As established in the previous pages of this module, the Integrity capability refers to the students’ knowledge about and application of both professional and academic ethics. Therefore, courses within a programme/major should ensure that their assessment structures cover both dimensions. While assessing students’ attending to academic ethics is usually straightforward, assessing professional ethics is a bit tricky. The holistic rubric for the Integrity capability provides guidance on what and how these aspects could be assessed.

Identifying ethical situations (academic and professional)
Understanding and applying different ethical perspectives/concepts in decision-making
Taking an ethical position
Applying professional ethics and codes

The four elements above (called indicators in the rubric) can inform the design of assessment tasks, including their rubrics, that encourage students to engage with ethics-related situations and become more capable of identifying and dealing with ethical issues in the workplace.

Ideas for assessing Integrity

There are several ethical issues in business that you can ask your students to respond to and discuss their implications for business and society. For example, Forbes listed eight common ethical dilemmas business owners face. These are 1. supporting other businesses when money is tight, 2. compromising on product quality, 3. offshoring one’s manufacturing, 4. letting clients go, 5. responding to employee social media behaviour, 6. keeping employees because of seniority, 7. accepting job applicants from competitors, and 8. creating honest marketing. Other common ethical issues in business include discrimination and harassment, workplace health and safety, corporate espionage and nondisclosure, technology and privacy practices, nepotism or favouritism, and environmental responsibility.

There are several assessment ideas that could be used to get students to engage with and respond to such ethical issues. For example,

Assessing a job advertisement, contract, or description from a discriminative/inclusive perspective
Analysing a case that has an ethical dimension, requesting students to identify, discuss, and explain the implications of the ethical issue(s)
Responding to ‘What if …’ scenarios – an imaginary example of a situation that requires students to identify an ethical issue and suggest an approach to handle it
Analysing media content with potential ethical issues
Critiquing a decision taken by a business/organisation that can have ethical implications

Ensure that you are following a holistic approach in assessing this capability – see step 5.

On this page, you will find tools and exemplars that you can adapt to assess common elements associated with the Integrity capability. Click on the blue button at the bottom of this page to access these resources.

Below are examples of assessments that could be adapted to assess integrity.

These ideas originated in a blog post, '8 Ethical Issues Businesses Face Today'.

An ethical issue to analyse (#1)

An especially infamous behavior comes from Enron. For years, the [US] energy company was submitting inaccurate financial statements. Collusion with the accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP meant that Enron's auditor had kept signing off on falsified statements. When the truth finally came out, both companies went out of business. This led to the dissolution of thousands of jobs and significant losses for Enron shareholders.

(Acknowledgement: 8 Ethical Issues Businesses Face Today)

An ethical issue to analyse (#2)

Sexual harassment and abuse issues against executive staff members in [US cable news network] Fox News started in 2016. This was just over a year before the #MeToo movement. Multiple women at the television network said that sexual harassment from scenarios led to their being fired, demoted, or employment denied. It was later revealed that Fox News had settled several lawsuits (some of them several years earlier) but the network was more concerned with covering up the allegations than in resolving the underlying issue.

(Acknowledgement: 8 Ethical Issues Businesses Face Today)

Methodology

Each of the above scenarios would work best if used to introduce student cohorts to appropriate and relevant industry-based examples of serious breaches of ethical misconduct.
The teacher needs to present one scenario (visually by projection from the whiteboard or individually by placement in an online discussion forum).
Students are to provide their initial response (either with the full class, in small groups, or via the online discussion forum).
To initially stimulate discussion, and given that both scenarios are well-known and accessible, putting students into small groups (3-4 students) and assigning them the tasks associated with the Graduate Profile for Integrity is entirely appropriate. As such, assign students to:
- recognise basic ethical issues in academic or professional contexts (e.g. identify the most obvious ethical issues in the Enron scenario),
- apply ethical principles to a situation or scenario (e.g. consider what would be the most appropriate response),
- state and explain a position with respect to ethical issues (e.g. gives a rationale and reasons for the response from an ethical understanding and framework; and,
- demonstrate a general understanding of professional codes of ethics (e.g. indicates how and why this will be considered a viable and serious response by all stakeholders in the setting because it can be directly applied with consequences).
The teacher provides individual, small group, and/or all class feedback during any stage of this process.
The students present to one other group.
The teacher presents to the entire class, followed by feedback, and addressing any questions.
Depending on the level of enthusiasm and confidence, this methodology can be applied to subsequent scenarios (e.g. Fox News).
As students have developed an understanding of the eight key ethical themes and how they inform analysis and response to ethical scenarios, they can work in small groups to apply them.
Depending on the level of confidence in the student cohort, you may be able to conduct role-play sessions. For example, using the Fox news issue:
- One student becomes a Fox News management representative, one student a Fox employee (e.g. a high-profile presenter), another student is the victim of sexual harassment, one student a Fox News HR representative, one student a Fox News shareholder, and one student a judge.
- This is a full-class exercise in which students volunteer or are recommended for roles.
- Each role is assigned two support researchers.
- The remainder of the class becomes the jury.
- As each role-player researches their role, so does the jury (anticipating what they will hear and questions for which they want answers).
- The jury will also research similar scenarios and prepare for their role, i.e. to provide a verdict and assign potential reparations, disciplinary measures, etc.
- In this case, the jury comprises industry representatives who want a result that will best limit the potential for such an issue/issues recurring in any organisation.
- In court, the judge assigns each speaker a five-minute window to present their findings (the teacher needs to supply assigned and recommended academic sources to ensure all students can understand proceedings).
- At the conclusion of each speaker's turn, any other speaker may respond and/or challenge.
- On conclusion of all speakers' turns, the court is adjourned for ten minutes while the jury assigns its verdict and recommendations.
In each case, assessment is assigned according to a rubric that focuses on participation, the ability to work as part of a group, and to present appropriate logical arguments (backed up by strong evidence and examples).