Memorandum

QUICK OVERVIEW
ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE STUDY Guidelines for Paper
The “Corporate Action Memo”
by Paul W. Fulbright
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In this exercise, you are a management consultant who has been retained directly by the Board of Directors of a company that has been recently rocked by an “ethics incident.”
You choose the company and the incident, as evidenced by a Lead Article that you will locate using the UHD library and various other appropriate sources. Your first milestone / deadline is simply choosing: (a) the company; (b) the incident; and (c) the Lead Article in accordance with the guidelines appearing below. The deadline date for this (“Topic”) appears in the Syllabus.
Your Paper will contain 2 parts. The first part of your paper will be a Memorandum to the Board of Directors (the “Memo”). The outline structure of your Memo is described below, so you won’t have to worry about the overall structure of your paper. Your Memo will refer to a Lead Article (which describes the incident), so that we will have a good understanding of The Problem confronting management and why it’s important. You will also propose a solution to The Problem, and so, in addition to the Lead Article, you will refer to precisely 2 other articles as well. So, in sum, you will be finding a total of 3 articles that relate to your topic.
The second part of your paper (the “Supplement”) will be a set of answers you provide to a few Supplementary Questions about how Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”), and “Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance” (“GRC”) principles apply to the incident.
You cannot re-use Papers you may have generated in other classes. You must do original work.
Length: The entire paper (Memo and Supplement) should be greater than 3 pages, and less than 6 pages, single-spaced. This assumes the type is formatted with Times New Roman font size 12, with 1” margins all-around. Executives learn to operate within constraints. You must as well.
“How do I start?”: Just turn the page. Start at Step 1. With Step 7, you are DONE!
OBJECTIVES OF THIS PAPER
There are several objectives to this exercise, some of which relate to UHD’s interest in providing an effective executive education. The objectives include:
a) to develop your research skills (i.e., locating/citing good articles to support your paper);
b) to develop your skills at applying Ethics, CSR, and GRC to real-world problems;
c) to practice real-world problem-solving in the context of a complex, real-world Ethics /
CSR / GRC issue;
d) to further develop your skills at persuasive writing in general; and
e) to develop your specific proficiency in writing a Memo that requests executive action
(a critical management skill).

I. STEP 1: SELECT your Company, Incident, and the “Lead Article” that describes them in depth.
A. Find the “Lead Article” that will serve as the factual foundation of your paper.
1. Date: The Lead Article (Article #1) must be dated no earlier than the date that is one (1) year prior to the first day of the current semester / term in which you are taking this specific class.
2. Content of the Lead Article:
a. The Company: Actually, your topic can be a company, a
nonprofit, or any other substantial organization or enterprise. It
should not be an individual.
b. The “Ethics Incident”: The incident is described in the Overview
as an “ethics incident,” but it may be that potential legal violations are what is getting the most ink in the press coverage. So long as the incident (the business situation) that has occurred has an ethical / compliance / legal dimension that presents ethical challenges to management, the company and incident you choose will probably be acceptable.
3. Depth: This is important. The Lead Article should not be a short “one column” – type article. Rather, it should be an in-depth article that discusses the business situation in some detail. In-depth articles will discuss, in varying degrees of detail: (a) how the incident appears to have come about (for example, the key decisions leading up to it); (b) some of the underlying problems or “blind spots” that might have contributed to the incident; (c) some of the consequences associated with the incident; (d) some of the challenges management confronted at the time of decision (or is now confronting as it deals with the incident); and (e) perhaps even some of the lessons executives are learning from the incident. They may address other topics too. In-depth articles are the kind of articles that you might see showcased on the cover of the magazine or newspaper. Picking a good Lead Article is a true key to success – a good Lead Article gives you lots of useful detail that you can use throughout your Ethics Paper. A skimpy Lead Article usually leads to a poorer grade.
B. Lead Article Source List: You should be able to locate a good article from one of the sources listed below, and you are strongly encouraged to choose articles from these sources. However, if you locate a truly solid in-depth article from a clearly reputable source about a topic you are truly passionate about, you can use it.
