Discussion: Examining Ethical Issues in Cases

Just as an individual's culture influences his or her values, beliefs, behaviors, and ethics, an organization's culture has an impact on the shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and ethics of its members. Although organizational ethics are often deeply entrenched because they take time to develop, decision makers such as public administrators are in a position to influence organizational cultures. An ability to grasp the ethical issues inherent in both cultures and situations is imperative if a public administrator is to develop strategies that will promote ethical organizational cultures.

To prepare for this Discussion, review this week's resources. Select one of the following cases: Guantanamo (McNeal, 2010) or the Exxon Valdez (Kurtz, 2003). Then, consider the following:

How did organizational culture influence ethical decision making?

What are the ethical issues?

What are the issues facing the decision makers?

How did the organizational culture influence decision making?

What did you learn from this case that you can use as a public administrator?

What, if anything, does the case have in common with the 2013 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal over IRS audits of conservative nonprofit agencies?

To what extent does attention by the American public media influence ethical decision making of public and nonprofit public administrators? Do you think that such media exposure should determine administrative decisions?

Post a brief description of your chosen case. Identify the ethical issues within the case. Then, explain how the organizational cultures influence the decision making related to ethics in your chosen case. Finally, suggest two strategies that public administrators might use to promote an ethical organizational culture.

Support your postings and responses with specific references to the resources.

Read a selection of your colleagues'' postings.

Assignment: Ethics in Organizational Culture

The social environment in which an organization exists influences the way it operates when dealing with clients and employees. Viewing organizational life through the values embedded in its culture can help leaders create and sustain agencies of integrity. Regardless of whether the organization is in the government or nonprofit sector, administrative attention to the organizational culture can promote ethical behavior among employees. Government and nonprofit public administrators must have an understanding of how an organization's culture might lead to potentially unethical policies and practices.

In this Assignment, you examine how an organizations culture influences ethical decision making in an organization.

To prepare for this Assignment, review this week's resources. Select a government or nonprofit organization with which you are familiar and a specific policy or practice within that organization. Avoid choosing an organization or agency where you currently work or have worked in the past. If you do choose such an agency, do not name it or individuals who work in it specifically. Remember to protect confidentiality.

Consider how organizational culture can influence the creation of ethical and potentially unethical policies and practices within the government or nonprofit organization you selected. Also, think about how the organizational culture might have influenced decision making and the development of specific policies and practices. Finally, consider how the specific policy or practice you selected presents an ethical dilemma and how you might resolve it by using Cooper's ethical decision-making model from the text.

The Assignment (3-4 pages in APA format): Your paper should include the following:

A brief description of the government or nonprofit organization

A brief summary of how an organization's culture can influence the creation of ethical and potentially unethical policies and practices

An explanation of how the organization's culture (norms, customs, and traditions) might have influenced decision making and the creation of specific policies and practices

A description of a specific policy or practice that presents an ethical dilemma and an explanation of how that specific policy or practice creates the dilemma

An explanation of how public administrators might use internal and external controls to maintain responsible conduct in the public organization

An explanation of how, as a public administrator, you might resolve the ethical dilemma, using the ethical decision-making model presented in the text

Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. Provide a reference list with all resources included in the paper.

Your Assignment must demonstrate both breadth and depth of knowledge and critical thinking appropriate to graduate-level scholarship. It must follow APA Publication Manual guidelines and be free of typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. The Assignment should be 3-4 pages in length (double-spaced), not including the title page, abstract, and references.