Analysis Of Ethics Applied To Jefferson-Clarion

Analysis of Corporate Ethics
Leslie A. Larnino

SOC 120

Professor Danielle Comacho
July 3, 2008

Analysis of Ethics Applied to Jefferson-Clarion Even Start This paper will examine the ethical standards through the mission statement of my employer, Jefferson-Clarion Even start, the largest family literacy program in the state of Pennsylvania. Analysis will be offered to compare how my personal values and vision fit within the framework of the organization for which I work. Based on this analysis, examples will be offered to demonstrate my affirmation of the organization’s values or the lack thereof. Finally, suggestions for improvement of the organizational culture will be offered.
Personal Values & Mission
I believe that each of us has a unique role to play, not only in our own life, but the lives of our family, friends, community, and profession. In order to achieve this, I believe it is my responsibility to continually learn new things about myself and the world in which I live; to develop professionally by honing my skills and talents; to treat others with respect and dignity; and to be a contributing member of my family, community, and work place. In working to achieve these goals, it is my mission to leave my corner of the world a better place than when I arrived.
Organizational Values & Mission Corporate ethics concentrates on moral standards as they apply to business institutions, organizations, and behavior (Velasquez, 2006, p. 12). One is often able to gain insight into the ethical standards of corporations by reviewing the organization’s mission statement. Jefferson-Clarion Even Start encourages, supports, and empowers families by addressing the literacy needs of parents and their children. This is accomplished by providing educational opportunities which integrate adult education, parenting, and early childhood education into a unified program that promotes family independence. The goal of our program is to provide a seamless network of services that promote family learning while emphasizing the parents’ role as their child’s first and most important teacher. Closer examination of the Jefferson-Clarion Even Start program will give the reader insight into the mission, management, utilization of benchmarking, and the challenges facing the largest Even Start program in Pennsylvania. In order to better understand the challenges faced by management, it is important to understand the student-base of Jefferson-Clarion Even Start. Approximately 32% of parents enrolled in the program do not have a high school diploma, and 6% have less than a 9th grade education (Johnson, 2007, p.1). Johnson (2007) says: Our program has long recognized the importance of providing family literacy services to families in need. It is the mission of Jefferson-Clarion Even Start to work in collaboration with many county agencies, to create a seamless array of family literacy services that will meet the varied needs of families. Our goal is to provide an enhanced level of family literacy services of sufficient intensity to make sustainable changes in the lives of eligible families. (p.1)
Several features separate Even Start from other GED programs. One important feature of the program is that it is free and there are no income guidelines as with many federal programs. If a parent has a child under the age of seven and has a documentable education need, the family qualifies. Documentable needs include a weakness in reading or math, the learner needs a GED, or has a learning disability. Jefferson-Clarion Even Start provides transportation to all classes and family events which alleviates a barrier for many who do not have a driver’s license or own a car. Children under age five attend classes with their parents and participate in a quality early childhood educational program. This feature eliminates the need for a parent to find child care and exposes both parent and child to high quality pre-school materials. Perhaps the most profound aspect of Even Start is that once a family is enrolled, they may stay in the program until their youngest child turns ten. This feature allows staff to help families break the cycle of illiteracy and poor educational performance. Staff are able to provide educational support to these families as their children enter the public school system, as well as assisting school districts in identifying domains in need of or currently receiving support services.
Personal versus Organizational Values
Understanding what is important to us and what our values are contributes to our ability to identify the careers and organizations in which we can be the most productive and satisfied (Shockley-Zalabak, 2006, p. 113). I believe the importance of this statement cannot be underestimated. Many people complain about working I areas they find boring or unfulfilling. If ones does not understand their own value system, how then can they expect to find fulfillment in their chosen career. Based on the understanding of my personal values, I believe I have made career choices that have been very rewarding. Jefferson-Clarion Even Start is a good fit for me because the organization empowers individuals to expand their base of knowledge, help others in our community, and maintain strong family relationships. These are all values that are very important to me.
Roger Howe, Maynard Howe, and Mark Mindell believe locus of control, self-esteem, social judgment, tolerance of ambiguity, and risk taking are important values that affect our lives within organizations (Shockley-Zalabak, 2006, p. 111). Individuals who experience cohesiveness in these values between themselves and the organization for which they work will find themselves not only more successful, but have greater job satisfaction as well. I find this to be true personally, and believe it directly relates to the high correlation between my values and the organizational values of Jefferson-Clarion Even Start.
