Identifying an Ethical Problem

Your weekly assignments for this course will comprise a project: "Professional Practices in Ethics." The purpose is to apply classroom concepts to real problems in your professional life. During the class, you'll be identifying an ethical dilemma in your workplace, apply classroom concepts to working through that problem, do your own research, and propose a solution. If you currently do not have a workplace, talk to your instructor about finding a community problem you can work on.

You'll work on a different part of the project, and report on your progress in your assignment. At the end of the course, you'll be writing a "memo" proposing your solution to the problem.

Identifying an Ethical Problem

Using format from the Ethicist column in The New York Times(and discussed in the first week of class), identify two ethical problems and write them out, remaining neutral in presenting the problem, and framing what you think the relevant concerns are. Each of these should be at least 100 words.

Step One: Practice with a personal example. We're going to use a professional example for the course, but start by thinking of a dilemma in a personal context. Real dilemmas are best for this, but it doesn't necessarily have to be something that you faced personally. It could be a dilemma that you're aware of, but needs to be something that you're comfortable sharing with someone you trust. Write out the problem in the same format that we saw in the advice problems (you are the person seeking advice here), and then read it out loud to someone you trust. Solicit the following feedback from him or her:

? After hearing your explanation, does he or she understand what the dilemma is?

? Does he or she feel that you presented the dilemma in a non-prejudicial way (leaving bias out of your account)?

? What questions, if any, does this person have? Is additional information that you didn't provide needed to make sense of the problem?

Step Two: Now that you've tried a personal example, take the same concept and apply it to a dilemma that has arisen in your place of work. This will be the problem that you'll be working with throughout the course, so think carefully about where you think the trickiest dilemmas you've faced lie. By the end of the course, you'll be writing a memo proposing a solution to the problem. As with the practice step, read this aloud to someone you trust and solicit feedback from them.

• After hearing your explanation, does he or she understand what the dilemma is?

• Does he or she feel that you presented the dilemma in a non-prejudicial way (leaving bias out of your account)?

• What questions, if any, does this person have? Is additional information needed that you didn't provide to make sense of the problem?

In your assignment, please include your questions and summarize and reflect on your work.