18 Oct Dr. Jeffrey Wigand became one of the best-known whistleblowers after his experience was turned into a movie, The Insider.

Whistleblower: An Ethical Dilemma

A whistleblower, by definition, is someone who brings an unethical, immoral, or illegal business practice to the public’s attention. Whistleblowers have a difficult time in doing this, and they often find their lives changed because of their actions. Sometimes they are shunned and also receive death threats. It is common for the family members to feel the effects of a whistleblower’s behavior.

 

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand became one of the best-known whistleblowers after his experience was turned into a movie, The Insider. He proved tobacco companies were deliberately boosting the nicotine content of cigarettes, making them more addictive and cancer causing. However, similar to other whistleblowers, he suffered from tremendous stress and received death threats and other forms of intimidation for doing the right thing. Do some research on Wigand’s actions.

 

For the first part of your post:

 

Assess how Dr. Wigand showed moral intelligence and leadership in this situation. Assess what you think he did for his own credibility based on his actions.

 

Evaluate what you would do if you found an unethical practice in your workplace. Would your response depend on the severity of the unethical practice? 

 

For the second part of your post, select any one of the following bullet points. Attempt to spread the bullet points out among class members (e.g., not have one bullet point answered by all course participants).

 

Provide a couple examples of potential unethical practices in your organization that could be considered very minor and that people have come to “accept” as opposed to reporting. How, exactly, does the organization or its members respond to the unethical practices? Assess any inconsistencies in the organizational response. Recommend any alternative response.

 

Create a continuum of severity model regarding ethical practices in organizations and discuss your model. How did you arrive at the model you created? Propose how an organization might use your severity continuum model.

 

Justify why you think that people tend to accept some unethical practices while others are not accepted. Propose three or four key steps an organization might take to build more consistent ethical decisions and actions.

 

Conclude your post with a three or four sentence summary of the most important point, lesson, or takeaways from your research and analysis for your initial post.

 

Provide a substantive (500–1,000 words) initial discussion post. Justify your answers with examples and reasoning. Comment on the initial postings of at least two peers. Your responses to other initial posts must be a 100 to 200 word minimum each.

 

By the due date assigned post your initial response to the Discussion Area.

 

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your peers’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.

 

 

 

 

 

LEA5125 Leadership Ethics, Culture and Politics

 

Week 2 Discussion

 

Discussion Question – Role Models

 

A role model is someone who behaves in a way that inspires you to imitate the behavior. Perhaps someone’s way of giving feedback is so sensitive you are inspired to adopt the method as your own. For instance, someone’s business attire seems perfectly suited to the occasion and exudes an attractive or powerful statement, and you wish to dress in a similar manner.

 

Describe your role model at work, including a particular aspect in that person’s behavior that inspires you.

 

Explain exactly what the person does or says to inspire you to the point of emulation.

 

Then, analyze a scenario in which this person has changed the organization positively because of the characteristic you admire. How is the organization a better place because of the presence of your role model?

 

How can you change your personal behavior to be similar? How would your career be enhanced?

 

Conclude your post with a three or four sentence summary of the most important point, lesson or takeaways from your research and analysis for your initial post.

 

Provide a substantive (500–1,000 words) initial discussion post.  Justify your answers with examples and reasoning.

 

After your initial post, comment on the initial postings of at least two peers. Your follow-up postings should each be a 100 to 200 word minimum that substantively address the required content with the following prompts in mind:

 

Compare the role model that you discussed in your initial posting to a peer’s role model. What are the similarities and differences between the two leaders?

 

Assess whether the peer’s role model would also be someone you would consider a role model based on the information provided in their initial posting.

 

By the due date assigned, post your initial response to the Discussion Area.

 

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your peers’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.

 

 

 

LEA5125 Leadership Ethics, Culture and Politics

 

Week 3 Discussion

 

Discussion Question – Five Bases of Power

 

Conduct research on French and Raven’s five bases of power, which include coercive, legitimate, reward, referent, and expert power.

 

For the first part of your post, choose five leaders, one for each of the power bases, and give a brief example to support why a leader’s use of power best exemplifies a certain power base. 

