In \u201cA Corporate Training View of Ethics Education,\u201d Dov Seidman explains his view of ethics training is different from conventional approaches to ethics training because he refuses to see ethics training as an isolated exercise employees are forced to complete periodically. Seidman believes annual training is inefficient because workers fail to associate ethics with their work. Instead, Seidman views ethics training as an ongoing and systematic component of an organization\u2019s work culture that aims to incorporate ethics considerations into employee\u2019s everyday tasks. Seidman calls for a more organic and all-encompassing approach to ethics training that targets workers attitudes by fostering, reinforcing, strengthening, and improving the \u201cethical culture\u201d (Thompson, 2007, p. 84) within an organization\u2019s existing culture to incorporate ethics as part of every action that workers take.<\/p>\n
Seidman argues when looking at the history of ethical thought in ethics training, the current system of how schools teach ethics is ineffective because it does not and cannot ensure that workers conduct themselves and carry out their duties ethically. According to Seidman, examining the history of ethical thought reveals that ethics is taught in isolation. Businesses and academia compartmentalize ethics and fail to integrate it in a real-life context.<\/p>\n
I agree that the global economy can make organizations amoral when corporations put profit above the rightness and wrongness of exploiting people, the environment, and the law. When shareholder interest is the primary goal, corporations are indifferent to the morality or immorality of their actions because social justice is not their overarching goal. Child labour and sweatshops are consistent complaints against major fashion retailers including Nike and Zara but they justify their actions by claiming to provide wages to workers to lift them from their poverty (J. Moulds, 2017). Environmental catastrophes, such as the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, devastate ecosystems but companies pledge to do more to ensure the sustainability of the planet while continuing to exploit natural resources. Taking advantage of legal loopholes and skirting legal obligations are commonplace in multinational corporations. The recent release of the Paradise Papers have uncovered the furtive measures some companies take to dodge taxes\u00a0(\u201cWho\u2019s named\u201d, 2017). \u00a0While these actions are not illegal, they are not welcomed by tax authorities in their respective countries. Globalization and the possibility of transnational commerce has made some organizations amoral in their pursuit of profit.<\/p>\n
I work in a field where there is a strong and entrenched approach of ethics training. As a public school teacher, I am obligated to observe the dictates of the BC School Act<\/em> but my ethical duties to my students is much more deeply engrained than a course or regular training sessions on the School Act<\/em> can provide. There is a strong sense of ethical responsibility in teachers to their profession, their students, and their colleagues. In contrast to the private sector where there is a higher opportunity for personal gain and profit, teaching is inherently the opposite and because of that, a program approach to ethics training is less relevant in education. Whereas a business executive might benefit from unethical practices, teachers do not have such opportunities. While a program approach of ethics training is necessary for teachers to ensure that the \u201crule-of-law\u201d (Thompson, 2007, p. 80) is observed, there is very little incentive for teachers to look for loopholes around laws because there is little to gain from taking advantage of the ambiguities within the School Act<\/em>. Nevertheless, a cultural approach to ethical behaviour can always be strengthened in public school education so that teachers model for students what ethical behaviour looks like. The best form of teaching is by modelling and a lot of what students learn about ethics is through observing the teacher.<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Moulds, J. (n.d.). Child Labour in the Fashion Supply Chain. Retrieved from https:\/\/labs.theguardian.com\/unicef-child-labour\/.<\/p>\n The Globe and Mail. (2017, November 6). Who’s named in the Paradise Papers? A list and a primer on why it matters. Retrieved from https:\/\/beta.theglobeandmail.com\/report-on-business\/paradise-papers-list-explainer\/article36842496\/?ref=http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com&\/.<\/p>\n Thompson, K. R. (2007). A Corporate Training View of Ethics Education: An Interview with Dov L. Seidman, CEO of LRN. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13 (3), <\/em>p. 79-91.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In \u201cA Corporate Training View of Ethics Education,\u201d Dov Seidman explains his view of ethics training is different from conventional approaches to ethics training because he refuses to see ethics training as an isolated exercise employees are forced to complete periodically. Seidman believes annual training is inefficient because workers fail to associate ethics with their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-ldrs500","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/ruthleong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}