Reading this article makes me reflect on my own roles in student leadership, especially as a Poole Ambassador and IFC VP Communications, where I’ve had to make decisions that align with both the organization’s goals and my sense of integrity. For example, when coordinating campus events, I sometimes weighed the easier option of foregoing transparency about costs against the more ethical path of full disclosure to whoever may be affected. The article’s message that “strong ethics provide guidance” reminds me that choosing the more transparent route, even if it requires more work and effort, reinforces both trust and credibility. In my future career as a CFO, this resonates deeply, as financial leaders must uphold ethical standards not just for compliance, but to lead with purpose and trust.

The article’s emphasis on ethics reminds me of the approaches in Thomas L. Velasquez & Michael J. Andre’s Thinking Ethically, where they argue that beyond the utilitarian lens or rights-based analysis, ethical decision making also involves virtues and integrity. Similarly, the guest column doesn’t reduce ethics to rules, as it just frames them as guiding principles for daily choices in the workplace. When compared to our module on values-based leadership, the column reinforces the idea that organizational values aren’t just nice statements on the wall, but rather become active guiding lights for behavior and decision making.

In today’s business climate, where issues like corporate governance failures and “green washing” are public and impactful, this article is especially relevant. Organizations such as Enron suffered severe consequences when short-term profit motives overrode ethical frameworks and long term sustanability. The guest column’s simple message, “strong ethics provide guidance,” speaks to the broader necessity for leaders at all levels (from student orgs to global corporations) to embed ethical reasoning into their decision-making. For someone aspiring to become a CFO, this means building not only financial knowledge but also a culture of integrity, transparency, and long-term value creation for everyone affected.

Guest Column: “Strong ethics provide guidance,” Triangle Business Journal, Feb 17, 2017.

This article reminds me of moments in my own leadership roles, especially IFC Exec and Poole Ambassador work, where I’ve noticed that everyone on a team approaches decisions differently, even when faced with the same or very similar information. The study’s priority on value patterns made me think about how student leaders sometimes tend to prioritize short-term efficiency, while administrators often stress impact on whatever organization might be at hand. I’ve experienced this when planning recruitment events, as students preferred bold changes, while staff preferred consistency. This connection helped me understand that these differences weren’t personal, but rooted in contrasting values.

The findings in this study connect closely to McShane & Glinow’s discussion of values shaping behavior and decision-making. In Organizational Behavior (which we use in MIE 330), they note: “Values influence our perceptions, decisions, and actions across situations.” Both texts emphasize that values create predictable patterns in leadership choices. The generational component in the article adds a layer to the idea that leaders’ decisions are not random, but instead are built on longstanding frameworks.

This study also connects to real-world challenges organizations face today, especially with multigenerational workplaces. Companies frequently struggle with aligning Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z value systems. Recent debates around remote work is a great example, as younger generations push for flexibility and purpose, while older generations may prioritize tradition or long-standing metrics. The study’s insights help explain why these tensions exist and why leaders must understand value orientations to make ethical, inclusive decisions.

Identifying and Assessing Managerial Value Orientations: A Cross-Generational Replication Study of Key Organizational Decision-Makers’ Values.

The idea of examining options through legality, fairness, and alignment with values applies strongly to internship and career-related decisions I’ve had to make lately. When networking or interviewing, there can be pressure to oversell certain experiences or blur details to stand out amongst candidates. But I’ve learned that long-term credibility matters more than short-term gain. Being authentic aligns with my values and avoids ethical gray areas. Similarly, in group projects, it can be tempting to let someone under-perform without confrontation to avoid awkwardness, but fairness matters. This step-by-step ethical lens reminds me why staying consistent with my values matters even when shortcuts seem easier or convenient.

This connects to leadership frameworks like values-based leadership and ethical climates from OB. Those models stress that values guide decisions more than rules alone. It also echoes Aristotle’s virtue ethics idea, that ethical behavior builds habits that shape character. The UCSD article reaffirms that by giving clear, actionable steps rather than abstract philosophy.

In the business world, this model is visible in ESG frameworks and corporate governance. Companies must not only follow the law but also act fairly and maintain trust. For instance, tech companies evaluating AI ethics, like Salesforce, use similar guiding questions to balance innovation and responsibility. If more organizations applied these structured ethical steps, scandals like Theranos or FTX might have been avoided. The path UCSD outlines is realistic for everyday decisions but also scales up to major corporate and public-sector ethics challenges.

University of California San Diego. “A 7-Step Path for Ethical Decision-Making.” UCSD Blink, Ethics Awareness. “Evaluate the options by asking whether they are legal, fair, and aligned with your values and organizational policies.”

