978-1259535437 Chapter 1 Part 2

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Chapter 01 – Understanding Ethics

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Students’ responses will vary. Individuals can choose not to contribute to peer pressure. For

3. How would you communicate the risks of sexting to students who are struggling to deal with

peer pressure?

Students’ responses will vary. Students need to be taught about the negative consequences

4. Is a change in the law the best option for addressing this problem? Why or why not?

Students’ responses will vary. In some cases a change in the law could be beneficial by

1.2 – The Overcrowded Lifeboat

1. Did the captain make the right decision? Why or why not?

Students’ responses will vary. This was a tough choice and the captain needed to analyze the

2. What other choices could the captain have made?

3. If you had been on the jury, how would you have decided? Why?

Students’ responses will vary. Some of them may support the captain’s decision because

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Education.

gave life to the people thus he was no one to decide whom to sacrifice.

4. Which ethical theory or theories could be applied here?

Many of the students will tell that the ethics for the greater good theory and the universal

ethics theory can be applied to this scenario. Ethics for the greater good theory focuses on

Frontline Focus

“Doing the Right Thing—Megan Makes a Decision” Questions

1. Did Megan make the right choice here?

Megan did make the right choice by approving the Wilsons’ application. As stated in the

2. What do you think Kate’s reaction will be?

Students’ answers will vary. Kate could be very understanding or very angry with Megan. If

3. What would have been the risks for Oxford Lake if Megan had decided not to rent the

apartment to the Wilsons?

Students’ responses will vary. If Megan had listened to Kate and buried the Wilsons’ file,

Key Terms

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Applied Ethics: The study of how ethical theories are put into practice.

Culture: A particular set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices that characterize a group of

individuals.

Ethical Dilemma: A situation in which there is no obvious right or wrong decision, but rather a

right or right answer.

Ethical Reasoning: Looking at the information available to us in resolving an ethical dilemma

and drawing conclusions based on that information in relation to our own ethical standards.

Ethical Relativism: Concept that the traditions of your society, your personal opinions, and the

circumstances of the present moment define your ethical principles.

Ethics: The manner by which we try to live our lives according to a standard of “right” or

“wrong” behavior—in both how we think and behave toward others and how we would like them

to think and behave toward us.

The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Instrumental Value: The quality by which the pursuit of one value is a good way to reach

another value. For example, money is valued for what it can buy rather than for itself.

Intrinsic Value: The quality by which a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own

sake, whether anything comes from that pursuit or not.

Society: A structured community of people bound together by similar traditions and customs.

Universal Ethics: Actions that are taken out of duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal rather

than based on the needs of the situation, since the universal principles are seen to apply to

everyone, everywhere, all the time.

Utilitarianism: Ethical choices that offer the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Value System: A set of personal principles formalized into a code of behavior.

Virtue Ethics: A concept of living your life according to a commitment to the achievement of a

clear ideal—what sort of person would I like to become, and how do I go about becoming that

person?

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Review Questions

NOTE: Some questions allow for a number of different answers. Below are some suggestions.

1. Why do we study ethics?

2. Why should we be concerned about doing “the right thing”?

3. If each of us has a unique set of influences and values that contribute to our personal value

system, how can that be applied to a community as a whole?

Students’ responses will vary. Students can discuss the Golden Rule and how the greater

4. Is it unrealistic to expect others to live by the Golden Rule?

5. Consider how you have resolved ethical dilemmas in the past. What would you do

differently now?

Students’ responses will vary. Students should recall what they did to resolve an ethical

6. What would you do if your resolution of an ethical dilemma turned out to be the wrong

approach and it actually made things worse?

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Review Exercises

1. You buy a candy bar at the store and pay the cashier with a $5 bill. You are mistakenly

given change from a $20 bill. What do you do?

Students’ responses will vary. Some of the students may feel that they should tell the cashier

2. You are riding in a taxicab and notice a $20 bill that has obviously fallen from someone’s

wallet or pocketbook. What do you do?

Students’ responses will vary. For some students the right thing to do would be to tell the

3. You live in a small Midwestern town and have just lost your job at the local bookstore. The

best-paying job you can find is at the local meatpacking plant, but you are a vegetarian and

feel strongly that killing animals for food is unjust. What do you do?

Students’ responses will vary. Most of the students may feel that they must analyze the

4. You are having a romantic dinner with your spouse to celebrate your wedding anniversary.

Suddenly, at a nearby table, a man starts yelling at the young woman he is dining with and

becomes so verbally abusive that she starts to cry. What do you do?

Students’ responses will vary. Most of the students may feel that no one deserves to be

5. You are shopping in a department store and observe a young man taking a watch from a

display stand on the jewelry counter and slipping it into his pocket. What do you do?

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Students’ responses will vary. Most of the students may feel that the man is obviously

6. You are the manager of a nonprofit orphanage. At the end of the year, a local car dealer

approaches you with a proposition. He will give you a two-year-old van worth $10,000 that

he has just taken as a trade-in on a new vehicle if you will provide him with a tax-deductible

donation receipt for a new van worth $30,000. Your current transportation is in very bad

shape, and the children really enjoy the field trips they take. Do you accept his proposition?

Students’ responses will vary. Most of the students may feel that this goes against values

Internet Exercises

1. Visit the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) at the Illinois Institute of

Technology: http://ethics.iit.edu.

a. What is the stated mission of CSEP?

b. Identify and briefly summarize a current CSEP research project.

c. Explain the purpose of the “NanoEthicsBank.”

