Information & Management Systems

*** Half day workshop ***

Title: Understanding and managing internal conflicts
and ethical dilemmas

Conducted by:Dr Charles Lam, DBA (1990), MBA (1980), Chartered Engineer (MIEE, 1978). Business ethics was one of his doctoral papers.
He has *since 1971, achieved experiences as engineering planner, management consultant and government regulator *since 1986, trained thousands of students (ranging from teenagers to senior managers in their 40s), in various management areas, for local and famous American universities, HKPC, etc. *since 1995, served in government advisory committees *in 1999, led in the production of  a teaching package distributed to 450 secondary schools *spoken at international conferences, mass media and the Legislative Council  *regularly expressed his views at international e-forums and his personal  website http://www.kamching.com/clam.

Who will benefit: any person with a mature and truth-seeking mind. Wanting to help himself/herself or others to resolve conflicts and dilemmas, which are growing in the  economic declines, he/she believes that learning more about ethical behaviour can  strengthen organisational and personal foundations and achieve success in the long run.

Language and style: Cantonese (course notes in English) to be used to explain important concepts and methods in a style that participants will feel comfortable with. Effective learning will be achieved through the use of diagrams, discussion of cases based on local environment, sharing of views and experiences.

Date: weekly, 1.30-5.30 p.m. {dates arranged for (in-company) groups of 5-10 persons}
Venue: at WorkingView Commercial Building, close to Causeway Bay MTR Station

Fees: $250 per person ($200 each for a group of five or more)

For details & registration: email: clam@kamching.com, Tel: 94831951 (Charles Lam)

===============  Workshop Contents  ================

•  objectives, scope and flow of seminar.
•  roles and role conflicts. Case on role conflicts.
•  morality, ethics and business ethics.
•  unethical, illegal and sinful behaviours.
•  conscience and corporate conscience.
•  Case on business ethics or corporate social responsibility.
•  ethical decision making process, ethical reasoning and ethical   dilemma.
•  Stage I--ethical problem awareness and understanding, from simple to complex--economics, rights, fairness…impact analysis.
•  Case on ethical awareness and understanding.
•  Stage II--ethical alternatives, from simple to complex--do no evil, blinkering, up/downloading, actions from within/outside. Case on ethical alternatives.
•  Stage III--evaluation and ethical choice, from simple to complex--conscience, utilities, situation ethics, lesser evil,…systematic impact analysis.
•  Case and Testimony on ethical evaluation and choice.
•  from ethical choice to action; from action to review.
•  (optional) reflection for Christians.
•  conclusions.

 =================  abstracts of Cases to select from  ==============

- John is motivated to serve as a social worker by job satisfaction, a harmonious team culture and appreciation by colleagues and the community. However, he experiences de-motivational forces: unsatisfactory financial reward, poor physical work environment, bureaucracy, an incompatible boss and too little time for his family.

- Mathew believes that as a Christian, he should worship only one true God. However, his company has a long-history of requiring all employees to pray to various gods whenever a new product is launched. Although he succeeded in taking a day off last time, yesterday his boss personally asked him to participate in the ritual. He likes his job and does not want to leave the company.

- Peter has been pleasant and obedient to his dictator-like boss. But one day he told Peter to mark some goods that could not be sold in the market as 'defect' so that they could be  returned to the supplier for refund.

- John was an accountant of ABC company. One day, his boss (company owner) handed to him a bunch of receipts for refund. Some receipts, he later found out, were of personal instead of company expenditure.

- The boss came to the Chief Accountant and said, "John, I don't want to pay so much tax this year. See what you can do about it to make me happy."

- Some toys were found to be defective by the Consumer Council who warned that they could harm the eyes of children. As the Managing Director of the company, there is a way you can get back some money out of such questionable stock--selling to a developing country which has neither pro-consumer bodies nor relevant safety laws.

- Isaac had been running a cinema business for many years. Due to financial difficulties, he needed new injection of funds. An old friend was interested in buying one third of the shares, if Isaac promised to convert one cinema to show only pornography films which seemed to be a very profit-making business.

- George was asked by his previous boss and mentor Chris to verify, as a bank manager, the accuracy of some financial data vital for the success of a relative of Chris. George however had doubts.

- Michael was an accountant of XYZ company. During lunch one day, a contractor Sam who was also a good friend of his boss asked for prices bidded by his competitor. Sam promised to reward Michael financially if such information could help him win the coming bid.

- Mary was a foreman of a construction company. For several times she had found at the building site that the method of piling was questionable. Since she was not responsible for checking the piling work, she expressed her concern to her boss Mark. Mark said, "Don't get involved. Let me handle this case." However, she observed that the questionable piling method continued, even weeks after making this verbal report.

===============  abstracts of Cases to select from  ==============