What ethical challenges have you faced? Thankfully, at my workplace, I have not faced any ethical challenges. As I ponder this fact for this blog, I am impressed, humbled and reminded of how lucky I am to have worked for a company for 16 years without feeling a true ethical challenge.
What comes to mind for me as an ethical challenge takes me back to my days of undergrad school. As a Psychology major, one of the requirements to graduate was to complete a large semester long research project. We were partnered for this project and the final product was nearly 60 pages and required extensive effort. My partner throughout was just awful. He never showed up for our research sessions, handed in any of his assignments and did not contribute to the final paper. Back in the day before the internet, our papers were handed in during office hours and directly to the professor. I did put his name on our title page, as he was “technically” my assigned partner, but ethically, I knew this was a lie and wrong. I went to my professors office, handed in the paper and began to walk back to my dorm and felt a very strong urgency to go back to her office, which I did. I quietly walked in, said nothing and took the paper off her desk and crossed off his name, placing the paper back on her desk. We made eye contact, I continued to say nothing, my eyes misting a bit, and she said, “I know. I know. You did good Lynda. You did the right thing.”
What values do you believe in? How much do you feel that you are a role model of these values when others observe your behavior? Much of my 16 year career at my company has been in direct people leadership. I strongly believe that leaders must lead by behavior, values and honesty. I greatly value humility, partnership, honestly and doing the right thing when no one is watching. I have felt quite blessed to work for a company that often and regularly emulates these values. It is rare and uncommon to see otherwise – these values are built into our culture. However, every so often, I come across a fellow colleague that may not be leading with this type of compass and I do everything I can, to lead by example, encourage with positivity and help that person re-connect to our mission and vision.
Hello Linda,
I enjoyed reading your blog very much. I major in psychology as well. I can unequivocally attest to the fact that the manner in which things were performed in the past was far different from the present.
I recall going to the computer lab a number of times to work on my papers. There was no Internet access, and the library served as my second dormitory. It is amazing how much we have advanced.