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The NanoEthicsBank is a database conceived as a resource for researchers, scholars,

d. Do you think that an “Ethics Bowl” competition at your institution would be useful in

discussing the issues of professional ethics? Why or why not?

2. In these days of increasing evidence of questionable ethical practices, many organizations,

communities, and business schools are committing to ethics pledges as a means of

underscoring the importance of ethical standards of behavior in today’s society. Using

Internet research, find two examples of such pledges and answer the following questions:

a. Why did you select these two examples specifically?

b. Why did each entity choose to make an ethical pledge?

c. In what ways are the pledges similar and different?

d. If you proposed the idea of an ethics pledge at your school or job, what do you think

the reaction would be?

Team Exercises

1. Take me out to the cheap seats.

Divide into two groups and prepare arguments for and against the following behavior: My

dad takes me to a lot of baseball games and always buys the cheapest tickets in the park.

Chapter 01 – Understanding Ethics

When the game starts, he moves to better, unoccupied seats, dragging me along. It

embarrasses me. Is it OK for us to sit in seats we didn’t pay for?

Students’ responses will vary. Some students may feel it is not OK to sit in seats that one

2. Umbrella exchange.

Divide into two groups and prepare arguments for and against the following behavior: One

rainy evening I wandered into a shop, where I left my name-brand umbrella in a basket near

the door. When I was ready to leave, my umbrella was gone. There were several others in

the basket, and I decided to take another name-brand umbrella. Should I have taken it, or

taken a lesser-quality model, or just gotten wet?

3. A gift out of the blue.

Divide into two groups and prepare arguments for and against the following behavior: I’m a

regular customer of a men’s clothing mail-order company, and it sends me new catalogs

about six times a year. I usually order something because the clothes are good quality with a

money-back guarantee, and if the item doesn’t fit or doesn’t look as good on me as it did in

the catalog, the return process is very easy. Last month I ordered a couple of new shirts.

When the package arrived, there were three shirts in the box, all in my size, in the three

colors available for that shirt. There was no note or card, and the receipt showed that my

credit card had been charged for two shirts. I just assumed that someone in the shipping

department was recognizing me as a valuable customer—what a nice gesture, don’t you

think?

Students’ responses will vary. This would be a nice gesture if that was the case. This person

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4. Renting a dress?

Divide into two groups and prepare arguments for and against the following behavior: My

friend works for a company that manages fund-raising events for nonprofit organizations—

mostly gala benefits and auctions. Since these events all take place in the same city, she

often crosses paths with the same people from one event to the other. The job doesn’t pay a

lot, but the dress code is usually very formal. To stretch her budget and ensure that she’s not

wearing the same dress at every event, she buys dresses, wears them once, has them

professionally dry-cleaned, reattaches the label using her own label gun, and returns them

to the store, claiming that they were the wrong color or not a good fit. She argues that the

dry cleaning bill is just like a rental charge and she always returns them for store credit, not

cash. The dress shop may have made a sale, but is this fair?

Thinking Critically

1.1 – Three Cups Of Tea: Mismanagement or Fraud?

1. Based on the evidence presented in this case study, was Mortenson’s work at the CAI an

example of deliberate fraud or mismanagement? Defend your position.

Students’ responses will vary based on their opinions or stands they take based on the

2. How does the conduct of the CAI board relate to this case?

Students’ responses will vary. The Central Asia Institute (CAI) board shouldn’t have spent 2

million on private charter flights for Mortenson’s speaking engagements, even when he was

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Education.

organization), and appointed a new, larger, board of directors, these actions might have come

in a bit late and may not be enough.

3. From a business ethics perspective, which was worse, the conduct of the CAI board or the

conduct of Mortenson himself? Why?

4. Why would CAI want to keep Mortenson in a “visionary” capacity?

5. If Mortenson’s claims have misled donors, should the CAI return the money? Why or why

not?

Students’ responses will vary. Some of the students may feel that since, Mortenson’s claims

6. What should be done to restore the reputation of the CAI?

1.2 – The Man Who Shocked the World

1. Critics of Milgram’s research have argued that the physical separation between the

participant and the teacher in one room and the learner in the other made it easier for the

participant to inflict the shocks. Do you think that made a difference? Why or why not?

Students’ responses will vary. The physical separation could have been a variable in the

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2. The treatment of the participants in the study raised as much criticism as the results the study

generated. Was it ethical to mislead them into believing that they were really inflicting pain

on the learners? Why?

Students’ responses will vary. It was not unethical to mislead them in believing that they

3. The participants were introduced to the learners as equal participants in the study—that is,

volunteers just like them. Do you think that made a difference in the decision to keep

increasing the voltage? Why?

Students’ responses will vary. It is possible that participants continued increasing the voltage

4. What do you think Milgram’s research tells us about our individual ethical standards?

5. Would you have agreed to participate in this study? Why or why not?

6. Do you think if the study were repeated today we would get the same kind of results? Why?

1.3 – Life and Death

1. Should people have the moral right to end their lives if they so please?

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will simply eliminate their pain and suffering, they are not thinking of all the pain and

suffering that it will cause family and friends.

2. Does being near the end of one’s life make the decision to end it justified?

3. What might the phrase “right to die” mean?

4. Do people have the right to seek assistance in dying?

5. Do people have the right to give assistance in dying?

Students’ responses will vary. Some students may feel that people, who have no chance of

6. What kind of restrictions, if any, should there be on assisted suicide?