We discussed the fact that ethics have been integrated into SHRM’s competency model as a key competency. It’s not surprising, then, that many organizations have integrated the training of ethics into their training curricula. This might include training in more general ethical issues such as diversity training. Or it might be more specific to certain types of jobs, such as how to handle monetary transactions, gifts from clients, or conflicts of interest. There have been recent discussions about the ethical issues faced by those working in the high-tech industry and how what they do can affect millions of lives. (Critics say that this sort of ethical training is not discussed enough within the high-tech industry, much less trained.) Still, other organizations do provide explicit training focused on ethics. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) offers annual ethics training for its employees on understanding rules and issues such as those for gifts and financial conflicts of interest.

Questions 

1. Do you think people violate ethics because they lack training (i.e., they don’t know what is ethical and unethical) or see some advantage to their unethical behavior? Give examples to support your opinion.
2. Find an example in the news or in the HR literature of an organization charged with ethics violations. What did the organization do right?
What could the organization have done differently?