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Chapter Six
ETHICS TRAINING
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Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons
Chapter 6
 Discuss the importance of organizational
Learning Objectives
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Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
trust
Describe the extent of ethics training
nationwide
Understand the shortcomings of webbased ethics training programs
Develop 10 types of ethics training
workshops
Create business ethics scenarios for
workshop discussion
Administer ethics personality surveys
Assess the ethics training workshop
Building Trust and an Ethical Culture
W. Edwards Deming stated, “Trust is mandatory for
optimization of a system…Without trust, each
component will protect its own immediate interests
to its own long term detriment, and to the detriment
of the entire system”
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Building Trust and an Ethical Culture
 Trust eliminates psychological barriers separating
employers and employees
 Trust creates economic benefits through enhanced
individual and organizational performance
 Hard-earned trust can quickly disappear when
violated, which can hamper organizational
performance
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Extent of Ethics Training
 Organizations may be tempted to eliminate ethics
training as an extraneous expense when budgets are
tight, but this is exactly when ethics training is
needed most
 Employees who tend toward the relativistic belief
that cutting ethical corners may be necessary to
“save the organization” might sound heroic in the
short term, but these actions can come back to haunt
the organization in the long term
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Who to Train
 Upper-level managers establish the overall ethics
tone that is then filtered throughout an organization
 Ethics training can help organizational leaders
achieve consensus on how to address difficult
situations they encounter
 Direct supervisors have the most immediate impact
on the ethics of subordinates
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Web-Based Ethics Training
Web-based training offers a simple method for making
employees aware of the most common ethical issues
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
The Workshop Facilitator
An ideal workshop facilitator is someone the
participants trust and who has the requisite skills to
create a safe learning environment
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Framing the Training Workshop
There is no “one-size-fits-all” ethics training program, yet there are
general trends and best practices found among organizations
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Ethical Culture Assessment
 Annually assessing the organization’s ethical
performance based on its Code of Ethics offers an
opportunity for employees to discuss relevant ethical
issues related to work activities
 Exhibit 6.2 (next slide) provides a 10-step process for
conducting this workshop
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Exhibit 6.2: Ethics Training Options
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Ethical Culture Assessment
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Code of Conduct Analysis
 Code of conduct content: The ethics training
workshop facilitator can use a game format to engage
the minds of employees when educating them about
Code of Conduct content
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Code of Conduct Analysis
Applying the Code of Conduct to Specific Situations
 Coca-Cola’s ethics training includes reviewing the
company’s Code of Business Conduct
 Coca-Cola’s Code of Business Conduct, and one
scenario and correct answer, appear in the “Best
Practice in Use” exhibit (next slide)
 This format teaches employees about previous
disciplinary actions taken by the organization
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Code of Conduct Analysis
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Code of
Conduct
Analysis
Outcome of code of
conduct violations
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
 The facilitator can design a
workshop educating employees
about the types of unethical
activities that have previously
occurred within the organization
or industry, and how the guilty
person was punished
Typical Behaviors Experienced
The workshop facilitator can introduce employees to
the most common ethical problems experienced in
the industry, explore the extent to which attendees
have witnessed the problem, and guide them in how
best to respond to the most prominent issues
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Apply the Systematic Rational Ethical
Decision-Making Framework
This training workshop teaches employees how to apply the
systematic rational ethical decision-making framework to
particular situations
Insert Exhibit 6.5
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Create Business Ethics Scenarios for
Discussion
The most meaningful ethical issues to explore are those
employees observe, experience, or hear about while
employed either in their current organization or for a
previous employer
Insert Exhibit 6.6
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Create Business Ethics Scenarios for
Discussion
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Fraud and Theft Exploration
 The terms theft, fraud, and embezzlement are interrelated
 Theft refers to taking someone’s property without their
permission
 Fraud is the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment
through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the
employing organization’s resources or assets
 Embezzlement is a particular type of theft and fraud whereby
an employee steals money from his or her employer
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Fraud and Theft Exploration
Employee workshops on fraud detection are a disincentive
for those considering committing a fraud and can help
detect frauds as soon as they occur
Insert Exhibit 6.8
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Level of Moral Development Analysis
 Ethics training can help employees better
understand their own ethical profile
 One of the most important ethics measures—level of
moral development— remains an elusive concept to
measure
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Ethics Personality Measures
A variety of ethics and personality measures linked with
ethical attitudes, decision-making, and behaviors can serve
as the focus of an ethics training workshop:
 Idealism/Relativism measures whether a person tends to
be an “idealist” or “relativist” when responding to an ethical
dilemma
 Ethical Ideology measures whether a person tends to be
“principled” (deontology) or “expedient” (relativism) when
responding to an ethical dilemma
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Ethics Personality Measures
 Moral Identity measures whether a person internalizes
moral character traits (internalization) and projects them
to others (symbolization)
 Moral Courage measures whether a person exercises
moral principles
 Empathy measures a person’s emotional reaction to the
experiences of another person
 Altruism measures whether a person engages in altruistic
behaviors
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Ethics Personality Measures
 Trust measures whether a person is willing to be
vulnerable in supervisor interactions
 Ethical Self-Efficacy measures whether a person
believes he or she can successfully perform an ethical
behavior
 Machiavellianism measures whether a person
identifies with “the ends justify the means”
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Ethics Personality Measures
 Locus of Control measures whether a person believes
she or he controls (internal), or is controlled by
(external), events in life
 Life regard measures whether a person values living
a meaningful life (framework) and whether this
desire is being fulfilled (fulfillment)
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Benchmark to an Ideal Employee
 Employees need to know in advance what managers
expect of them
 Have each manager independently develop a list of
behavioral attributes an ideal employee would possess
 Share these lists with other managers in small groups
and combine similar items under the same heading
 Then present the composite profile of an ideal employee
to subordinates for the purposes of self-assessment
feedback
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
In a workshop
setting, have
employees
individually
answer the sets
of questions in
Exhibit 6.10 and
discuss their
responses in
small groups
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics
Assessing the Ethics Training Workshop
Keep the assessment tool simple and short for employees and the
facilitator:
 Were specific real-life situations addressed?
 Were questions raised by participants?
 Did the trainer serve as a coach and facilitator, rather than a
lecturer?
 Were participants shown how to address, report, or correct ethical
problems?
 Were the situations raised linked back to the Code of Ethics, Code of
Conduct, or organizational strategy?
Chapter 6, Collins: Business Ethics