RONALD’S POST:

Explain the implications of globalization.

            Everything in the world has positives and negatives, and the same goes for globalization. Some of the positives include free trade, global economic growth, poorer countries have a chance to develop economically, cultures are learning more about one another and people are becoming more tolerant of people from other countries.

            Some of the adverse effects of globalization consist of making the rich even richer and the non-rich (such as blue-collar, and impoverished) poorer, countries taxed for imports for the supposed “free trade” from other countries, employees of companies (like in the US) often face pay cut demands from employers who threaten to export their jobs to other countries, developed countries are losing jobs to countries who charge less to do the job, the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

Identify at least two ethical issues that go along with the global societal topic you have chosen for your final essay.

The topic of climate change has many ethical issues that vary depending on the perspective of climate change at a given time.

1. An ethical issue or dilemma for the oil industry is the tension between profits and CO2 emissions. According to Le Menestrel, van den Hove, & de Bettignies (2002), “the oil industry’s business ethical dilemmaas a trade-off between a socially detrimental process (emitting greenhouse gases, hence inducing a risk of climate change) and a self-interested consequence (profits)” (pg. 251).
2. Neglecting Climate change is an ethical issue, which often gets swept under the proverbial rug, of the public’s health.

Explain how globalization contributes to or affects these ethical dilemmas.

            Globalization is trying to bring the world together by developing poorer countries, having them do jobs cheaper, and ramping up production in other countries because there are no emission laws. Developing poorer countries involves influencing their economy by providing them with jobs which then help boost development. Once development is growing, the economy is being filled with money, which makes those residents even happier. That is happening with no laws in place for emissions, wages, work hours, or public safety (such as health). The health of people in other countries is not a factor of globalization because if the rich are getting richer, than everything is fine. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the goals and points of globalization were either lost or twisted to benefit companies, people, or organizations.

            For poorer countries to grow and develop, they get help from other countries. Helping those countries involves travel and transportation, which costs gas and money. Both of those things come from the gas and oil companies, which are a part of globalization. Also, there are places that oil drilling is taking place in other countries, such as ocean drilling, because there are benefits to doing that in other countries (which is a part of globalization).

Propose solutions to these ethical dilemmas that are feasible financially, socially, and culturally.

 The solution for the public’s health to not be ignored is for everyone to know there will not be any harm or ignoring to those trying to protect people from climate change due to things like CO2 emissions. Socially I believe that letting the public know how important and impactful climate change is on their health is feasible since the world is trying to be healthier more than ever before. Financially I believe there is no effect on people becoming more aware and knowing what is going on. I think financially, the money will promote what climate change is and how it affects health. That would, in turn, benefit businesses, event centers, and more. Culturally I think the solution of letting climate change be known and how it affects the public’s health would be feasible culturally. I do not see anything getting in the way of the solution for any culture.

            I believe a possible solution to not abiding by emission regulations to gain more profits for oil companies could be simple. Giving oil companies bonuses or tax exemptions for not only following but going above and beyond the emission regulations is a solution. That solution gives them a reason to surpass the emission regulations, which makes people happy and supportive of oil companies socially. It will be feasible culturally because it continues to provide jobs to families, is following the laws, and is keeping more people safe by reducing emissions, which results in less climate change.

References

Le Menestrel, M., van den Hove, S., & de Bettignies, H.-C. (2002). Processes and Consequences in

            Business Ethical Dilemmas: The Oil Industry and Climate Change. Journal of Business Ethics,

            41(3), 251.

JESSICA’S POST:

• Explain the implications of globalization.

Globalization has both positive and negative effects. For individuals, it can affect your quality of life from the food we eat to the things we do in our day to day routine. The positive of globalization is that it will help new industries and develop more jobs in developing countries. The negative side is that those pooper countries around the world will have no say and will be forced to do whatever they are told to do.

• Identify at least two ethical issues that go along with the global societal topic you have chosen for your final essay.

Several ethical issues go along with my social topic, lack of education, the effects of distance learning in elementary school. The first one I have chosen to write about in my paper is the separation of teacher and learner and having to learn as an individual rather than a group setting. The second one I have chosen to write about is the use of or lack of media to link the teacher with students.

• Explain how globalization contributes to or affects these ethical dilemmas.

Our world is slowly transforming, and several states have decided to switch to distant learning for the remainder of this school year. “Globalization enhances the ability of learners to access, assess, adapt, and apply knowledge, to think independently to exercise appropriate judgment, and to collaborate with others to make sense of new situations” (Gupta, 2017).  However, removing the teacher and student from the same environment can harm a child. Each child learns

differently, and not all children work well independently and require that one on one help.

We are breaking boundaries using technology to interact and teach our students from home. However, “The potential fallback of globalization in education can be the increased technological gaps and digital divides between advanced countries and less developed countries” (Gupta, 2017).

• Propose solutions to these ethical dilemmas that are feasible financially, socially, and culturally.

The first solution is finding ways to reach students that struggle working in groups. Add a block during the daily schedule to work with those students and even providing information for the parents to assist them with distant learning.

Distant learning requires a form of technology to access your classroom materials, whether it is blackboard or google classroom. The solution is making sure all children have access to the materials that are needed for distant learning. Counties should be required to loaning out laptops and providing a hotspot for the students.

Reference

Gupta, P. (2017, April 6). Impact of Globalization in Education. Retrieved from https://edtechreview.in/news/2730-globalization-in-education

ADAM’S POST:

Explain what it means to be ethical as it relates to personal, academic, and professional growth.

