and experiences. Perhaps the most difficult arise at the administrative level. And it isn’t necessarily at the top where the difficult questions arise, but sometimes in the middle. Administrators who are in the middle have to work to make those above and below them satisfied with what is happening.
My personal ethical experience doesn’t have to do with being in a leadership position, but with dealing with a mid-level administrator. During my second year out of college I was working for a mid-sized construction firm doing marketing and design. When I interviewed for the job, I was lured in by a “family-friendly” company who “valued” their workers. They explained to me that the workload was distributed evenly allowing people to work 40 hours per week and be able to go home at 5 p.m. This was a wonderful thing in comparison to my previous job where I was working about 60 hours per week doing about the same thing.
There was part of me that was hesitant to take the job, but also a part of me that feared I wouldn’t find another job. It was at the beginning of the recession we find ourselves in and I had recently bought a house and had other obligations to take care of. I took the job and I was very happy for about three months.
About the time I was to complete three months at the company, I practically had to beg for an evaluation so I could be taken off “probation”, receive my raise, and obtain benefits. In the end, I didn’t get my evaluation until I was there fourth months. My bosses were too busy with other things. Apart from my initial feeling about the job, this should have given me another clue.
The ethical dilemma, however, added a third dimension to my struggle at the company. Being over marketing, I was also in charge of planning the company customer appreciation golf tournament. I was tasked with doing this as well as several other projects. Between doing all of this, I was not able to get everything done in a 40-hour workweek. I turned in some hours of overtime I had put in one week and they about lost it. I was a little confused because I knew there were others who were regularly turning in a few hours of overtime here and there without question. All of a sudden I was a less-effective employee because I had several time-sensitive projects that were placed on my desk, as well as the golf tournament, and could not cram it all in to 40 hours.
This started a downhill slide for another month that led to “goal-setting” and a re-evaluation a month later. I ended up quitting the job within six months. There were a lot of things I was being asked to do, and they expected me to do it for free. Being that I was giving them intellectual property in a sense, I couldn’t justify giving it away. In my life there have been jobs I have loved and I haven’t worried about giving extra time without being paid. But the way I was treated by this company didn’t make me want to buy in and sacrifice for the company. Maybe that was part of my trouble, but I know I am not the only one there who has felt like they were treated unethically.
I felt like there was a mix of ethical, professional, and moral issues happening. The ethical and moral issues came with everyone at the company being treated the same with regards to workload, overtime, and other treatment. While the company had a mission statement and a few other things in place, I wasn’t sure if there was a clear outline of ethics for those who hadn’t been to their “special leadership training.” It was an injustice to those who were doing the best they knew how without being fully immersed into the culture.
How the situation was handled was not professional at all. An employee shouldn’t have to beg for an evaluation or feel belittled because of a few overtime hours. Kouzes and Posner quote Gayle Hamilton of Pacific Gas and Electric in their book Credibility saying, “You can’t follow someone who isn’t credible, who doesn’t truly believe in what they’re doing – and how they’re doing it”. Kouzes and Posner then go on to write, “It is meaningless to talk about leadership unless we believe that individuals can make a difference in the lives of others. And unless each of us believes that we can make a difference” (2003, p. 27).
ETHICS CODES
When the company hired me, they had never had an in-house graphic designer, photographer, etc. They didn’t understand the time consuming process it was to create such items. I am not sure if the companies who did work for them before were just cheap-and-easy companies, or what they were doing. But I would judge that whoever was doing their graphic design before wasn’t all that professional, and the photos they were using were taken by job-site foremen.
In the world of graphic design and photography there are ethics of being paid for not only your time, but for sharing your intellectual property. The business of art is being lost in the world of technology where everyone thinks things should be able to be created quick and easy. Unfortunately, or fortunately, people don’t understand it is still a time-consuming process. There are also young people who think they are doing someone a favor by only charging $50 for a four-hour job and then giving the piece away. But when they give it away, they are also giving a piece of their intellect away and not getting paid for it.