Bloomberg; Boston Globe; Business Week; Chicago Tribune; CNN; Economist; Financial Times; Forbes; Fortune; Fox News; Harvard Business Review; Houston Chronicle; Los Angeles Times; New York Post; New York Times; NPR; Reuters; Seattle Times; Texas Monthly; Time; USA Today; Wall Street Journal; and Washington Post.
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NOTES REGARDING YOUR RESEARCH:
• You can find your articles using any resource (e.g., UHD Library, your local
library, online, etc.). However, your tuition gives you FREE access to many
articles through the UHD Library, so it’s a good source to consider using!
• FYI, the UHD Library has a News and Newspaper Research Guide that you might find helpful: http://library.uhd.edu/news. Also: Consider going to the
Library homepage and attempting your search in “Periodicals”.
• Ask for Help!: Contact a Research Librarian for assistance. The UHD Library
online chat is usually available and answered within a few minutes.
C. Make multiple high-quality copies of your Lead Article: You’ll need them as explained in later steps below.
D. A Bit of Terminology: In these Guidelines and throughout this project:
• “Lead Article”: This is also known as “Article #1”. It provides us an in-
depth look at the Company and the Incident. Article is less than 1 year old,
and is preferably from the “Lead Article Source List”.
• Article #2: This is the first of your two “Other Articles”. This article may
not mention your Company or Incident at all. Rather, it is an article that makes important points about some topic you want to talk about in your paper. Can feature any date of publication, be from any source.
• Article #3: This is the second of your two “Other Articles”. And, like Article #2, it may not mention your Company or Incident at all, as it too simply makes important points about some topic you want to talk about in your paper. Can feature any date of publication, be from any source.
• For your first milestone / deadline, you only have to locate your Lead Article (Article #1). You’ll locate Articles #2 and #3 later.
E. Post the Company Name, Incident, and Lead Article Citation in the “Assignments” area of Blackboard: Post the Company Name, Incident, and Lead Article Citation in the “Assignments” area of Blackboard. I don’t need a copy of your Lead Article at this time (just the citation of the article (e.g., the author name, title, magazine, date, page, link, etc.) is fine for now). However, if you want to include a copy of the article in your submission, that’s fine too.
F. What if I want to Change my Company, Incident, or Lead Article Later? Be aware that, sometimes, after they have done extensive research, students decide to change either their Company, their Incident, or their Lead Article. That’s fine. The main thing is that you meet the final deadlines associated with final submission of the paper. The deadline for Step 1 (the “Topic” milestone) is a soft, informal one that is designed to ensure that you don’t leave everything to the last minute. Try to pick the best Company, Incident, and Lead Article that you can, on time, so that you don’t have to start over later.
G. Congratulations! Your First Milestone has Now Been Met! If you get Step 1 done by the “Topic” deadline shown in the Syllabus, you’re in good shape. If you get it done ahead of that deadline, you’re in great shape. But don’t stop there!…
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II. STEP #2: STUDY the Required Memo Format Shown Below and LOCATE Two (2) More Articles that Support Your Views about the Incident.
A. STUDY the Required Format for Your Memo Below.
This is an exercise in persuasive writing. You are trying to convince the Board of Directors to take action to solve an important problem. If your memo isn’t clear, well-organized, and persuasively written, you will fail. It must hit the key points hard. Effective memos requesting management action feature Sections 1-8 below. Because this is also an academic writing exercise, your memo will also feature Section 9.
1. Executive Summary: Ideally, 2 sentences at most.
2. Background: A brief summary of the context that the Board needs to understand the problem you have identified. Do NOT assume that they’ve read any of your articles.
3. The Problem: Here, you identify a single problem that is the sole focus of your Memo. Everything in the Memo revolves around The Problem that you have identified.