This concept makes me think of instances when I was a student leader and had to deal with moral dilemmas that seemed “bigger” than others. In fraternity and IFC leadership, for instance, there were times when we had to decide between fairly reporting misconduct and preserving the reputation of our chapters. The moral weight increased and doing the right thing felt unavoidable when the issue felt significant and highly visible, such as when it could compromise campus safety or damage one’s reputation. Shortcuts, such as ignoring late deadlines or casually breaking the rules, were simpler to justify when the stakes were lower. Jones’s point strikes a chord with me because I’ve found that ethical clarity increases significantly when consequences seem real.

This reminds me of the Boeing 737 MAX ethics case, in which engineers identified safety concerns but the company’s leadership did nothing about it. As Jones explains, because financial pressure took precedence over ethical risk, leaders appeared to minimize moral intensity. Jones’s contention that context affects moral behavior is reflected in the contrast between incentives and individual ethical awareness.

Jones’s theory is supported by corporate scandals, such as Wells Fargo’s fraudulent accounts. It is simpler to defend unethical behavior when leaders downplay the moral urgency of their actions. Strong ethical environments, on the other hand, such as those found in businesses that make significant investments in compliance and ethical responsibility, raise moral intensity and enhance the results of moral decision-making. Additionally, according to Jones’s model, companies that are subject to public scrutiny and have significant repercussions are more likely to act morally.

Jones, Thomas M. Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model. Academy of Management Review, vol. 16, no. 2, 1991, pp. 366–395. “The more intense the moral issue, the more likely it is that decision makers will perceive its presence and respond with moral behavior” (p. 372).

Reading about the Boeing 737 MAX case made me think about my MIE 310 group project, and where deadlines felt somewhat tight and we just wanted to get the work done. Sometimes we’d ignore what we viewed as minor issues so we could finish our project quickly and meet deadlines. This article allowed me to realize how easy it is for pressure and competition to make people cut corners, in ways big or small. If that mindset exists in a huge company like Boeing, especially where they have everyday people’s lives on the line, it serves as a reminder that ethical behavior really does start with everyday decisions, even as students, and eventually workers.

For my text-to-text connection, I was reminded of Sandra Waddock’s “Ethical Role of the Manager” which I used for a separate DEJ earlier this semester. Waddock hammers down on how ethical leadership means implementing and practicing values into our own daily decisions. Boeing’s leadership simply failed at this by prioritizing competition with Airbus over long-term stakeholder trust and sustainable growth. Connecting these texts shows that ethics must be part of corporate structure and decision making, not merely a cause of failure after it already happened.

This connects to what’s happening now with the age of technology and automation, specifically in AI. Companies are moving so fast to stay competitive and invent “the next big thing”, that they sometimes focus on releasing the product/service rather than quality testing and ensuring it meets regulations. Similar to Boeing, modern tech firms face have a tough time finding a balance between innovation and ethical responsibility.

Herkert, J. R., Borenstein, J., & Miller, K. W. (2020). The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 26(6), 2957–2974. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00252-

This article reminded me of when I got an email from my personal google account saying that my password was likely a part of a large breach. Despite the fact that my google account did not contain information as sensitive as the Equifax accounts, I remember feeling uneasy and insecure about how easily my personal info could be stolen. Reading Equifax’s mistake, and how they ignored a patch that could’ve stopped the hack, made me think about how a single missed responsibility can create a snowball effect and affect “up to 143 million Americans or nearly half the population in the United States” (paragraph 1). It also made me more cautious about selecting strong passwords, since these large companies aren’t always as secure as I initially thought.

The Equifax article reminded me of Dan Ariely’s “Are We in Control of Our Own Decisions” TED Talk (which we analyzed in my MIE 330 class), which he tells the story of how small components of design can lead to huge unintended outcomes. In the case of Equifax, a simple missed patch led to the possibility of a large data breach. Both cases involve acknowledge how unexamined systems can lead to ethical issues and dilemmas.

Finally, for my text-to-world connection, I was reminded of how TikTok has faced global pushback from its users over user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. Similar to Equifax, it raises concerns about who really controls our personal information, and more importantly what ethical responsibility tech companies have to protect our own information. Both issues have demonstrated that data sensitivity and privacy is one of the most pressing issues in the tech age.

Ask The Money Coach. (2017, September 8). The Equifax hack: What Equifax got right and wrong amid data breach. Ask The Money Coach. https://askthemoneycoach.com/equifax-hack-data-breach/

In Sandra Waddock’s “Ethical Role of the Manager” she overviews ethics in leadership from a broad and more narrow perspective. In Waddock’s broader view of ethical leadership, she identifies management and/or leadership as managerial decisions always affect someone or something. Conversely, she also uses a more narrow lens in the sense that truly ethical leaders must act in their stakeholders’ best interests (as stated in the law), no matter the circumstance. Through segmenting the article into ethical leadership (being a moral person and manager), ethical decision making frameworks (rights and duties, utilitarianism, justice, ethics of care, and making ethical managerial decisions) and moral development (codes of conduct and mangers/ethics in organizations), Waddock analyzes each component of leadership and how ethics are applicable in its respective situation.

