Student-Authored Ethics Vignettes: Giving Voice to Values All Semester

Abstract

Critics of ethics education suggest that students need to learn about contextual pressures of workplace ethical decisions and develop skills to handle them. Thus, instructors are often challenged to integrate an ethics unit into organizational behavior courses in ways that complement, rather than duplicate, what may have been covered in their degree program’s stand-alone ethics course. This article outlines a multistage class exercise that incorporates student-authored cases. As homework, students write about a firsthand work or team ethical decision. The instructor selects several for subsequent class discussions and activities that foster skill development around contextual analysis and anticipatory strategies adapted from the Giving Voice to Values methodology. Students report peers’ ethics vignettes to be interesting and relevant, and a multiperspective exploration and strategizing of these situations prepares them to face future ethical dilemmas in the workplace.