4. Importance of the Problem: Here, in addition to negative effects on sales, profits, stock price, etc., you may need to emphasize what happens if we do nothing. Companies procrastinate (just like people). Don’t underestimate the importance of this section. Note: Parts 2, 3, and 4 should all fit together as a persuasive, linked unit on the problem in general (Background – Problem – Importance) (“BPI”).
5. Proposal (“Plan”): Here you lay out your proposed solution to The Problem. Note: I know that you don’t have 10 years of experience in the relevant field, but you can still sensibly propose a reasonable solution and support it. For example, your solution may be for the company to develop a Code of Conduct, or conduct an Ethics Retreat, etc. Notice that, although The Problem should feature a single theme, your Proposal / Plan can feature several parts or steps (e.g., “our 3-pronged approach”; “our 4-part plan”).
6. Benefits of the Proposal: Here, you state all of the good things that will follow if the company adopts your proposal / plan. Hopefully, your Proposal solves a good bit of The Problem, and the Benefits you’re discussing counteract many of the Important aspects of The Problem.
7. Next Steps: If you’ve “sold” management on your proposal, you need to tell them, specifically, what you want to do next with the authority they confer upon you. Develop 1 or 2 crisp, practical action items. Parts 5, 6, and 7 all fit together as a persuasive, linked unit on the solution in general (Proposal – Benefits – Next Steps) (“PBN”).
8. Request: Always close with the final firm request: “We request that you approve the Proposal and Next Steps without delay.” You want to leave with management’s official endorsement, so that you can tell everyone that the Board is behind you. Consider underlining this request, so that even the rushed Board Member sees it on a quick skim.
9. Works Cited: Here you will provide the formal bibliographic entries for your 3 articles.
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B. LOCATE Two (2) More Articles that Support Your Own Views about the Incident.
1. First, Develop Some of Your Own Views.
You already have a Lead Article that will help you get started with useful material regarding your Background, Problem, and likely even with the Problem’s Importance. It may also give you good food for thought about a possible solution or two (useful in your “Proposal”), which is great.
However, you don’t want to simply “write a report” about your Lead Article. When a writing assignment simply asks you to re-state what is in someone else’s article, it becomes very easy to accidentally commit plagiarism. That’s why this exercise asks you to locate one Lead Article and two Other Articles that you are passionate about. That way, you will write something that is unique to you. That’s the best, and easiest, and most enjoyable way to avoid plagiarism.
How do you do write something original about solving the Company’s problem? Here’s a key: have faith in your own opinions.
Look at your Lead Article.
Think about all of the things that you could talk about that relate to the incident described in that Lead Article. Here are 2 easy examples to get you started:
• In class, we talked about how costly and distracting legal and ethical violations are. You could locate an article that talks about how costly litigation is, or how damage to your corporate image reduces sales, or how harassment lawsuits embarrass and demoralize even the employees who aren’t involved in the lawsuit (reducing productivity), etc. If you can locate an article like this, you can refer to that kind of article (about the harms of legal and ethics violations) in the “Importance of the Problem” section.
• We also talked about some of the tools that management uses to deal with ethical problems (examples: Leadership Changes; Codes of Conduct; Ethics Training; Whistleblower Hotlines; etc.). You might locate an article entitled “How to Launch a Great Code of Conduct in Your Company”) and be able to use it as a key support in your “Proposal”, which includes the launch of a new Code of Conduct.
Key Points:
• Your 2 Other Articles can relate to (and support) any of the sections of your Memo.
They can support the Background, The Problem, the Importance of the Problem, your Proposal, the Benefits of the Proposal, or some aspect of the Next Steps you propose to take.
• Your 2 Other Articles do NOT have to mention the Company, be published by a source on the Lead Article Source List, or have a certain date. Your Lead Article sets the stage regarding a Company and a recent Incident, so that’s why we have the one-year requirement regarding the date. But Article #2 and Article #3 can be about any topic that supports your position in your paper, and they may not even mention your Company at all. You just want your Other Articles to be well-written, in-depth articles about whatever point(s) you’re trying to make.
