4.1 Theory building activities: "responsibility and incident at  (Page 6/7)

Presentation on moral responsibility

What you are going to do...

In this module, you will...

1. apply and integrate the concept of moral repsonsibility (blame responsibility, sharing responsibility, responsibility as a virtue) to situations that arise in the video, "Incident at Morales."
2. learn the basic facts, character profiles, and decision-situations portrayed in the video, "Incident at Morales." You will see the video in class and examine the script and Study Guide at the NIEE website.
3. work in groups to develop and play a stakeholder role in a fictional public hearing. Your group's specific tasks are outlined below in one of the group profiles provided. In general, you will prepare a statement advancing your group's interests and points of view. The responsibility frameworks will help you anticipate questions, prepare responses, and defend your role against those in other roles who may try to shift the blame your way. But most important, this module provides tools to help you go beyond the reactive, blame standpoint.
4. participate in a mock public hearing by playing out your group's assigned role.
5. work with the other groups to debrief on this activity. The public hearing will generate a lot of information, ideas, and positions. Debriefing will help you to structure and summarize this material. The objective here is to learn by doing. But to truly learn from what you have done, you need to reflect carefully.

Stakeholder roles

Mexican government regulatory agencies

• Look at OSHA regulations on safety. Do any of these apply to the incident at morales. Pay particular attendion to responsibilities for providing safe working conditions and to mandated procedures for accident prevention. How as a government agency can you encourage companies to take active and positive measures to increase workplace safety and prevent accidents?
• Look at EPA or JCA for ideas on environmental issues. What are Phaust's responsibilities regarding local environmental conditions? (Should the Mexican government require lining waste water ponds?)
• As an official representing Mexican government regulatory agencies, how do you balance the safety and environmental needs of Mexican citizens and workers with the need to attract foreign companies and investors to Mexico to promote economic development. Should safety and environmental values ever be traded off to promote economic development?

Workers at morales plant

• Manuel, your plant manager, has just died. You and your co-workers are concerned about the safety of this new plant. Can you think of any other issues that may be of concern here?
• Develop a statement that summarizes your interests, concerns, and rights. Are these being addressed by those at Phaust and the parent company in France?
• The Mexican Commission established to investigate this "incident" will ask you questions to help determine what cause it and who is to blame. What do you think some of these questions will be? How should you respond to them? Who do you think is to blame for the incident and what should be done in response?