Quality and Integrity

Acting with quality, no matter in your work or daily life, is a key competency for success.  Specific professions have performance standards for quality, but there are also general standards which, according to the University of North Carolina Charlotte, include the following characteristics and actions:

  • Sets standards for excellence—Establishes criteria and/or work procedures to achieve a high level of quality, productivity, or service.
  • Ensures high quality—Dedicates required time and energy to assignments or tasks to ensure that no aspect of the work is neglected; works to overcome obstacles to completing tasks or assignments.
  • Takes responsibility—Accepts responsibility for outcomes (positive or negative) of one’s work; admits mistakes and refocuses efforts when appropriate.
  • Encourages others to take responsibility—Provides encouragement and support to others in accepting responsibility; does not accept others’ denial of responsibility without questioning.[1]

Other websites include similar and additional characteristics:

Consider the similarities in quality expectations and characteristics, and also consider specific quality expectations for your profession. You may also want to view videos of how people define and infuse quality into their personal and work lives at ASQ TV.

Acting with integrity, and exhibiting ethical behavior, is also key to professional and personal success. Read about expectations for ethical behavior in the article “Workplace Advice: A Code of Ethics in the Workplace.”

Two very rich sites for considering ethical issues are:

  • EthicsOps, which contains eight different, general ethics “tests” that help you identify ethical issues and think through actions
  • Ethical Decision Making, which provides definitions, a framework for ethical decision-making, and much more

Consider your own personal or work experience.  Have you recently confronted an ethical issue?  Have you had to make decisions that involved ethical issues in the past?  Are you in the midst of an issue that calls for ethical decision-making?

initial learning activity

Read EthicsOps case studies on Phantom Expenses and Less Sugar, following through the eight different approaches to dealing with each case, as well as the comparison of approaches that leads to the final conclusion. Also review the Ethical Decision Making page, and apply that approach to the cases as well, as you consider them.

Then choose one of the following scenarios, or use one your own, and apply one or a combination of the ethical decision-making approaches to analyze the issue and suggest follow-up action:

  • Two team members are discussing another team member’s failure to perform. This has caused the rest of the team to work harder. The two who are being critical emphasize the other member’s lack of skill and problem-solving capabilities. They criticize the member’s follow-through efforts and lack of productivity. You are stuck in the room and feel very uncomfortable about this discussion.  What can you do?
  • A coworker is consistently late, and you know it’s because of his home situation; however, he continues to slide into work unnoticed. Others have to cover for this coworker. What should you do?
  • You hear a colleague make a pejorative slur against a racial or ethnic group.  Do you address it?
  • You are in a team meeting. An issue is being discussed and everyone is asked to raise hands if you agree on a solution.  Every other member raises his/her hand, but you don’t agree. You would be the only one to disagree.  Do you go along or not?

As you analyze your chosen issue, consider what the actual issue is, what the possible choices are, and what might be the best course of action.

Submit: analysis of an ethical dilemma, applying one or a combination of frameworks for analysis, identifying possible choices, and positing the best course of action, with an explanation of why it is the best course of action ethically

in-depth learning activity

Complete the initial learning activity.

Then consider quality standards.  Since you are known in the workplace as an employee with high ethical standards, you have been asked to develop a brief training on quality and integrity in the workplace.  You can also use this opportunity to address the ethical issues in which you have recently been involved.

Create a short training (no more than 5 minutes) covering the points you would include.  Your training may be in any of the following formats:

  • VoiceThread (allows powerpoint slides and visuals with a narration)
  • Powerpoint
  • YouTube video
  • Word document with information presented as you would present it on powerpoint slides

If you work with a text-only format, make sure to include the narration you would use for each slide.

Submit:

  • analysis of an ethical dilemma, applying one or a combination of frameworks for analysis, identifying possible choices, and positing the best course of action, with an explanation of why it is the best course of action ethically
  • training for quality and integrity

Related college Learning Goals

Social Responsibility: Engage in ethical reasoning, and reflect on issues such as democratic citizenship, diversity, social justice and environmental sustainability, both locally and globally.

Communication: Express and receive ideas effectively, in multiple contexts and through multiple strategies.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Evaluate, analyze, synthesize and critique key concepts and experiences, and apply diverse perspectives to find creative solutions to problems concerning human behavior, society and the natural world.

 

For more information, see the College Learning Goals Policy.

[1]https://hr.uncc.edu/sites/hr.uncc.edu/files/media/comp-questions/Work_Standards.pdf Work Standards,

  1. University of North Carolina Charlotte, Human Resources, Division of Business Affairs, "Work Standards" ↵