The person responsible for establishing and maintaining the values within Jefferson-Clarion Even Start is our Executive Director, Christine Johnson. Mrs. Johnson has not only set the standard for ethical practices within the organization, she embodies it as well. Successful, ethical organizations are developed by strong ethical leaders.
Ethical Leadership within Organizations
Ferdinand Yates defines a successful ethical organization as such,
An ethical organization is achieved not only by having well-crafted policies and procedures, it is achieved when the leadership and entire staff acknowledge the importance of ethical thinking and behavior in the routine and ordinary life of the organization … (Yates, 2007, p.
125)
Several valuable concepts are incorporated into this definition that merit further reflection. First, ethical behavior is required of not only leadership, but the entire staff. Second, ethical thinking and behavior are expected on a daily basis not just for show. Effective leaders use their power and influence in an ethical way to promote the vision of the organization. Peer and organizational pressure have a great impact on how people behave (Gostick & Telford, 2006, p. 35). Diane Peck of Stanford University believes this is what happened at Enron where, “people were encouraged, if not required, to push the envelope” (Gostick & Telford, p. 35). The environment at Enron fostered unethical behavior in order to meet the demands of the organization. In contrast to Enron, at Herman Miller, every employee is valued for the contribution they make and as a result, employees are committed to the organizations vision and high
standards. Christine Johnson, Executive Director, of Jefferson-Clarion Even Start exemplifies ethical leadership in her words and actions. Her commitment to the vision and mission of the program is evident on a daily basis and inspires her staff to exemplify her commitment to helping those who have never experienced educational success to do so for the very first time. She shares her commitment to core educational values through motivational staff trainings, her recognition of staff for outstanding service, and her willingness to work with students personally. There are several perspectives on ethical leadership. Burns looks at ethical leaders from a transformational perspective, Heifetz proposes that leaders must help followers confront conflict, and Greenleaf introduced the concept of servant leadership (Yukl, 2006, pp. 419-420). I believe Greenleaf’s concept of servant leadership most accurately reflects Mrs. Johnson’s leadership style, as well as my own. I am drawn to Greenleaf’s concept because his theory focuses on empowering subordinates rather than using power to dominate others (Yukl, p. 420). The Enron leadership team used their power to dominate others to achieve a success at any price vision, while as Herman Miller, servant leadership and teams are used to promote the flow of creativity and commitment to new designs. DePree believes it is people who make a company what it is. Therefore, it is no surprise that at Herman Miller, which emphasizes honesty and consistency between values and ethical behavior among all its employees, a strong, successful business tradition has endured. I believe that Jefferson-Clarion Even Start received a state expansion grant three years ago, based on the ethical practices, commitment to students, and accurate, honest statistical reporting. Ethical behavior cannot be kept in a jar and opened only for special occasions. Integrity is the underlying principal that drives ethical leaders. I once heard integrity defined as how you behave when no one is looking. In other words, you cannot just talk the talk, you must walk the walk. Warren Buffett was addressing a group of recent MBA graduates and was asked how he made his hiring decisions. Mr. Buffett said, “I look for three things. The first is personal integrity, the second is intelligence, and the third is a high energy level. But if you don’t have the first, the second two don’t matter” (Gostick & Telford, 2006, p. 35). Research on ethical leadership has validated what Warren Buffett and others believe. Ethical leaders have integrity, however, as with so many terms in the field, researchers cannot agree on a single definition of integrity. One thing researchers do agree on is that leaders can do many things to promote ethical behavior (Yukl, 2006, p.
424). First and foremost, leaders need to set an example by utilizing ethical actions and behaviors. Organizations need to develop a code of conduct and discuss the implementation of this standard with all employees. A system for accountability within the organization needs to be implemented. Leaders need to create a network where employees can find support to develop ethical solutions to conflicts that occur within the organization, and leaders need to recognize and commend ethical behavior (Yukl, p. 425). As Executive Director of Jefferson-Clarion Even Start, Christine Johnson has created such an environment. In conjunction with area managers, a code of conduct was developed, modeled by management, and is reviewed yearly. In 2007, she developed a mentoring program to assist staff in developing their problem solving and teaching skills. Many programs blur statistical data, every staff member knows this practice is not tolerated within the organization, and steps are taken to ensure every staff member is trained to evaluate and accurately report educational
hours. Research on ethical leadership is still relatively new and many questions still remain to be answered. Studies on ethical leadership are influenced not only by the moral development of the leader, but by the environment of the organization as well. Kahn has proposed such research and it will be interesting to see if his studies provide more information on the conditions influencing ethical behavior (Yukl, 2006, p. 426).

