R. F. (1990). Values and ethics in organization and human systems development: Responding to dilemmas in professional life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Margulies, N., & Raia, A. P. (1972). Organizational development: Values, process, and technology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
White, L. P., & Wooten, K. C. (1985). Professional ethics and practice in organizational development. New York, NY: Praeger.
Exercise: What Would You Do?
Consider the statement of ethical guidelines for OD practice in this chapter’s appendix. What do you think a practitioner should do when confronted with these scenarios? Identify the item(s) in the ethical statement related to each situation.
1 You have learned of a possible project that would allow you to practice your new OD skills with a nonprofit organization. While you have not led a workshop like this before, you are enthusiastic about the opportunity, and this could be a great career move that would also help a deserving organization. You would agree not to charge the group for your services. What ethical considerations exist for your participation? Would it matter if this group would compensate you for your time? Would it matter if this was a private company and you were already employed there?
2 As the manager of corporate quality, you ask members of your staff to interview 15 key stakeholders to determine their support for a new training initiative. Your staff summarized the data for you and reviewed the summary in a staff meeting. It becomes clear that two of the executives are strongly opposed to the initiative, and two are strongly in favor of it. It occurs to you that you could benefit from knowing who the supporters are so that they could convince the opponents to support your initiative. What ethical considerations exist in this situation? Can you ethically ask your staff to share the names of the supporters? What if your staff offered no promises of anonymity to the interviewees? Would it matter if the subject was a sensitive one?
3 As a favor to a friend who manages a small team of six professionals, you agree to facilitate a team meeting. Fearing that the meeting would become contentious, your friend asks you to steer the discussion away from several issues that she knows will cause an argument. Knowing that these conflicts are the source of the team’s troubles and are necessary discussion points to help the team improve, should you bring up the issues anyway and help the group resolve them, or should you heed your friend’s request?
4 You are the director of operations for the emergency department of a local hospital. Recent state regulations now mandate that certain paperwork be completed before and after each patient’s visit, and you have redesigned the intake processes to adjust for these requirements. You need the administrative and nursing staff to be on board with these changes, and you know they will be resistant. How might OD values of participation, involvement, empowerment, collaboration, and openness suggest what to do next?
Appendix
Statement of Ethical Guidelines for Practice for OD-HSD (Organization Development–Human Systems Development)
We commit ourselves to acting in accordance with the following guidelines:
1 Responsibility to OurselvesAct with integrity; be authentic and true to ourselves.Strive continually for self-knowledge and personal growth.Recognize our personal needs and desires and, when they conflict with other responsibilities, seek whole-win resolutions.Assert our own interests in ways that are fair and equitable to us as well as to our clients and their stakeholders.
2 Responsibility for Professional Development and CompetenceAccept responsibility for the consequences of our actions and make reasonable efforts to ensure that our services are properly used; terminate our services if they are not properly used and do what we can to see that any abuses are corrected.Develop and maintain our individual competence and establish cooperative relationships with other professionals.Develop the broad range of our own competencies. These include:Knowledge of theory and practice inApplied behavioral science generallyLeadership, management, administration, organizational behavior, system behavior, and organization/system development specificallyLabor union issues, such as collective bargaining, contracting, and quality of working life (QWL)Multicultural issues, including issues of color and genderCross-cultural issues, including issues related to our own ethnocentric tendencies and to differences and diversity within and between countriesValues and ethics in general and how they apply to both the behavior of our client system and our own practiceOther fields of knowledge and practice relevant to the area(s) within OD-HSD on which we individually concentrateAbility toAct effectively with individuals; groups; and large, complex systems.Provide consultation using theory and methods of the applied behavioral sciences.Cope with the apparent contradiction in applying behavioral science that arises when our “science” is too particular or theoretical to be applicable or when our real approach is intuitive and not clearly grounded in science.Articulate theory and direct its application, including creation of learning experiences for individual; small and large groups; and large, complex systems.Establish collegial and cooperate relations with other OD-HSD professionals. These include:Using colleagues as consultants to provide ourselves with feedback or suggestions about our own development and to minimize the effects of our blind spots.Creating partnerships with colleagues to enhance our effectiveness in serving clients whose needs are greater than we can serve alone.Recognize our personal needs and desires and deal with them in the performance of our professional roles and duties.Practice within the limits of our competence, culture, and experience in providing services and using techniques.Neither seek nor accept assignments outside our limits without clear understanding by clients when exploration at the edge of our competence is reasonable.Refer clients to other professionals when appropriate.Consult with people who are knowledgeable about the unique conditions of clients whose activities involve specific areas in which we are inexperienced or not knowledgeable:In special functional areas (such as marketing, engineering, or R&D)In certain industries or institutions (such as mining, aerospace, health care, education, or government)In multicultural settings (such as when we practice in settings in which there is significant diversity in the race, ethnicity, or gender of the people involved)Practice in cultures different from our own only with consultation from people native to or knowledgeable about those specific cultures.
3 Responsibility to Clients and Significant OthersServe the long-term well-being of our client systems and their stakeholders.Be aware of the beliefs and values relevant to serving our clients, including our own, our profession’s, our culture’s, and those of the people with whom we work (personal, organizational, and cultural).Be prepared to make explicit our beliefs, values, and ethics as OD-HSD professionals.Avoid automatic confirmation of predetermined conclusions about the client’s situation or what needs to be done by either the client or ourselves.Explore the possible implications of any OD-HSD intervention for all stakeholders likely to be significantly affected; help all stakeholders while developing and implementing OD-HSD approaches, programs, and the like, if they wish help and we are able to give it.Maintain balance in the timing, pace, and magnitude of planned change so as to support a mutually beneficial relationship between the system and its environment.Conduct any professional activity, program, or relationship in ways that are honest, responsible, and appropriately open.Inform people with whom we work about any activity or procedure in which we ask their participation.Inform them about sponsorship, purpose and goals, our role and strategy, costs, anticipated outcomes, limitations, and risks.Inform them in a way that supports their freedom of choice about their participation in activities initiated by us; also acknowledge that it may be appropriate for us to undertake activities initiated by recognized authorities in which participants do not have full freedom of choice.Alert them to implications and risks when they are from cultures other than our own or when we are at the edge of our competence.Ask help of the client system in making relevant cultural differences explicit.Seek optimum participation by people with whom we work at every step of the process, including managers, labor unions, and workers’ representatives.Encourage and enable people to provide for themselves the services we provide rather than foster continued reliance on us; encourage, foster, and support self-education and self-development by individuals, groups, and all other human systems.Develop, publish, and use assessment techniques that promote the welfare and best interests of clients and participants; guard against the misuse of assessment techniques