Ethics 101
All University of California employees — that’s right, all 230,000 of them — are now required to take an ethics course online. This new decree, both a PR move and an attempt to clean up the system, comes after last year’s executive compensation scandal. The course presents the employee with various (un)ethical dilemmas and mulitple-choice answers from which to choose.
The San Francisco Chronicle writes that
The online course warns employees that, “Some activities may be legal, but they may not pass the ’smell’ test. Avoiding the appearance of a conflict of interest or commitment can be a bit tricky. The easiest way to stay out of a trouble spot is to ask yourself, ‘Would I want to read about this in the newspaper or online?’ ‘’
As opposed to, you know, should I really be doing this? Or WWCND (what would Chuck Norris do)? Admittedly, there is the lesser-known WWJD, but that one’s losing its marketability nowadays.
But didn’t the great success of AlcoholEdu teach the UC anything? Online programs — especially when they are required and patronizing — teach diddly squat. A computer telling, say, a UC official that his ethics are out of whack isn’t really going to solve much. Though they should throw AlcoholEdu in there just for kicks. Eh, might as well.
I think you’re being mistakenly sarcastic here. The problem with asking “should I be doing this” is that even if the answer is yes, doing it can cause problems. Dealing with conflicts of interest is intended to make external people confident that the process is fair. That’s why people are expected to recuse themselves from decisions when they have a conflict of interest, even if they’re certain that it won’t affect that decision. Part of the job of an employee is to present the university to the public so that the public can have faith in it.
Comment by Beetle — January 18, 2007 @ 12:36 am
The on-line training also gives the University the ability to tell offenders, “I told you not to behave that way.” It can serve as a basis for subsequent discipline, because offenders can’t deny having been trained about how to deal with the ethical dilemma.
Comment by DHammett — January 18, 2007 @ 10:21 am