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2. Second, Locate Your 2 Other Articles (and Make Multiple High- Quality Copies of These Articles as well).
Now, go to the Library and locate 2 more articles. And make high-quality copies of those articles (for reasons that will be explained in later steps below).
It’s important to know that you may not locate the articles you initially set out to find. For example, you set out looking for an article on “How to Launch a Great Code of Conduct in your Company”, but you don’t find such an article. That’s fine. But, remember, you DO need a total of exactly 3 articles (one Lead Article and two Other Articles). So, continuing your search, you run across an article about how Ethics Training can help companies avoid problems. This also seems like a useful potential solution to The Problem, so you shift the focus of your Proposal to ethics training. The point is that your understanding of The Problem, and your ideas regarding a Proposal to solve The Problem, may change as a result of your research. That’s fine.
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III. STEP #3: NUMBER the Paragraphs in a Nice Copy of Your one Lead Article and two Other Articles, and Then SCAN Them into Adobe Acrobat .pdf files.
A. Number the Paragraphs.
You will be referring to the Lead Article and the two Other Articles in your Memo. When you refer (in your Memo) to a point made in an article, I want you to refer to the paragraph number (in the article) at which that point appears. Note: You do not need to worry about whether your paragraph numbers are technically “correct”. They are – your paragraph numbers are the ones I will use when I refer to your articles as I read your Paper.
There is no need to be fancy. Just use a dark black pen to handwrite the numbering of the paragraphs.
B. After You’ve Numbered the Paragraphs, Scan the Numbered Articles into Adobe Acrobat .pdf files.
Eventually, when you turn in your final Ethics Paper, you will give me four (4) files. If your last name is “Smith”, your four (4) files would be named as follows:
• Smith Paper.docx or Smith Paper.doc: this file contains your entire ethics paper (both the Memo and the Supplement) in Microsoft Word format;
• Smith Article 1.pdf: this file contains your Lead Article (with numbered paragraphs);
• Smith Article 2.pdf: this file contains the first of your 2 Other Articles (with numbered
paragraphs); and
• Smith Article 3.pdf: this file contains the second of your 2 Other Articles (with
numbered paragraphs).
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IV. STEP 4: NOW, WRITE Your Memo.
A. FIRST, PREPARE the “Works Cited” Section.
In this paper, we will be using a highly informal, and highly simplified, version of the MLA citation form.
The “Works Cited” section (Section 9) appears at the end of the Memo and before the Supplement. It’s basically a list. You list the 1 Lead Article and the 2 Other Articles.
Below are 5 examples (i.e., 4 articles and 1 book) that might appear in a “Works Cited” section. Note: I am providing the 5 examples even though you are only required to use 1 Lead Article and 2 Other Articles in your paper. I provided 5 examples, so you could see more examples of how to list your articles.
Works Cited:
Lead Article: Steinmetz, Katy, and Matt Vella, “Uber Fail,” Time, 26 Jun. 2017.
Katzenbach, Jon R., Ilona Steffen, and Caroline Kronley, “Cultural Change That Sticks,” Harvard Business Review, Jul.-Aug. 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/07/cultural- change-that-sticks.
Reaney, Patricia, “Cruel Corporate Cultures Will Not Thrive for Long, Experts Say,” Reuters, 15 Sep. 2015, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-workplace/cruel- corporate-cultures-will-not-thrive-for-long-experts-say-idUSKCN0RF27M20150915.
“How to Change Your Organization’s Culture,” Wall Street Journal, http://guides.wsj.com/management/innovation/how-to-change-your-organizations- culture/ (cited as “How to Change”).
Smith, John and Lou Williams, Ethics: Theory and Cases. McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Why is this “Works Cited” list useful? Several reasons. First, all of your sources are collected in a single convenient list. Second, by preparing the list first, you can determine how you will refer to an entry when you’re writing the body of your paper. This will become clearer in the next section. (In that section, you’ll see an example in red, and it is referring to the red cite above.)
