Chapter 4, Problem 1GL

GROUP LEARNING

Current Events of an Unethical Type83

Step I. Prior to meeting as a group, each person should find two newspaper or magazine articles from the past several months relating to someone violating business ethics or potentially breaking the law regarding business practices.

Step 2. Summarize the key points of the articles you found.

Step 3. Meet as a group. Have each person share key points from articles with group members.

Step 4. Identify similar themes across the unethical incidents reported in the articles. What was the source or underlying cause of the unethical behavior? What was the hoped—for outcome? Was an individual or a group involved? Did the accused seem repentant or defensive? Can you identify similar conditions of any kind across incidents? Write the common themes in a list on a sheet of paper or whiteboard.

Step 5. What could you as a manager do to prevent such unethical behavior in your organization? What could you do to fix this kind of problem after it occurred in your organization?

Step 6. Report your findings to the class if asked to do so by your instructor.

Then fill in these boxes.

Look at the underlying causes of the unethical behavior.

How often was a group?

How often an individual?