Project "Ethical Challenges"

Project “Ethical Challenges” Overview: Project Scenario: • You are the new manager of technicians, engineers, and scientists that are embedded in the Research and Development (R&D) department located in a single secured location of a large worldwide technical business. The business research, designs, manufactures, markets, and sells worldwide, a wide range of information technology products. The last manager was fired due to the low output of innovations from that department. • Upper management desired to increase marketable innovations for the business and your boss has been requested by her boss to present a plan. Your boss came to you for a strategy to increase innovations coming out of your department. • You have decided to focus on creativity as the primary driver for developing an environment of innovation in your department. You did the research and built a detailed list of things that can be done to increase creativity in your R&D department. • Upper manager agreed to, and funded, your plans for changes to increase the number of marketable innovations from the R&D department. • Congratulations! You have executed those changes and the number of marketable innovations from your department has increased. • BUT there is a problem… Your department has also experienced an increase in ethical issues and upper management has taken notice. Some department members have been reported as: - Breaking rules - Ignoring procedures - Challenging authority - Ignoring traditions - Causing conflict - Taking risks that have generated unacceptable failures • Because your research presented that those activities are associated with creative individuals, you expected some behavior such as minor rule-breaking, acceptable risk-taking, low-level anti-company actions, etc., but you did not set in your plan any controls to manage those behaviors. Additional Relevant Material: • Review the submitted project “Creativity and Innovation” • Baucus, Norton, W. I., Baucus, D. A., & Human, S. E. (2008). Fostering Creativity and Innovation without Encouraging Unethical Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(1), 97–115 • Read Fostering Creativity and Innovation without Encouraging Unethical Behavior (See PDF) Project Requirements/Tasks: Deliverable Part 1: Review the list of R&D department changes you presented in the project “Creativity and Innovation”. • The authors of the article Fostering Creativity and Innovation without Encouraging Unethical Behavior noted four problematic prescriptions for creativity. - In the discussion they present that those four prescriptions are required for a creative and innovative environment but also, they note that there are risks of unethical behavior associated with those prescriptions. - They also present organizational responses that can be used to mitigate and manage those risks - thereby allowing for a creative, innovative, and ethical work environment. Deliverable Part 2: Using your executed ideas from the project “Creativity and Innovation” to increase the number of marketable innovations by a focus on creativity, and the noted article as a guide, build a plan to mitigate, and manage, those ethical issues in your department. • Your plan must reduce those issues but not negatively affect the number of markable innovations being generated from the R&D department. • For clarity, the following are the ethical violations that have been reported to upper management and they should be the focus of your plan. - Breaking R&D department and company rules - Ignoring standard company procedures - Challenging authority outside of the R&D department - Taking risks on innovation projects that have generated unacceptable failures - No illegal activity has taken place! Format/Content Requirements: • APA 7th Edition Format • Double Spaced • Size 12 Font • Times New Roman Font • Maximum of 5 pages of content. This does not include a cover page or reference page(s).