Ethical Dilemmas within Organizational Control Systems
“Control systems are formal target-setting, monitoring, evaluation, and feedback systems that provide managers with information about whether the organization’s strategy and structure are working efficiently and effectively” (Jones & George, 2007, p.287). The control system used to monitor effectiveness and efficiency at Jefferson-Clarion Even Start is a three tier process. Program performance standards are issued from the Department of Education and are monitored through the e-data system. Next, the program must utilize the services of a local program evaluator, and finally, the Executive Director has developed a local survey to be completed by families enrolled in the program, as well as collaborating agencies to monitor effectiveness. For the purpose of this paper, the first level of control will be analyzed against utilitarian ethical standards.
The Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education set 41 performance standards each Even Start program in the state of Pennsylvania is expected to meet or exceed. Each agency submits data through an information technology system designed to evaluate the data, convert the data into a visual format against the standard, and issue a progress report in February of the program year. This allows managers to assess performance and make adjustments to meet the standards by June 30th. Among the 41 performance standards, five are key performance indicators that the state uses to evaluate the distribution of future funding. They are enrollment, retention, adult education pretest and posttest, educational gains, and childhood literacy (Bureau, 2006).
The control systems used to measure organizational success are not appropriately designed in several areas which contribute to the ethical problem organizations have in proving the effectiveness of the services learners receive. One example of this problem is found in the program standard for retention: “2.1 Adult Education: In each family literacy program, adults in families that have reached enrolled status will receive an average of 50 hours of instruction in adult education during the program year” (Bureau, 2006, p. 3). The standard is misleading for anyone reading the report that does not understand how educational hours for adults are obtained. Jefferson-Clarion Even Start offers class based instruction two days per week in 2.5 hour segments. This gives the learner a potential 5 hours per week of adult education, however the layman reading the report may not be aware of the additional guidelines that impact this standard. Classes are not mandatory for learners. Home visits lasting 90 minutes, twice a month are the required method of adult education delivery. If a learner does not attend class, but keeps two home visits per month for a year, 33 hours of documentable education time has taken place. Obviously, this is not enough to meet the standard. Is it ethical for the state to utilize a standard upon which future funding is based that is almost impossible for rural family literacy programs to meet? Some organizations count the time students spend on homework to boost educational hours. Is this ethical? How can an organization accurately document educational time that is not completed in front of a teacher? The debate over this issue has raged for years. Jefferson-Clarion Even Start has adopted the policy that only ‘seat’ time may be counted toward adult education retention hours. If the student is with a teacher, then a contact form is completed for the class or home visit time, signed by both teacher and student, entered into the e-data system and filed at the central office. In 2006-2007, Jefferson-Clarion Even Start did not meet the retention standard. As a result, the 2007-2008 federal grant was reduced by $100,000.00. Could the program have recorded homework hours, met the standard and avoid the cut in funds? Many programs admit, unofficially, to doing this. Yes, Jefferson-Clarion Even Start could have done this. Would it have been ethical? According the organizational values of Jefferson-Clarion Even Start, no. The program stands upon its policy of fair, accurate, and documentable accounting of educational hours. The director and staff take pride in the work that is done, the accomplishments students in the program achieve, and professional manner in which this is accomplished. The program would rather take the cut in funds than use undocumented data.
The director used a utilitarian approach to analyze how to tighten the program. The results allow the program to operate with the reduction in funding without sacrificing the quality of educational services provided throughout the area.
References
Gostick, A., & Telford, D. (2006, December 18). The Integrity Advantage. Canadian HR Reporter, 19, 35. Retrieved June 30, 2008, from ProQuest database.
Johnson, C. (2007, March 16). ABLE Program Narrative. Pennsylvania Department of Education, pp. 1 - 32.
Jones, G. R., & George, J. M. (2007). Contemporary Management (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Shockley-Zalabak, P. S. (2006). Fundamentals of Organizational Communication (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Velasquez, M. G. (2006). Business Ethics Concepts and Cases (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Yates, F. (2007, Summer). Managing Ethically: An Executive 's Guide. Ethics & Medicine, 23, 125. Retrieved June 30, 2008, from ProQuest database.
Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organizations (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.