I am not saying we should be getting paid each hour of each day for what we share with others. There is a difference between business and teaching. When an artist does something for the financial benefit of another, they should be paid for their time. Then there is the issue of teaching. Each day I share many pieces of my intellectual self with my students. They are artists in embryo and some day they will go on to create their own pieces of work. There is no financial benefit for them in the moment they come through my class.
For a while I thought these were my own personal views that an artist should get paid for both their time and their intellect. But a professor I had in art school taught me a lot about the business of art. He taught that once you put something out into the world, people say it is out there for anyone to take (contrary to copyright laws). So, if you’re going to do that, you need to make sure you are making it worth all the time and effort you put into the piece. So, I wasn’t very far off base and as I worked in building my photography business, I gained a firmer testimony of this.
Like a photographer needs to get paid for their intellectual property and time, employees need the same respect. If an employee signs on to a company with the understanding there is no overtime, then they need to make sure they are using every minute wisely and be willing to put in a few extra hours here and there without pay. But if a company has no written policy and they are willingly paying other employees for extra time worked, the policy needs to spread across the whole company to every employee, new or old. Employees should feel valued and want to sacrifice time if necessary. Because compliance from employees produces adequacy, not the greatness they could be producing.
ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION AND PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES
Being a new employee, in a newly created position, with two very different bosses is a challenge. When I was hired into the position, there wasn’t an outlined job description, and it was 3-4 months down the road before I received one. Personally, I believe a job description is the biggest help and employee can have to make sure they are completing their job to the full extent of their abilities. If a company is going to create a new position, there should be an outline at least of their expectations.
Without knowledge of expectations, how can someone perform to the expected standards? Even as teachers we must be very specific for our students to have a successful experience. Kouzes and Posner write in reference to their Credibility-Building Process Model, “Commitment to credibility begins with the clarification of the leader’s and the constituent’s needs, interests, values, visions, aims, and aspirations” (2003, p.48). Being on the same page is a key component to success for all parties involved.
Apart from Clarity comes Unity. Kouzes and Posner further explain, “To build a strong and viable organization, people must be united in a common cause – united on where they are going, on why they are headed in that direction, and on which principles will guide their journey” (2003, p. 49). Their quote is reminiscent of Brazilian ants. Each year there will be a mass crossing the Amazon River and it is a conglomeration of ants. If one ant alone were to try and ford the river, it would most likely die. But together as a colony, they take turns swimming, riding, being in front, being in back, etc. Together, unified, they can make it successfully to their destination.
The third part of the Model is Intensity. “Intensity exists when principles are taken seriously, when they reflect deeply felt standards and emotional bonds, and when they are the basis of critical organizational resource allocations” (2003, p. 49). When an employee is new, it is important to integrate them in to the company so they sustain the same level of intensity other employees feel for the company.
Terry L. Cooper writes, “Most of the time we are ad hoc problem solvers, not comprehensive moral philosophers” (2006, p. 22). It would be nice if we could foresee the consequences of every decision we make (both good and bad), but we can only make educated guesses. For the most part, we must allow our ethical principles to guide our decision-making. Cooper further explains, “An ethical principle is a statement concerning the conduct or state of being that is required for the fulfillment of a value; it explicitly links a value with a general mode of action” (2006, p. 22-23).
Using Kouzes and Posner’s Credibility-Building Process Model I believe can only bring positive outcomes. This helps to build not only the administration / leadership of a company, but those who work with them. Kouzes and Posner state, “To take people to places they have never been before, leaders and constituents must be on the same path” (2003, p. 48). When these three principles are brought together, it helps to reduce the amount of ethical, moral, and professional problems in a company. There will be positive deontological and teleological consequences for the company.
In a continuing education class I had for my teaching license, the professor’s first rule was “If I’m not happy, ain’t nobody happy.” She wasn’t putting herself on higher ground to look at her “minions”, she put herself on higher ground so students would look up and rise to the occasion. This model can serve as a base, or a starting point for any organization.
