Do the following for Coms

Congratulations! As a result of your persuasive arguments for a Diversity and Inclusion Program, (DISCUSS: Making YOUR argument for Diversity and Inclusion Programs), I have (hypothetically) instituted ongoing D&I training in my organization. I have also promoted you to a management position in our new “talent development” department (more on the term “talent management and development” later on). Using the same hypothetical scenario described in that previous discussion prompt, imagine the following:

Our organization has recently developed a 300-page “Corporate Code of Ethics and Principles of Conduct,” authored for us (at considerable cost) by an outside consultant. Our attorneys said we HAD to do it, so I figured we had to spend the money, even though I grumbled about it for weeks. We have distributed the manual online as a PDF to all employees and I believe that’s really all I need to do. In a brief elevator ride to the 15th floor of our building, you mentioned to me that it would be important to do some ethics training in addition to the published ethical code. My response was:

“Why do I need to waste time and energy taking people away from their real jobs, putting them in a room, and reading the manual at them? They can just read it themselves. They all know that they can be disciplined or terminated for ethical violations, You can’t give much more motivation than that, right?”

You stutter in stunned disbelief that someone leading this size organization could actually be so out of touch — frustrated that yet again, you have to justify the need for employee training and employee development. You spit out: 

“Well, because it is important and a good ROI (return on investment).”

I respond with:

“Well, I don’t have time for this now, but write up a proposal for me and you better be able to prove to me that this will be worth it. I’ve been in ethics training programs before and they’ve all been a waste of time. Pure bull$&!#.”

The elevator doors open I get off, and you continue in the opposite direction to your office. You sit down at your computer and begin to write an email to me with a proposal for your ethics program. That message needs to argue persuasively yet respectfully (if you want to keep your job) for instituting some sort of ethics training. It also needs to explain what you want to do. So, in addition to justifying that training program, you need to also give a basic description of what that training program (or series of training programs?) would look like. That (hypothetical) memo to me is your initial post on this discussion board. Be sure to use what you learned in all of the content posted for this week (Week 05: February 20 – February 26), as well as your own critical thinking skills in developing your response.

After you post, come back and reply to at least two of your classmate’s posts — identify one or more things in their approach you particularly like, and make one or more suggestions for what that person might do differently in their message. You can have up to 4 days following the posted due date for this discussion board to come back and interact with your partners in this forum.