Ethics Before Resuming My Educational Endeavors at Essay

Ethics

Before resuming my educational endeavors at the University of Phoenix I was fortunate enough to experience life and many of its travails as a business person and employee. During my tenure in those endeavors I observed a number of events that I considered unethical, and a number of actions taken by individuals that I found both reprehensible and repulsive. I was often amazed at the capabilities of mankind to justify their actions, when it was quite evident that such actions would not be considered ethical in any circumstances, no matter what the justification.

Ethics has always been a concern, whether individuals worked in education, business or even the medical field. One early study determined that there were many young managers that had reported being asked implicitly to do things they personally believed were unethical, and sometimes illegal (Badzek, Mitchell, Marra, Bower,1998). Oftentimes these young managers feel the pressure to take actions not necessarily within their realm of belief, believing that their jobs could be in jeopardy. Other times, they are likely to succumb to the allure of 'getting ahead' by helping someone accomplish a task, even if the task is not an ethical one. I have not personally had to make such decisions, but I have observed them throughout my career. Instead of writing about my own personal experiences regarding ethics, I would like to examine the recent sexual abuse case at Penn State University. It is an interesting case to examine regarding ethics, and it affects a large number of people throughout not only the local Penn State community, but reverberates across the United States as well.

This is a case that is a perfect example of a culture that has gone too far, a culture that allows a pedophile to thrive in an environment of potential victims without anyone taking action against the pedophile.

Even though plenty of people had to have known about the abuse this individual was perpetrating, no one had the courage to stand up and speak out against his actions. According to one recent article individuals facing an ethical dilemma often have to choose between two or more alternatives, neither of which is pleasant (Chaloner, 2007). In the Penn State case, individuals with knowledge of what the perpetrator was doing (abusing young boys) were faced with a choice of either going to the police, or keeping quiet and having to live with the knowledge that they had done nothing to stop the abuse. One expert states that "calling the police is the first action administrators should take when they suspect a district employee of sexually abusing a student" (Dessoff, 2010, p. 51). Certainly, there were individuals with the power and authority to stop these actions, and by allowing the actions to continue perpetuated a culture of fear for all those young boys who were abused.

The American Nurses…