High School Programs :: JA Business Ethics®
Through hands-on classroom activities, JA Business Ethics fosters students’ ethical decision-making as they prepare to enter the workforce and take part in the global marketplace. Students will recognize and analyze theory, terminology, and concepts; apply skills; and evaluate ethical decision-making. Seven required, five supplemental, volunteer-led sessions.
The key learning objectives listed beside each session state the skills and knowledge students will gain.
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Session One: Ethos Island Students participate in a simulation that introduces them to the topic of ethics. They examine the rationale for ethical standards in an interdependent group.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Session Two: Values, Goals, and Choices Students analyze personal ethical beliefs and examine their own values and goals. Students begin to make plans for achieving one-, five-, and ten-year goals.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Session Three: How to Decide? Students are introduced to four major ethical theories and apply them to scenarios while analyzing their own ethical philosophy.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Session Four: Ethical Decision-Making Students explore an ethical decision-making model and evaluate their personal decision-making processes.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Session Five: Organizational Ethics Students explore professional duties and ethical conflicts within various departments in a business. Working in groups, they apply their knowledge to a real-life situation.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Session Six: Social Responsibility Working in groups, students explore two prevalent, but conflicting, theories of social responsibility in business ethics and compare their personal beliefs and behaviors with both theories.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Session Seven: Multinational Issues Through a role-playing activity, students explore several complex ethical issues found in global business. This culminating session incorporates the overall program concepts.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Supplemental Session A: Ethos Island Code of Ethics
Students learn the importance of a code of ethics and practice writing one for their Ethos Island society.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Supplemental Session B: Heroes, Role Models, and Mentors
Students examine the importance of obtaining external assistance when making ethical decisions. They explore the characteristics of heroes, role models, and mentors and the importance of having them in their lives.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Supplemental Session C: Bad Choices from Bad Logic—Fallacies
Students are introduced to 10 common fallacies so they can act on what they know is ethical.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Supplementary Session D: Organizational Ethics—Marketing vs. Propaganda
Students learn about organizational ethics by examining the duties responsibilities, and unique ethical challenges faced by a marketing department. They compare ethical decision-making using a code of ethics with unethical marketing using propaganda.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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Supplemental Session E: Employee Ethics
Students explore practical ethical guidelines they may encounter in the world of work. Working in groups, they create public service announcements.
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Key Learning
Objectives Students will be able to:
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JA Business Ethics enhances students’ learning of the following concepts and skills:
Concepts–Beliefs, Code of Ethics, Employee ethics, Ethical decision-making, Ethical dilemmas, Ethics rationale, Ethics vs. rules, Fallacies, Gatekeeper, Goal assistants, Goal obstructions, Hero, mentor, and role model, Interdependence, Marketing, Multinational corporation, Organizational ethics, Personal ethics, Profit, Propaganda, Social responsibility theories, Stakeholders, Stockholders, Values.
Skills–Analyzing information, Categorizing data, Decision-making, Oral and written communication, Public speaking, Reading for understanding, Understanding the need for mutual respect, Working in groups.
JA Business Ethics is a seven-session course with five supplemental sessions, and is recommended for students in grades 9-12. Instructional materials are packaged for 32 students and include detailed activity plans for the volunteer, workbooks for students, and consumable materials to be used in the classroom.
All JA programs are designed to support the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. These programs also augment school-based, work-based, and connecting activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.
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