B. NOW, WRITE THE MEMO (Citing to Your 3 Articles for Support).
In this context, don’t use “I”, but it is ok to use “we” and “our”. In formal writing, we rarely use the first person. However, when management consultants develop long-term relationships with their clients, they will frequently use “we” and “our” when talking about the company’s situation. It’s a way of signaling that “we’re all in this together.” They sound like a trusted (but candid) employee, not an external consultant. Example: “It’s a serious problem, and we need to act now.” So, because YOU are the consultant in this exercise, you should adopt this tone.
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When you write your Memo, your explanations and arguments will carry more weight if you can point to your 3 articles for support. However, you don’t want your reader to have to read the entire article. Rather, using citations, you can point the reader to the precise paragraph where the point you’re making appears.
Informal Citation Convention: In this paper, we will be using a highly informal, and highly simplified, version of the MLA citation form. For example, we will refer to articles using citations (“cites”) that include only the first author’s last name. Also, the cites in your Paper will refer to the paragraph numbers, not page numbers, in your Article #1, #2, and #3.
Citation systems are useful, because they allow us to write sentences in the body of our Memos like the 4 examples you see below. In these examples, we use cites to let readers know that we’ve got support (in our 3 articles) for the things we’re writing and to tell them exactly where that support is:
There is evidence that establishing or tolerating an abusive culture leads to reductions in the creativity, loyalty, and tenure of employees (Reaney, ¶11).
One author has even gone so far as to state that “A strategy that is at odds with a company’s culture is doomed. Culture trumps strategy every time.” (Katzenbach, ¶15)
This has led to a culture that some believe is very similar to many Silicon Valley startups (Steinmetz, ¶23), a culture in which the company’s founders are celebrated as “rule-breakers” and various legal and ethical lapses are forgiven as “mistakes” (Steinmetz, ¶22, ¶23).
Many managerial tasks are challenging, but some authors have warned that “changing an entrenched culture is the toughest task you will face” (“How to Change”, ¶2).
In each of the sentences above, you know exactly where the support for the statement resides. For example, in a Sample Paper that I often distribute to students, you will see the first sentence above (the statement about the effect of an “abusive culture”). If someone asked, “Where did you read that?,” the answer is clear — go to the article by “Reaney” and look at paragraph 11. (Note: the ¶ symbol can be found in Microsoft Word by using the “Insert” “Symbol” command.) The last citation doesn’t use the first author’s name, because the article source shows no author name at all (see the examples in the discussion of the “Works Cited” section), so we use a few words from the title instead of the first author’s name.
Don’t worry if your citation form isn’t perfect. That isn’t the purpose of this project. Also, you’re going to be giving me copies of your 1 Lead Article and 2 Other Articles, so I should be able to find what you’re referring to, so long as your article and numbering are readable in the scan.
There is no need to insert a citation for material appearing in our course materials, such as our course textbook, reading notes, handouts or materials, class notes, and / or class discussion.
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C. A FEW TIPS FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARISM.
1. General Rule – When in Doubt, Provide a Citation: Provide a citation (a “cite”) whenever you’re using a quotation or idea from one of your articles. The high-quality articles you chose demonstrate your skill in research. Furthermore, you chose the articles because you like them, so give the authors full credit for any of the great ideas that they have presented that you, in turn, are referring to in your Memo. Otherwise, you risk a charge of plagiarism. Your citations don’t weaken your memo. They strengthen it. They show that you’ve got support for your diagnosis and proposal. Cite to your Article #1, #2, and #3 as often as you can!
2. General Rule – When in Doubt, Use Your Own Words: The basic idea is this: in our writing, we want to use our own words the vast majority of the time. We use quotes for those relatively rare occasions when the author of the article has stated something in a particularly stylistic or compelling way.