I really like Waddock’s point that ethical leaders must act as both moral individuals and moral managers. I have seen firsthand how being unethical as an individual and manager has resulted in negative social stigmas that are extremely difficult to remove. For example, a scenario that comes to mind is Houston Astros manager AJ Finch during their 2017 and 2018 season. During these years, the Astros were using illegal camera systems to steal signs from the pitcher and catcher and relay them to their batter by banging on a trash can. AJ Finch was entirely aware of this and continued to let it happen. Ultimately, Finch received a one year suspension from the MLB and tarnished his, as well as the Astros’ entire organization’s reputation.

Waddock, Sandra. “Ethical Role of the Manager.” Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. Ed. . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE,

2007. 786-91. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.

In Scott Lichtenstein’s “The Role of Values in Leadership: How Leaders’ Values Shape Value Creation,” he identifies the pillars of value-based leadership as leaders identifying/recognizing their own respective values, and understanding the values dynamic.

Lichtenstein first claims that values act as perceptual filters, receiving input from the strategic situation and making it applicable for selective perception and interpretation. Furthermore, he seeks values as a key element of strategy and not just leadership. He backs this claim by quoting Finkelstein and Hambrick as they add that “Even though values are undoubtedly important factors in executive choice, they have not been the focus of much systemic study” (1996, p. 48). I find this to be a really interesting alternative opinion as opposed to what we have primarily been learning about values and how to apply them to leadership. Values do display themselves as a determinant of strategy, but they are joined by expectations and SWOTs.

A text to world connection that took some further research and deep thought is Patagonia. Being a clothing brand and having a firm commitment to environmental sustainability is not easy by any means, but Patagonia has proved that they can adhere to their commitment in competitive strategy and performance, not just a simple mission or value statement.

The passage is a good reminder to my personal self that although it is extremely important to identify your own values in business, values can equally be used in strategy and execution. As someone aspiring to be a leader in the financial industry at some point in my life, I want to be able to identify and execute my own values in business and people management to certify myself as a values-based leader.

Lichtenstein, Scott. “The Role of Values in Leadership: How Leaders’ Values Shape Value Creation.” Integral Leadership Review, Jan. 2012, https://integralleadershipreview.com/6176-the-role-of-values-in-leadership-how-leaders-values-shape-value-creation

When it comes to decision making, regardless of how simple or complex the decision at hand may be, it is extremely important to factor ethics into your decision, regardless of the outcome. Personally, I perceive ethics very similarly to integrity in the sense that it attests to somebody’s character, and it matters about who is doing the right things even when nobody is watching. With that being said, there are a variety of ethical lenses, and I favor the Justice Lens the most. When I think about the leaders that have impacted me in my life, I think of my assistant wrestling coach from high school. The phrase, as defined by the Santa Clara Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, “each person should be given their due, and what people are due is often interpreted as fair or equal treatment” quite literally embodies my coach. Although we had a large team that had both males and females, wrestlers with different experiences, backgrounds, physical abilities, and skills, our coach respected everybody for the wrestler and athlete that they are, and devoted his time to better each and every wrestler in the room. I have experienced many coaches in many sports that do not devote their time equally amongst their respective athletes, violating their own ethical commitment to being a coach. Ethics truly does test the character in a leader – no matter how hard times may get or how appealing the “wrong” decision may appear, true ethical leaders consistently abide by ethical behaviors.

Velasquez, Manuel, et al. “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making.” Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, 8 Nov. 2021, https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/a-framework-for-ethical-decision-making/

When reading the “Thinking Ethically” article from the Santa Clara Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, I was surprised to see how many different ways there are to deal with moral issues. I believe that I utilize the Fairness or Justice Approach the most often when in people management situations. “Community members are bound by the pursuit of common values and goals” as described by Velasquez et al. is a statement that I firmly believe in when analyzing group efforts, especially successful ones. When thinking about how this text can be connected to real world situations, many team efforts from my personal life come to mind. For example, our Blue Company for the group simulation was bonded by common values in creating interview questions, as well as selecting CEO candidates. In having shared values, group/team members can proceed in unison throughout their efforts, while also increasing the likelihood that they act ethically amongst each other and their stakeholders. In looking at another text-to-world scenario, NC State’s motto of “Think and Do” also connects its members with the “pursuit of common values and goals” NC State, being a STEM university along with its motto, encourages students to be innovative, push boundaries, and challenge norms. In sharing a common motto and ideals, along with the symbolic mascot being the Wolfpack, unites students together to pursue their respective degree and chase career aspirations to the best of their abilities. Both of these examples show the strengths of the Fairness or Justice Approach, and how individuals can benefit from shared beliefs and values.

Velasquez, Manuel, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer. “Thinking Ethically: A Framework for Moral Decision Making.” Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, 2021, https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/thinking-ethically/