After reading “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making”, I think about a situation that happened to me when I was younger. My father had a paper shredder in his office at home for work. I decided to go into my dad’s office and shred some very important work documents on his office table, thinking nothing about it at the time. When my dad came home later that day. He shortly realized these papers were gone and asked, what happened to the papers? My older brother was 7 at the time and witnessed me do this. Knowing my dad was mad and going to ask us if we touched anything on his desk, my older brother told me I must tell the truth or the punishment will be worse. Thankfully, having my older brother with me in this situation helped me build up confidence to do the right thing and explain to my dad what I did. Even at a young age, my older brother exemplified ethics as described by the author in the article, “Ethics refers to standards and practices that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves—as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, professionals, and so on.” 

This website reminded me of Batman and The Dark Knight. When Batman built the surveillance system that allowed him to spy on everyone’s phone in Gotham to locate Joker. In this situation, there is no ethically right answer. Instead, Batman bases his decision on what is best for the greater good of the people. Batman believes, violating the privacy of the people is justified if it saves thousands of lives. 

Looking through the right lens example this can relate to when people testify in court. When the case involves other people and families, you owe the rights and dignity to the victim’s family to tell the truth. It’s so important that the court even makes you say an oath before testifying, noting that if you lie or hold the truth in any way, you will be punished for it.

Santa Clara University. (n.d.). A framework for ethical decision making. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/a-framework-for-ethical-decision-making/

After reading Jaffe and Scott’s, “How to link personal values with team values”. (cover story). It brought me to think about my football team. At the beginning of the year, every player/coach is assigned a role on the team with one united goal together as a team, to win a championship. Not everyone always has the same background, priorities, or work styles. Some players only cared about their own personal success, some players had the team’s best interest all the time, and others were front-runners, only supportive when things were going well. During fall camp is where we the whole team was finally together right before the season. With the new portal rules team’s change every year, causing building chemistry to be tough. So, every player had to stand up and coach in front of the team and speak. We had to explain our  “why’s”, background, hardships, and goals. After this the team began to mesh and you could feel the brotherhood become close. Practicing and games were going good because we understood one another’s values and backgrounds.  Jaffe and Scott’s description of Levi Strauss’s managers discovering the “diversity of values” (p.1) reflects exactly what I experienced. I relate to the idea that people’s values and background shape how they work.

This concept immediately made me think of a movie I watched a little while back, “Society of the Snow”. In this movie, a rugby team’s plane crashes in the Andes Mountains. The only reason the survivors stay alive during the movie is because they learn to cooperate, communicate, and respect each other’s personal values. This relates to Jaffe and Scott’s idea that learning each other’s values creates a language and deeper understanding between humans. In situations described in both the article and movie, people bring unique beliefs and priorities, you have to learn how to merge the differences and work together.

In the real world Companie’s, who are strongly based in their core values tend to have a more committed public. Adidas has a slogan, “play to win”. This shows that adidas is committed to competitive excellence and has pride on ensuring the best gear for their athletes. This allows employees to understand the standard that is set even in the workspace.

Jaffe, D. T., & Scott, C. D. (1998). How to link personal values with team values. Training & Development, 52(3), 24–30

https://www.adidas-group.com/en/about

The article “Personal Values and Performance in Teams” by David J. Glew, relates to a current situation I am in right now. As a captain of my football team I see many of these topics discussed in the article first hand. The article examines how personal values influence both individual and team performance. Finding from studies conducted in the article show that individuals who are solely focused on personal accolades and achievement struggle to work well with other team members. In contrast it shows that individuals focused on the equality of others ended up finding more success individually and collectively. The collective value of equality which is something my company values highly, if shared among team member’s functions more effectively and cooperatively than those focused on individual recognition.

I find this to be very true in my current situation. Last year our football team was very individualized. Certain players were selfish and would get upset if they did not get the stats they wanted each game, even if the team won that game they would still give off negative energy toward the rest of the team. This quickly spread throughout the locker room escpecially after losing. Granite some of the players acting this way were great players at the beggening of the year becuase they were only focused on one goal and that was winning. I saw those players playing great football, but as soon as they started listening to the outside noise and trying to play for individual goals, I watched their performance on the field quickly deteriorate.

Ron Carucci’s article “Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices” explores how even well-intentioned individuals can make unethical decisions when placed in environments that encourage or reward such behavior. One of the most concerning issues identified in the article is how an organized culture can unintentionally pressure employees to act out of character. Carucci says in the article, “despite good intentions, organizations set themselves up for ethical catastrophes by creating environments in which people feel forced to make choices they could never have imagined” (Carucci, pg. 2). This shows that humans’ nature of behavior is ultimately a reflection of the environment they are in. If the expectations and pressure on individuals in their environment are high, this causes employees to react, not respond to situations at hand. Another major ethical problem is the fear of speaking up. Carucci notes that while leaders may claim to have open-door policies, “some leadership actions may inhibit the courage needed to raise ethical concerns” (Carucci, 2016, pg. 3). This causes employees who might be aware of unethical concerns going on to remain silent in fear for their safety. This has specifically happened to me many times when I was in my teens. I would be around my peers and know what they were doing was not ethically right, but I would be too scared to say anything. After, I used to always feel so bad knowing that something was wrong, but still being associated with doing it. So, I asked myself why I was so worried about speaking up for the right thing, and I realized it was because I wanted to seem cool. So, this is something that never gets easier, but I always promise myself to speak up for what’s right because even though it might not be affecting you personally, it could be affecting someone else around you.