Ethics of teamwork  (Page 6/6)

Exercises 1-3 compose the Preliminary Self-Evaluation which is due shortly after semester-long groups are formed. Exercise 4 is the close-out group self evaluation which is due at the end of the semester.

Exercise 4: prepare a final, group self-evaluation

• Due Date: One week after the last class of the semester when your group turns in all its materials.
• Length: A minimum of five pages not including Team Member Evaluation Forms
• Contents:
• 1. Restate the Ethical and Practical Goals that your group developed at the beginning of its formation.
• 2. Provide a careful, documented assessment of your group’s success in meeting these goals. (Don’t just assertthat “Our group successfully realized justice in all its activities this semester.” How did your group characterize justice in thecontext of its work? What specific activities did the group carry out to realize this value? What, among these activities, worked andwhat did not work?)
• 3. Identify obstacles, shortcomings or failures that you group experienced during the semester. How didthese arise? Why did they arise? How did you respond to them? Did your response work? What did you learn from this experience?
• 4. Assess the plans you set forth in your initial report on how you intended to realize values and avoidpitfalls. How did these work? Did you stick to your plans or did you find it necessary to change or abandon them in the face ofchallenges?
• 5. Discuss your group’s procedures and practices? How did you divide and allocate work tasks? How did youreach consensus on difficult issues? How did you ensure that all members were respected and allowed significant and meaningfulparticipation? What worked and what did not work with respect to these procedures? Will you repeat them in the future? Would yourecommend these procedures as best practices to future groups?
• 6. What did you learn from your experience working as a team this semester? What will require furtherreflection and thought? In other words, conclude your self-evaluation with a statement that summarizes your experienceworking together as a team this semester.

Appendix for admi 4016, falkl 2013 and following

• What are the results of your group's challenge to the College of Business Administration's Statement of Values? (This can be found in Developing Ethics Codes and Statements of Value. See exercise 2. http://cnx.org/content/m14319/1.11/
• What is your group's CID Structure? See presentation two at the bottom of the module, A Short History of the Corporation. http://cnx.org/content/m17314/1.7/

Wrap up: some further points to consider...

1. Don’t gloss over your work with generalizations like, “Our group was successful and achieved all ofits ethical and practical goals this semester.” Provide evidence for success claims. Detail the procedures designed by your group tobring about these results. Are they “best practices”? What makes them best practices?
2. Sometimes—especially if difficulties arose—it is difficult to reflect on your group’s activities for thesemester. Make the effort. Schedule a meeting after the end of the semester to finalize this reflection. If things worked well, whatcan you do to repeat these successes in the future? If things didn’t work out, what can you do to avoid similar problems in thefuture? Be honest, be descriptive and avoid blame language.
3. This may sound harsh but get used to it. Self-evaluations—group and individual—are an integral part ofprofessional life. They are not easy to carry out, but properly done they help to secure success and avoid future problems.
4. Student groups—perhaps yours—often have problems. This self-evaluation exercise is designed to help youface them rather than push them aside. Look at your goals. Look at the strategies you set forth for avoiding Abilene, groupthink, andgroup polarization. Can you modify them to deal with problems? Do you need to design new procedures?

Ethics of team work presentations

Values in team work (thought experiments)

Pitfalls to avoid in group work

Thought experiments on group work

Team member evaluation forms (required)

New ethics of teamwork presentation (spring 2012)

Ethics of teamwork jeopardy

Bibliography

1. Weston, A. (2002). A Practical Companion to Ethics: 2nd Edition . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
2. Flores, F. and Solomon, R. (2003). Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships and Life. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
3. Brincat, Cynthia A. and Wike, Victoria S. (2000) Morality and the Professional Life: Values at Work . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
4. Urban Walker, M. (2006). Moral Repair: Reconstructing Moral Relations After Wrongdoing . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
5. Pritchard, M. (1996). Reasonable Children: Moral Education and Moral Learning . Lawrence, KS: Kansas University Press.
6. Huff, Chuck and Jawer, Bruce. (1994). "Toward a Design Ethic for Computing Professionals." Social Issues in computing: Putting Computing in its Place. Eds. Chuck Huff and Thomas Finholt. New York: McGraw-Hill. 130-136.
7. Janis, I. Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes--2nd Ed. . Boston, Mass: Wadsworth.
8. Sunstein, C.R. (2006). Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 217-225.