Employees and Their Responsibilities

¶ … Upward Dissent Scale Step 1 Complete the assessment and write a short summary of the results. I scored a 23 on the prosocial items listed. It's my nature as a police officer to want to help the public and coworkers. http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Prosocial_Behavior When pointing out an issue at work I tend to have my facts lined up and a few solutions to remedy the situation.

I never jump the chain of command regarding any problems at work since the environment is para-military and the chain of command must be used unless something unethical or illegal is going on. Quitting is not an option for me or most police officers that I work with. We are eligible to retire after 20 years of service and would not quit for any problems at work.

After bringing an issue to a supervisor I usually check in with him to see what the outcome was or if he needed any further information or assistance. If the problem isn't corrected than I tend to forget about now because year after year of repeating the same issues gets exhausting. Step 2 Reflect on what the results reveal about your ethical development.

Respond to the following: What have you learned from completing this exercise? How has your self-understanding increased? I have learned that the effectiveness of organizations is heavily dependent upon the employees, as much so, if not more than, the leadership that is in place. Although the organization's leadership typically receives much of the attention, some researchers believe that servant followership is actually more important than servant leadership (Johnson, 2015, p. 274). For example, leaders are not perfect and can often make poor decisions similar to anyone else.

However, in an instance of a blatantly poor decision that is made by any leader, it is up to the followers to have the insight and the courage to interject to ensure that the team progresses along the organizational goals that are present. While this might sound like it is a reasonably simple task, there are many biases and predispositions that can prevent an organizational member from taking the appropriate actions when necessary.

Furthermore, from the realization about the challenges that can face employees and followers, I personally feel that I have a more comprehensive understanding of my role in the organization, and how I can make a greater contribution to the organizational objectives in the future based on such insights.

What does this assessment reveal about your potential strengths and weaknesses as an ethical change agent? I scored considerable high on the prosocial items included in the questionnaire, low on the threatening resignation items, moderately high on the circumvention items, and low on the repetition items. The first measure mentioned, prosocial behavior is defined as actions that benefit other people or society as a whole and it is characterized by helping that does not benefit the helper; in fact, prosocial behavior is often accompanied by costs (Psychwiki.com, 2010).

To me personally, although there are many instances of prosocial behaviors to be found in society in general, I feel that it would likely be the case that one would find a greater concentration of these behaviors on the police force.

For example, there are many members of the police force that could have taken higher paying jobs elsewhere, but are driven by some inner-calling that directs them to use their talents and abilities to serve the public; at least I can attest to the fact that this is a core motive for myself and many of the colleagues that I know well. In regards to threatening resignation, it just is not common in our organization and the culture does not make any provisions for any threats of resignation.

There is also a similar aspect of the culture that does not tolerate the circumvention of the leadership structures that are present in the organization. Following the chain of command is an important aspect of meeting organizational objectives in this type of work, especially when quick decisions must be made and lives are on the line.

But at the same time we talk to many of the different levels of leadership that are present, just not about the types of things that are expected to go through the chain of command; with the exception of any major problem or extreme case of leadership negligence. Finally, in regards to repetition items, we typically do not receive.