Overview
Risks and Perception is a series of ethical scenarios that are used to encourage students to consider the impact of their decisions on others. Organized as a group game activity, the scenarios are designed to also help students recognize ethical issues and measure their ethical influence on a group. The Risks and Perception activities are accompanied by a presentation that highlights the obstacles individuals face when assessing the risks that accompany decisions with ethical dimensions.
This popular material has been updated! Separate modules are available for undergraduate and graduate students to account for the varying needs of your audience.
Activity
In small groups, students consider a series of ethical scenarios. Individually, students select what they consider to be the best resolution to the scenario. As a group, students discuss their individual choices in an attempt to convince their group members that their choice is the best. After a timed discussion, students record the results of their group’s dialogue using their individual scorecards. Students determine the number of group members who agreed with their choice and the number who disagreed. Students tally their Total Net Influence Score on their Game Card for Round One. An interactive slide presentation accompanies Risks and Perception, enabling faculty to emphasize issues students face when confronted with difficult decisions. After the lecture, students tally their Total Net Impact Scores on their Game Card for Round Two. Once both scores are determined, students plot their Two Scores on a graph providing them feedback on the impact of their actions.
Conclusion
The ability to predict the impact of our decisions is elusive and often wildly overestimated. The number of variables, possible consequences and overlooked or misunderstood facts, makes accurate risk assessment close to impossible. In the absence of complex mathematical models, an individual is left with only instinct and an often vague sense of how to proceed. Therefore, students are encouraged to consider ethical behavior as the best tool for managing personal and professional risk. Doing the “right thing” by considering both the individual and collective impact of decisions is the only effective and reliable method of minimizing risk.
The Ethical Compass – A Toolkit for Integrity in Business
This multi-part toolkit of classroom learning materials was developed in collaboration between KPMG’s Ethics and Compliance group and Dr. Barbara Porco of Fordham University. The Ethical Compass toolkit provides a comprehensive review of the issues related to ethical behaviors in business as well as interactive learning materials and exercises for your students. Each of these modules can be easily integrated into an accounting, auditing, or business ethics curriculum individually, or the multi-part toolkit can serve as the foundation for a complete ethics program within an accounting, auditing or other business curriculum.
In this webinar hosted by the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum section of the American Accounting Association, Dr. Porco provides an overview of the toolkit modules and tips on how to effectively deliver this material.