Issues: Ethics

Prajna conducts workshops, group facilitation, curriculum development, and organizational diagnosis around the issue of Ethics. All businesses and educational institutions grapple with ethical issues. Many of them have no formal place or class to define, discuss, and apply ethics to their specific communities. Unfortunately, as we see in the news time after time, ignoring this issue is not working. The behavior of too many students and business leaders has shown that the idea of integrity is sliding down a very slippery slope. We believe bringing the topic out into the open for schools and businesses is one way we can improve the moral climate and integrity of our learning and working communities.

We are available for a variety of services addressing the issue of ethics including, but not limited to:

Services for schools:

Curriculum & Organizational Change for Schools:

This service involves evaluation and diagnosis of overall curricular and extra-curricular programs, as well as student life. It might include one or all of the following:

• One-to-several on-site visits and interviews (quantity to be determined based on need both by Prajna & client)
• Overview of existing written curriculum, programs, and mission statements
• Written evaluation of existing curriculum and programs with suggested next steps

Workshops for schools:

• Ethics and academic integrity: “Why students cheat and who really pays the price?” (Includes current statistics and primary sources relating to reasons and situations that lead  students to cheat in school. Then, those reasons are framed within a conversation on ethics. Available for students and faculty.)
• Ethics and the Honor Code: “Does your honor code match your ethics?”  (Here, we help schools examine their existing honor code or design a new honor code that reflects the ethical, academic community schools wish to learn in.)
• The Illusive, yet Omnipresent, Issue of Ethics: Small group presentations/discussion. (Geared toward students as an introduction to ethics: what are they, what do they mean? How do they influence my actions?)

Services for Businesses / non profits organizations:

Small group workshops:

These presentations and discussions can be aimed at specific challenges of a business but examined and discussed through an ethical lens. Workshops may be geared toward specific departments and teams within a business organization. Details of workshops are decided through a phone or personal consultation. Sample topics include:

• “What do you do when your ethics conflict with your client’s?”
• “Ethics and diversity”
• “Marrying your personal ethics with your business’ mission statement”