Ethical Climate Paper: Workplace Discrimination

GUIDELINES FOR THE ETHICAL CLIMATE PAPER

The ethical climate paper consists of an analysis of an organization’s ethical work climate. The purpose of the assignment is to:

1. Allow students to see how best practices discussed in class are applied (or not) in a real organization.
2. Assess student’s ability to critically apply learnings about ethical climate.
3. Develop and assess students’ ability to write in business style – clearly, concisely, and factually (i.e., evidence-based)

The paper should cover the following:

Part 1 – Introduction and executive summary

Introduce the company and provide an executive summary of the method and findings of your paper including (each point should be addressed in about one sentence):

1. Introduce the organization with basic information e.g., name, location, line of business, number of employees. Indicate if you are studying the entire organization or just one location, division, or department etc. Provide any information needed by the reader to understand the rest of your paper (e.g., the role/mission of the organization/division/department).
2. Explain why you chose to study this organization.
3. Describe the job and responsibilities of your informants. Anonymize informants by using fake names.
4. Describe the data sources used for the paper
5. Briefly summarize your findings:
   1. The ethical issue/concern that you analyzed and your basis for identifying it as such.
   2. The elements of ethical climate through which the organization manages the ethical concern.
   3. Your overall assessment of effective management of the issue.
   4. Your recommendation for improvement (if any).

 Part 2 – Analysis of how elements of ethical work climate are used to manage the ethical issue

 Assess how the organization uses elements of ethical climate to manage an ethical issue.

a)      Describe the issue, providing evidence that it is of concern for the organization (not just for you and your informant. If you cannot provide such evidence, there might not be a problem to be managed, you would have nothing to study and so you should find a different valid issue.)

b)      Explain the ethical issue using the most relevant concepts covered in class – justice, (consumer or employee) rights, utilitarianism, Kant, and/or agency problems. If you cannot explain it using these concepts, then it is not an ethical issue.

c)      Describe how the area of ethical concern is managed (or not managed) through elements of ethical climate. Demonstrate your understanding of how the individual elements contribute to effective management of your organization’s specific issue, or how failure to use them contributes to ineffective management of the issue.

d)      Describe indicators or measures of effective management of the ethical issue. Lack of such evidence can be the basis for a recommendation for improvements.

e)      Provide your overall assessment of whether the organization is effective in using elements of ethical climate to manage the ethical concern. Make sure your assessment is supported by the evidence from the prior points (c) and (d).

f)       If there are areas in which the organization can improve, provide specific, measurable, relevant recommendations.

1. Apply approaches that we have learned in class to address ethical issues – such as elements of ethical climate, organizational justice, approaches to mitigating agency problems, and strategic management of CSR.
2. Include a governance component i.e. how will we know that the improvements are effective and who should decide?

You can claim “no improvement opportunities” provided you have previously discussed all elements of ethical climate relevant for managing the ethical issue and have provided evidence of their effective implementation.

Submission requirements

The paper should be NOT MORE THAN 4 pages. (The page limit excludes references, appendices, and any other supplementary material.) Write in Times New Roman font 12 double-spaced with 1-inch margins.  

Number all pages of your work. For ease of grading, please use headings for parts 1 and 2. Submit your work on blackboard as a Word (.doc or .docx) attachment. (Convert your Mac documents to .docx before submitting).

 Cite secondary sources using footnotes or a bibliography (APA format is acceptable). Here is an example of what is expected.

                                                            PROCEDURE AND TOOLS                                                          

Choose an organization and informants

Choose an organization at which you will have access to at least one employee to obtain first-hand information about the organization’s ethical climate. Consider companies at which friends or family work, or one that you would like to work for where you can find a contact (e.g., an alum). If the organization has less than 10 employees or is a not-for-profit, please confirm with the professor beforehand that it will work.

Schedule an initial and a follow up interview with your informant(s). At the initial interview, ask about ethical issues that the organization has to manage. An ethical issue does not need to be a scandal. For example, ethical issues at Duquesne University could include equal employment or ensuring fair treatment of students. Leave open the possibility of a follow up interview to address questions that may arise after the initial interview or as you start writing the paper.

 Collect secondary evidence

For your paper to be evidence-based, any claims that you wish to make in your paper must be supported with secondary evidence. Your informant’s opinion alone is not evidence, and neither are mission statements, value statements, and codes of ethics. Organizations can have all of these and not follow them. Secondary evidence includes examples of actual behavior (e.g., critical incidents) provided by your informant as well as objective evidence that people other than your informant share the informant’s perception/belief. If appropriate, consider non-company sources such as news articles and review sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Comparably.com. However, use non-company sources pragmatically. Do not go down a rabbit hole of internet research.

 If you are unable to find secondary evidence, then you should question what the informant says. For example, if your informant says “we have effective policies in place to manage this issue” but cannot describe the policies or provide evidence of their effectiveness then you should acknowledge (in your paper) the lack of examples/evidence and your overall assessment should reflect this. In this way, your assessment will be evidence-based.

 Revisions

Students will be given the option to revise the paper based on grading feedback and to have part 2 regraded.

COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID                                                     

1. Studying a non-profit or very small company without consulting the professor and finding out later the organization is not a good choice for the paper.
2. Not supporting claims with secondary evidence.
3. Not following the PEAS writing criteria (see grading criteria at the end of this document).
4. Writing about an issue for which you have no objective evidence or writing about an issue that is not an ethical issue.
5. Failing to discuss how specific elements of ethical climate are used to manage the issue.
6. Claiming effective management of the issue without evidence. 

You (not your informant) are the expert on ethical climate. You are an investigator (not a note-taker) who should look critically at the situation and provide your own expert assessment by applying what you have learned in this course (which your informant might know).

Grade allocation

The grade will be allocated by section as follows:

Section                                                                                                                    Points allocated

Introduction and executive summary                                                                     30 points

Criterion              Description

1. Clear, concise, and evidence- based writing

• Clear: Points are logically organized in paragraphs following the PEAS writing approach: Each paragraph begins with a clear Point backed up by Evidence and Analysis and concluding with a Summary reminding readers why the paragraph is important to the overall argument. (For more about PEAS, see here.) It is clear how the points throughout the paper are related to each other and relevant to the assignment. Sufficient background information is provided for the reader to understand points made.
• Concise: Paper is free of unnecessary repetition, jargon, and non-essential or distracting points
• Evidence-based: Claims and conclusions are supported with secondary evidence. Sources are well cited. Adequate explanation is provided.

1. Application of course concepts

• Ethical issues are correctly explained using concepts from class (e.g., justice, rights, utilitarianism, Kant, agency)
• In the analysis of how ethical issues are managed, all relevant elements of ethical climate are discussed. Points will be deducted for failing to discuss elements of ethical climate that are relevant to addressing the issue.
• Indicators of effectiveness (or the absence of them) are discussed
• If recommendations are made, evidence is provided of the need for the recommended improvement; the recommendation for improvement is specific and correctly applies appropriate course concepts related to ethical climate, organizational justice, agency, corporate governance, and strategic management of CSR.