Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
Lecture Notes
Chapter 2
Personal Ethical Development
Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach (3rd ed.)
Component 1: Realistic Self–Appraisal
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•Need to acknowledge our potential to do harm as well as good
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•The shadow side of the personality = embarrassing, socially
unacceptable, dangerous
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•Ignoring the shadow side of the personality puts us at great risk
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•benefit of confronting the shadow side of the personality
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•Breaks the hold of undesirable characteristics
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•Provides a clearer sense of self
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•Become more tolerant of others
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•Less likely to project shadows
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•Encourages others to acknowledge heir weaknesses as well
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
Realistic Self–Appraisal
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•Managing the Shadow Side
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•Take personal responsibility for your actions
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•Recognize the danger of projecting undesirable qualities onto
others
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•Learn from your mistakes
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•Find a supportive partner to help explore weaknesses
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•Accept criticism
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•Keep yourself out of harm’s way—adjust behavior and
environment to keep from unleashing shadow forces
Component 2: Discovering Vocation
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•Vocation = calling. Determining our purpose in life. Can be on or o<
the job
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•Ethical benefit of discovering one’s calling
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•Perseverance
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•A greater sense of personal satisfaction
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•Better stewardship of time and energy
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•Service to others
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
Discovering Vocation
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•Steps to Discovering Your Vocation
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•Step 1: Determine your unique gifts
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•Step 2: Identify your specific concern for others
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•Step 3: Identify your interests
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•Step 4: Find the right job 1t
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•Barriers to Obeying Callings
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•Ambition (seeking culturally defined success)
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•Avoidance due to doubts, self-imposed limitations or orders from
authority figure
Overcome the barriers by acknowledging the power of the trappings of
success and break free of low self-esteem
Component 3: Identifying Personal Values
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•Values—”desirable goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding
principles in people’s lives”
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•Values drive ethical decision making, behavior and serve as standards
for determining right from wrong
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• How to identify or clarify values
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
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•Generate a list of values
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•Rate lists of values
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•Use indirect means—reCect on what you admire, enjoy, how you
spend your time and money and so on
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•Strive for person-organization t (compatibility with your
organization)
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•Avoid materialistic (external) values which don’t satisfy
Component 4: Developing Character
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•Character =“deep-rooted dispositions, habits, skills or traits of
character that incline persons to perceive, feel, and act in ethically right
and sensitive ways.”
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•Positive Psychology’s Six Virtues
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•Wisdom and knowledge—cognitive strengths
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•Courage: exercise of will in the face of opposition
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•Love: caring for and befriending others
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•Justice: building healthy communities
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•Temperance: protecting against excess
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•Transcendence: forging connections to the larger world
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
Developing Character: Direct Approaches
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•Direct: deliberately develop virtues
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• Strategies
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•character education
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• service learning (hands on experience)
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• psychological interventions
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• Reframing negative thoughts
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• Mastering progressively greater dangers
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• Realistic assessment of weaknesses
Developing Character: Indirect Approaches
Practice Habits (Covey)
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•Habit 1: Be proactive
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•Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind
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•Habit 3: Put First Things First
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•Habit 4: Think win-win
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•Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
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•Habit 6: Synergize
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
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•Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Developing Character: Indirect Approaches
Follow Role Models
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•Observation and imitation (virtues are more “caught than taught”)
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•Types of role models (moral exemplars)
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•Moral Episodes
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• Moral crises—dangerous, call for moral heroes
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• Moral confrontations—call for moral champions
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•Moral Processes
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• Moral projects—limited time e<orts that call for moral
leaders
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• Moral work—ongoing e<orts that call for moral workers
Developing Character: Indirect Approaches
Stories (Narratives)
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•Help us makes sense of the world
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•Promote desired behavior
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•We live up to the organizational stories we share with others
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
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•Literature as a source of stories
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•Fiction reCects the complexity of life
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•The best stories are
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• Vivid—introduce characters we care about
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• Vexing—place characters in diIcult ethical situations
Developing Character: Indirect Approaches
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•Passages: intense experiences that push us out of our comfort zones
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•Types
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•Diverse work experiences (joining a new company, accepting a
new assignment)
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•Work adversity (failure, losing a job, coping with a bad boss)
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•Diversity of life experiences (living abroad, blending work and
family)
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•Life adversity (death, divorce, illness)
Developing Character: indirect approaches
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•Growing Through Passages
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
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•Step 1: Learn resilience
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•Step 2: Accept personal responsibility
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•Step 3: ReCect
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•Step 4: Seek support from your partner, family, friends, and
professionals
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•Step 5: Develop and use a professional network
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•Step 6: Seek refuge
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•Step 7: Gain perspective
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•Step 8: Retirement
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•Step 9: Pass on your experience
Component 5: Creating a Moral Identity
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•Definition: De1ne self in terms of ethical commitments and values
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•To betray ethical commitments is to betray the self
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•How moral identity develops
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•Grows beyond childhood
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•Work with others on ethical tasks and projects
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•Adopt a joyful attitude
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
Component 6: Drawing Upon Spiritual Resources
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•A foundation for moral exemplars and moral identity
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•Workplace spirituality: “the recognition that employees have an inner
life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place
in the context of community.” (Duchon & Plowman)
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•Inner life—bring the whole person to work
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•Meaningful work—motivated by more than material rewards
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•Community—desire for connection
Drawing Upon Spiritual Resources
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•Nurture spiritual values by “caring for the soul” through intimacy,
creative work, nature and beauty, and spirituality (dedicating work to
higher purposes)
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•Track your spiritual progress
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•Stage 1: unprincipled—narcissistic and egocentric
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•Stage 2: conventional—self-doubt
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•Stage 3: self-actualizing—high self–awareness and living out
values
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•Stage 4: integral—leave the ego behind
Craig E. Johnson, Organizational Ethics, Third Edition
Instructor Resource
Beware of the dangers of organizational spirituality: proselytizing,
invasion of privacy, manipulation of employees, lack of a strong