One of the most beneficial exercises in a course exploring ethics is to develop a paper that allows you the opportunity to create connections between your personal view of ethics and the theory under discussion. The nature of ethical decision making encompasses recognition, analysis and resolution.  We often don’t make a decision because it’s ethical, but rather, because it makes sense from our personal view of the situation.  That is, ethical decisions happen “after the fact” as we begin to see the actual implications of the decision.

With this in mind, your paper should explore current ethical issues in the workplace that are relevant to your current career or the career that you are preparing to pursue. Your task is to begin to explore the possible issues within your workplace and choose one to focus on throughout the course as you begin to build your final paper. Please consider the following as possible approaches for this final paper:

• Illustrate the impact of organizational goals and objectives, structure, culture, environment, ethics policies, and incentive systems on ethical behavior within an organization
• Evaluate and revise an ethics program to increase ethical behavior within an organizational environment.
• Create and systematically apply a defensible ethical moral framework to a contemporary ethics issue. To systematically apply the ethical moral framework, you must use the framework consistently as you describe the ethics issue. Explore the issue using the framework you create. HINT: This is done through the application of an ethical theory.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Employment issues (sexual harassment, diversity, discrimination, etc.)
• Performance appraisal and compensation
• Terminations
• Privacy
• Financial and accounting measures
• Using reward systems to enhance ethical behavior and/or reinforce unethical behavior
• Communicating ethics
• Corporate social responsibility

Your final paper will be developed in three parts (selected topic, outline and final paper) throughout the course.

For this activity, use the list of possible topics to explore the possible issues within your workplace. Then, choose one topic to focus on throughout the course. Briefly research your topic to ensure there is sufficient information available to you for developing your research topic. Finally, use MS Word to create a “one-page” document that describes your “topic and thesis sentence” for your Individual Research Project.  Use the following resources to help you identify your topic:

• NCSU Libraries. (2014, May 1). Picking your topic is research [Video file] [3 min 10 sec]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0B3Gjlu-1o
• Rosakis, L. (2007). Schaum’s quick guide to writing great research papers (2nd ed.). pp. 11-28. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/excelsior/reader.action?docID=10204587&ppg=25
• OWL Purdue University Online Writing Lab. (2015). Developing strong thesis statements. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/

The topic of your project is a statement about the primary focus of your paper. This provides an overview of what you will explore.  Your thesis, or topic sentence(s), tells the reader what your essay will discuss, explore, explain, argue, etc. This sentence(s) should provide a clear and concise statement about the point of your paper to help narrow the focus from the broader topic.

Your instructor must approve your topic before you complete the outline of your paper. This helps you create a strong foundation for the rest of your work throughout the course.

Review the Individual Research Project: Final Paper Rubric located in the “Start Here” section of the course for more information on grading criteria for the final project. Also, review the Individual Research Project: Selected Topic Rubric located in the “Start Here” section of the course for more information on grading criteria for this activity.

Compose your work using a word processor (or other software as appropriate) and save it frequently to your computer. When you’re ready to submit your work, click Browse My Computer and find your file. Once you’ve located your file click Open and, if successful, the file name will appear under the Attached files heading. Scroll to the bottom of the page, click Submit and you’re done. Be sure to check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors before you post it.