Moral Obligations of Group Leaders

Business Ethics - Application Project

Groups tend to bring out the moral best and worst in us. -- C. E. Johnson, 2016,

Because most significant projects require a group effort, self-directed groups are becoming increasingly commonplace in companies of all sizes and types today (Johnson, 2016). These groups are being tasked with a wide range of responsibilities including making decisions that are important for achieving organizational goals (Johnson, 2016). As the epigraph above emphasizes, despite their importance, not all groups succeed in achieving their goals and others fail to achieve their full potential due to unethical activities or suboptimal moral choices (Johnson, 2016). These issues came to the fore during one recent experience involving a seven-person group that failed to achieve its goals due to various immoral behaviors on the part of group members, including the author. This paper evaluates my performance as a morally responsible group member, including the types of behaviors that were demonstrated and which still need to be developed. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion concerning specific steps that could be taken to improve these behaviors.

The group situation of interest was one in which I was the second-in-charge of a seven-person group tasked with developing a Police Benevolent Association (PBA) union Web site. The PBA recognizes the value of these information technologies to its membership and based on my experience in this area, the group leader requested my participation and leadership. This sounded like an exciting and valuable project so I accepted the invitation to participate. Because organizational resources including physical space, time and money were being used for this project, all group members had a moral responsibility to accomplish the group's goal and to do so in an ethical fashion (Johnson, 2016).

The group leader initially scheduled meetings once every 3 weeks to ensure that group activities did not detract from professional responsibilities; however, the other group members either failed to attend these meetings or were unwilling or unable to actively participate in meaningful ways when they did attend. Unfortunately, this type of eventuality is not uncommon in many groups. As Johnson points out, "Many attempts to create a cooperative climate falter because participants fail to do their fair share of the work" (2016, p. 206). Moreover, there was also an inordinate amount of attention given to where the group would eat after the meeting rather than a focus on the problems at hand. Consequently, there was a moral failure on the part of the group's leadership, including the author, to maintain a cooperative climate as well as the group's focus on achieving its overarching goal.

The group did benefit from the active participation of three members who were enthusiastic about the project and who hit the ground running. These group members provided some great ideas and gathered relevant content so this initial process was not a total loss. Notwithstanding these contributions, though, each group member had been assigned the task of developing example ideas and content for Web pages to be included on the new site, but some members eventually stopped showing up altogether for the meetings and nothing substantive was provided by these individuals or, as a result, the group as a whole.

Based on this undesirable outcome, it became clear that there were some failures on the part of the group's leadership as well as its members that played a role in its ineffectiveness. For example, in retrospect, it became apparent that group members should have been hand-selected based on their motivation to contribute to the project rather than based on a passing familiarity with Web sites or simply "surfing the Web." This approach is congruent with Johnson's guidance to "select members carefully and match them to tasks" (2016, p. 209). Likewise, the group leader and I had a moral responsibility to determine if the other group members lacked the resources they needed to achieve their assigned responsibilities and to attempt to understand their perspectives (Johnson, 2016).

In sum, it has been 6 full months since the group was formed yet the final Web site remains a work in progress. Because many group members will be taking vacations during the summer, the project will likely have to wait until fall before work can resume on the PBA's Web site. With respect to my individual performance, although I attended every meeting and attempted to encourage everyone to participate, I am fairly laid back in my management approach, and I think that was part of the problem.