Ethical behavior can take on several different meanings depending on your own set of beliefs, values, culture, and upbringing. According to Ahmad (2013), “Ethical behavior in general means good conduct, acting with a sense of right and wrong, good and bad, and virtue and evil” (para. 7). So what does that look like in terms of personal, academic, and professional growth?

Personal

Ethical behavior on a personal level can mean many different things: honesty, integrity, caring about others, having empathy for others, encouraging others, and being selfless in your actions.  I personally believe in helping others in any way possible.  Because of my childhood, my personal core values and behavior are heavily driven on making the world a better place, one interaction at a time.

Academic

Academic ethical behavior carries many of the same values as personal ethics; honesty, integrity, and encouraging others.  Additionally, completing assignments on time and in accordance with the guidance is another form of ethical behavior (work ethic). The biggest thing I see in this respect is plagiarism.  When I first started out at Ashford University, there was blatant plagiarism on the discussion boards and it was extremely frustrating.  There were always a few people that were late to post, and often simply reworded someone else’s post. 

Professional

Professional ethical behavior carries all the aspects I mentioned previously as well as striving to improve processes and performance within your respective areas.  Professional decisions should be aimed at improving those around you, your department, and organizational as a whole.  While there are many that would argue that you are being paid to do a job so to expect anything more is unreasonable, but I would argue that if you see an opportunity for improvements, it is your moral and ethical obligation to voice that to leadership.   

Provide at least one ethical dilemma you have encountered, and describe how the issue was resolved.

Throughout my many years in a leadership position, I have conducted hundreds of job interviews and hiring actions.  As often occurs, someone that you know is interviewing and in a few cases, good friends of mine.  This normally goes one of two ways, they expect to be given the job simply based on the relationship, or there is an assumption or rumor that they are already preselected for the position based on the relationship. I have even had friends flat out ask me to give them preferential treatment.  I believe that a person’s character is all they really have, and once that character is compromised it is tarnished for a long time. 

About a year ago, I was interviewing for a leadership position and one of my employees was interviewing for the position.  I knew he was the right person for the job, but he also knew that I was not going to give him the job, he had to earn it through the interview as there were several other qualified candidates. At the same time, there were rumors generating that he was already selected for the position.  When it came time to conduct interviews, I removed my scores from each candidate and allowed the other three panel members in order to remove any perceived bias of the process. As a hiring official this is hard to do because you want to have input as to who you are hiring, but I knew it was the ethical thing to do so that the other candidates knew the process was fair and equitable.

Describe how your general education courses have influenced your ethical values.

I believe my ethical values are heavily driven by my core values and beliefs from early in my childhood.  I do however, believe that there have been a few general education courses that have broadened my perspective as to what ethical values embodies.  I had never really looked at it from a corporate responsibility perspective, nor had I fully understood how in depth or involved that could be. Now, having written several papers related to corporate ethical behavior, ethical leadership, and societal concerns, I have better understanding and well-rounded knowledge base of what ethical behavior on a much bigger scale truly means.     

References

Ahmad, A. (2013). A global ethics for a globalized world. Policy Perspectives, 10(1), 63-77.  https://www.jstor.org/journal/polipers

RONALD’S POST:

Explain what it means to be ethical as it relates to personal, academic, and professional growth.

Personal: To be ethical as a person to me relates to who I am and how I behave, which means to be honest, fair, truthful, and having acceptable moral standards. I strive to be as ethical/moral as humanly possible, and it makes me feel good doing so.

Academically: Academically being ethical means to avoid cheating (plagiarism), maintaining the policy and standards set forth for every student and faculty member.  When doing rigorous research and being honest when writing papers or publishing something academic

Professional Growth: Being ethical in the professional sense is having moral principles that control the conduct of a single person, group, or organization. Having ethics and maintaining those ethics is essential in every profession. To support those ethics means to be consistent with moral conduct all the time.  For example, treating people fairly, nicely, and with respect is ethical conduct and should always be given during and outside of work.

Provide at least one ethical dilemma you have encountered and describe how the issue was resolved.

 An ethical problem I have encountered was hiring someone to due a job for a certain price, but the person hired did not fulfill everything they stated would be included in the job. When he stated he was finished I asked why he had not completed the other tasks he said would be included in the quote he gave me before he started. He stated he was just telling me those things so I would be aware what I could add to the job. Unfortunately for him I asked if everything they told me he could do would be included in the total price because I wanted everything, and he stated yes. When I told him this, he said he did not understand what I was asking. I asked him to politely give me a second to pull out my phone. I told him I have a security system that records visual and audio any where around my house. I showed him on my front porch and him repeating back to me everything I asked for and telling me the total price for everything I wanted would be a certain amount. After seeing that he started to back track and then stopped and stated he was in the wrong. I told him I would be happy to work out a different price for the next time because I understand it being a mistake. He decided to go ahead and finish what he stated he would do and when I paid him I gave him more then what he had asked for because I understand it being a mistake and how hard it can be running a business alone. He stated that because I remained calm and didn’t get mad and just spoke with him with respect and kindness that he felt it was only right to do what he said he would do. From that day on we have stayed in contact and he has done work for me from that point on.

Describe how your general education courses have influenced your ethical values.

            At first, I felt that the classes did not influence my ethical values, but, in a way, they have because they are making me think about them and how to understand them better. I believe my general education courses have given me a better understanding of my ethics and moral reasoning. My parents were always on me about making sure I had good ethics because that is the only thing I can offer to prove and show what kind of person I am. I am thankful for my parents doing that and helping me understand the importance of ethics at such a young age. I encourage every student to be as ethical and moral to themselves and others as possible and why it is so important.