 

For the second part of your post, select any one of the following bullet points. Attempt to spread the bullet points out among class members (e.g., not have one bullet point answered by all course participants).

 

Assess which base of power is most appealing to you from the perspective of both a leader and a follower.

 

Justify which leader seems the most successful, using specific examples and research to support your view.

 

Propose a supported plan (three or four action steps) for how you (or the organization) might help one of the least successful leaders you chose to improve their leadership success.

 

Analyze a leader that uses a good balance of the different bases of power. How does this leader compare to those who have a dominant style?

 

Conclude your post with a three or four sentence summary of the most important point, lesson or takeaways from your research and analysis for your initial post.

 

Provide a substantive (500–1,000 words) initial discussion posting. Justify your answers with examples and reasoning. Comment on the initial postings of at least two peers. Your responses to other initial posts must be a 100 to 200 word minimum each.

 

By the due date assigned, post your initial response to the Discussion Area.

 

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your peers’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.

 

 

 

LEA5125 Leadership Ethics, Culture and Politics

 

Week 4 Discussion

 

Discussion Question – Managing Emotions

 

There are times when you are hurt, defensive, joyous, reserved, controlled, or angry. Acting professionally means controlling your emotions. While outbursts are unwelcome as a way of communicating or expressing yourself, emotions are important indicators of authenticity and can be reflections of the ethical and cultural foundations of an organization.

 

For the first part of your post:

 

Compare two leaders you are familiar with, one who managed emotion well and one who did not manage emotion well. Provide specific examples to support your stance on the emotional management of these leaders. How did their emotional management affect the organization?

 

For the second part of your post, select any one of the following bullet points. Attempt to spread the bullet points out among class members (e.g., not have one bullet point answered by all course participants).

 

Assess how a leader can most effectively manage emotions in the workplace.  As a leader, how can one show appropriate emotional self-control or leverage emotions for organizational benefit?

 

Propose a research-supported policy or guideline statement (three or four action items) an organization might adopt concerning emotional expression in the workplace. How would such a policy enhance organizational culture? How would such a policy enhance ethics in the organization?

 

Propose a brief set of coaching points for how leaders should handle a situation where an employee or a customer is extremely emotional to an unprofessional point?

 

Conclude your post with a three or four sentence summary of the most important point, lesson or takeaways from your research and analysis for your initial post.

 

Provide a substantive (500–1,000 words) initial discussion posting. Justify your answers with examples and reasoning. Comment on the initial postings of at least two peers. Your responses to other initial posts must be a 100 to 200 word minimum each.

 

By the due date assigned, post your initial response to the Discussion Area.

 

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your peers’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.

 

 

 

LEA5125 Leadership Ethics, Culture and Politics

 

Week 5 Discussion

 

Discussion Question – Organizational Collaboration

 

This week you read about collaboration, what makes collaboration successful, and the role that leaders play in successful collaboration. Some of the more innovative companies are creating a culture of collaboration where everyone has strengths that they bring to the table, and everyone is involved in solving problems and creating new ideas.

 

For the first part of your post,

 

Research a company that has a culture of collaboration:

 

Briefly assess which of the organization’s characteristics make you think that the culture is collaborative.

 

Assess whether the company is successful at collaboration. If so, provide an example that supports your opinion. If not, discuss why it is not successful.

 

Analyze the role the company’s top leaders play in the culture of collaboration.

 

For the second part of your post,

 

Choose a situation where you were part of a collaborative effort that was successful and a situation where you were part of a collaborative effort that was not successful. These can be from work, from sports teams, or from other collaborative efforts you have experienced.

 

Compare these two collaborative efforts to analyze what the similarities and differences were, and why one was successful and one was not.

 

Conclude your post with a three or four sentence summary of the most important point, lesson or takeaways from your research and analysis for your initial post.

 

Provide a substantive (500–1,000 words) initial discussion posting. Justify your answers with examples and reasoning. Comment on the initial postings of at least two peers. Your responses to other initial posts must be a 100 to 200 word minimum each.

 

By the due date assigned, post your initial response to the Discussion Area.

 

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your peers’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.

 

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