1. Rank the values below from 1 through 15 in order of their importance to you, with 1 being most important and 15 being least important. Then work with a few classmates to compare your rankings. Add the numbers for each value to see which values are important to the group. Discuss why people ranked the values as they did.
- Honesty
- recognition
- peace
- freedom
- Justice
- altruism
- nature
- family
- equality
- self-sufficiency
- friendship
- health
- compassion
- community
- success
2. What value is implied by each of the following well-known sayings? For instance, the proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever" advocates the value of education.
- Different strokes for different folks. Stop and smell the roses.
- A penny saved is a penny earned. Haste makes waste.
- Where there's a will, there's a way. Look before you leap.
- What goes around comes around. Pretty is as pretty does.
3. Discuss the values implied by these sayings from other cultures.'
a. Even a sheet of paper has two sides.
b. Shrouds are made without pockets. (Japanese) (Yiddish)
c. Bury the hatchet beneath the root of
d. Unjustly got wealth is snow sprin-the tree. (Native American) kled with hot water. (Chinese)
e. One does evil enough when one does f. One head cannot hold all wisdom. nothing good. (German) (Maasai)
4. Reruns of older television shows and movies present moral dilemmas that earlier generations faced. Share with the class an episode or a movie that presents a moral dilemma and explain different sides of the controversy. Or explain two sides of an ethical dilemma you have faced.
5. Write a personal creed. Find a quiet place and take notes about your values and their importance to you. Think about ethical decisions you have made. What do those decisions say about you? Write your code as an essay, a poem, a letter, or a list.
6. Write an ethics statement for the career you plan to enter. Then look up a code of ethics from a company in your field. The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (http://ethics.iit.edu) publishes codes from different fields. How does your code compare to the company's?
7. What value(s) or belief(s) motivate the people in the following scenarios? Are the people acting ethically? Explain.
a. An amputee who served in Iraq said that despite his disability, he wants to return to Iraq to serve his country.
b. An employee takes $25 from the petty cash fund to pay for a movie. The employee returns the money the next day.
c. Norm shares an idea for an advertising slogan with another employee, who then passes it along to the supervisor as her own. Norm never reveals that the idea was his originally and lets his coworker take the credit.
d. Olga, a middle-aged mother of three, supervises a young crew of help desk personnel, five men and two women. When the men's jokes become a little racy, Olga simply but firmly reminds them, "Gentlemen this is not a bar and ladies are present. Keep the language G-rated." The conversation then tends to become more respectful.
8. Analyze the following ethical dilemmas using relevant questions and criteria from in the chapter. What advice do you have for Jayden and Susan? Discuss possible solutions and test them using the criteria beginning on page 375 under "Choose a Responsible Course of Action."
a. Jayden is a chemist at a pharmaceutical plant. Part of quality control is to check samples of each drug for purity and potency. Jayden notices that the person in charge of pulling the samples, Becca, does not test every drug, turning her attention to other tasks instead. When Jayden asks Becca about it, she replies, "What's your problem? I've got too much to do to keep up with all of them. We've never found a bad sample anyway." To complicate the matter, Jayden used to date Becca, having recently broken up with her. "Maybe Becca's right," he thinks. "We're all pretty careful." What should Jayden do?
b. It is December 10, and Susan Petrov has a big decision to make. She is the chief executive officer of Chesterson Refrigeration, a small company with U.S. and overseas locations that makes refrigerators and freezers. Because sales have dropped, the plant, which employs 786 workers, must lay off 240 employees if it is to remain open. Some employees are near retirement, a large number have worked for the company for ten years or more, some are college students, and some are legal immigrants. Susan is hoping that sales will pick up next summer. Limited funds are available to use as severance pay, and, 1few scholarships are available for retraining. How should Susan handle the situation? What is the most ethical way to decide who gets laid off? When should the layoffs begin? Is there anything Susan can do to make the situation better? When and how should she announce the layoffs?
9. Look for possible defense mechanisms at work in the following dilemmas. What are the central conflicts in each case? What might happen if Gil and Cisco do nothing? Suggest possible solutions. Test those solutions using the criteria beginning on page 375 under "Choose a Responsible Course of Action."
a. Gil is a freshman at North Central State. He has been helping Tazim, a classmate who has been struggling in their calculus class. Tazim wants to sit next to Gil during the final exam so Tazim can check his answers against Gil's. Gil is not concerned, thinking that he is not the one who is cheating; he is just taking the exam. What are the consequences if Gil lets Tazim check a few answers? What should Gil do?
b. Cisco and Val are medical assistants at Tremont Hospital. Cisco has noticed that Val is often late to work. She also calls in sick more than she used to. She has a new boyfriend who has a reputation for drinking and drugging. Cisco notices that Val has lost weight, and she is not her usual bubbly self. One day Cisco sees her nervously eyeing the medicine cart. He decides then that her problems are not his concern. Maybe she is just working too hard. What might be going on? What should Cisco do?