COURSE OF ACTION
In Cooper’s model, there are four elements necessary to consider in ensuring balance and proportion for the course of action. Firstly, moral rules need to be considered. When implementing the Model, it is important for leaders to be on the highest moral ground. If a leader fails, and then tries to hide it then credibility is at stake. It has been shown that people have more confidence in a leader if they admit their mistake and move forward.
Secondly, there must be a rehearsal of defenses. If a leader is living on a higher moral ground and they are making decisions according to the policies and procedures of the company, there should be no argument or need to defend. I have found that I am most confident in what I do as a leader when I know the policies I am enforcing, and when everyone else is clear about what is expected of them. Perhaps this is one of the more important aspects of the rehearsal. Communication needs to happen so everyone knows where they stand and what the Policies and Procedures are.
Third, discern the implicit ethical principles at stake. In Kouzes and Posner’s Model there is a healthy balance between a balance of duty and consequences (positive and negative). If leaders are acting in a certain way and employees are being treated in a positive manner, then employees will act accordingly. If everyone is one the same plane of treatment and they feel they are being treated justly for the most part, it will also give then a reason to conduct themselves in a manner according to the ethical values of the organization.
Each day I encounter teachers on both ends of the spectrum. There are teachers who believe in what they are doing and in the mission they have been hired to accomplish. There are other teachers who say they won’t do something unless they are getting paid for it. In an organization there will always be both kinds of people because you can’t make everyone happy. People must experience a change of heart. Those who believe in the mission spend many extra hours without pay because they believe in their students and in the reason they became a teacher.
Lastly is the test of self-appraisal. Employees must evaluate if the moral values of the company are in line with their personal moral values. They must also take a personal introspection of how well they are doing their outlined job. For me, mine were not in line with the company so it was better for me to leave rather than be unhappy and feeling like I was constantly being criticized. But my job now gives me a sense of pride and enjoyment and honestly I can experience what Cooper calls “self-approval.”
CONCLUSION
My recommendation would be for leaders to evaluate their practices and work to implement Kouzes and Posner’s Credibility-Building Process Model. When that is done, I would recommend the company go through the four elements of proportion and balance in establishing their best fit for a further course of action. If they find their employees are not in agreement with events that are happening, it would be wise to do a communication survey and see how effective and ineffective leadership, communication, and other activities are within the organization.
Had I experienced some of these activities, perhaps it would have been a more successful experience. As I stated at the beginning, “You can’t follow someone who isn’t credible, who doesn’t truly believe in what they’re doing – and how they’re doing it” (2003). A company must establish credibility with their employees and live a higher standard of moral values so that they can lift others up and not drag them down.
REFERENCES
Cooper, T.L. (2006). The responsible administrator : An approach to ethics for the
administrative role (5th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Cooper, T.L. (1998). Ethical decision making model. Retrieved from
http://jesuitnet.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4541_1%26url%3D on February 24, 2010.
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2003). Credibility: how leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
[MC1]Please forgive me for concentrating my comments in this final comment box, but given the need to get grades in on Tuesday, this seemed wise.
I appreciated your observations. Good stuff. I could also clearly see the stages of the Cooper model in your paper.
For narrative purposes, your transition between narrative and principles in the paper was clean and well organized.
You understand some of the important common issues in leadership ethics. This paper is prudent.
Thanks for taking my class. It was a pleasure to interact with you in this virtual medium. It’s my sincere hope you get to follow up on the ungraded recommendations I made in the video posts, especially the hour long reflection on the course. I would also love to hear from you in the future, perhaps through email, how our 8 weeks of class has helped you, and the things that you would recommend I do to make the class better for students in the future.
Best of luck in Gonzaga’s MA ORGL/COML program!
Invention: 7.9
Arrangement: 1.9
Style: 1.9
Research: 1
Mechanics: 2
Total: 14.7 A
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