3. Quotations / Exact Phrases: Whenever you’re using an article’s exact phrases or sentences, you must make that clear by doing things like: (a) enclosing them in quotation marks, or (b) indenting the phrase, sentence, or paragraph, or (c) stating that you are reproducing the author’s statement “verbatim” or something similar.
4. Summaries and Paraphrasing – Be Careful: A summary condenses information. Because you’re shrinking 100 words into 15, plagiarism isn’t usually a problem. Paraphrasing, however, sometimes reports information in roughly the same number of words, and so, if too much of the language is copied word-for-word, it can be viewed as plagiarism, even though the source is cited.
5. Common Knowledge / Your Opinion: There is no need to provide a citation for matters of common knowledge or for matters that are entirely your own opinion or judgment.
6. General Rule – When in Doubt, Ask: Plagiarism is a serious academic violation, so err on the side of safety by asking questions of multiple knowledgeable sources when you’re unsure.
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V. STEP 5: WRITE YOUR SUPPLEMENT by Answering the Questions Below.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
In addition to preparing the Memo, you must prepare the Supplement by answering the questions below.
• Part 1 asks you to PICK ONE of six (6) potential questions and answer that ONE question.
• Part 2 asks you to do some reading about “GRC” and to answer ONE question.
• Part 3 asks you to do some quick research about jobs and write about ONE job.
Often times, I will provide a “Sample Paper” to my students, and you can see an example “Supplement” in that paper.
In answering the Supplementary Question, please refer only to your 3 articles, your Memo, the GRC reading and Class Notes (and websites referenced therein), and other course materials (such as course textbook, reading assignments, reading notes, class handouts or materials, class notes, and / or class discussion).
Don’t Overlook the Supplement or Give it Insufficient Treatment: The Supplement represents a substantial %age of your grade on your Ethics Paper. (See the grading rubric published alongside these guidelines to see the exact %age.) So don’t forget to include it. Failing to include it entirely gives you a zero (0) for that component of your Project grade.
Length: Your entire supplement should probably be around 1/3 the length of your Memo.
SUPPLEMENT PART 1
Here, I ask you to consider how the ethical principles we discussed in class and / or the differing viewpoints on Corporate Social Responsibility apply to the situation in your Memo. You are given 6 potential questions to answer. PICK ONE of these 6 questions and answer it.
Questions A, B, C, D, E, and F for Part One Appear Below. PICK ONE to Answer in your Supplement.: Make sure to tell me WHICH QUESTION you have chosen to answer. Preferably, first reproduce the question word-for-word, and then answer it. You might place the question in bold or italics to distinguish it from your plain-text answer in the Supplement. I often give my students a “Sample Paper”, so you can see how to do this.
A. Explain how a violation of Duty-Based Ethics contributed to the Background, The Problem, or the Importance of the Problem. Examples: Explain how a failure to understand or act on important values contributed to the Problem. What specific values were violated? How did this contribute to the Problem or its Importance?
B. Explain how a violation of Outcome-Based Ethics contributed to the Background, The Problem, or the Importance of the Problem. Examples: Explain how a failure to properly consider likely outcomes associated with its decisions contributed to the Problem. What outcomes did the company fail to anticipate entirely or perhaps underestimate? How did this contribute to the Problem or its Importance?
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C. Explain how the Proposal, Next Steps, or Benefits of the Proposal lead to greater compliance with Duty-Based Ethics. Examples: Does implementing your Proposal result in people being treated with greater levels of honesty, respect, equality, and / or fairness? What specific values are upheld or reinforced? Are previously overlooked stakeholders (such as employees or various members of the public) now being considered? How does considering values contribute to the Benefits or to the effectiveness of the Proposal or Next Steps?
D. Explain how the Proposal, Next Steps, or Benefits of the Proposal lead to greater compliance with Outcome-Based Ethics. Examples: Does implementing your Proposal result in greater good (or lesser harm) being done for greater numbers of people? Are previously overlooked stakeholders (such as employees or various members of the public) now being considered?
E. Using the models described in class, explain how you would categorize the company’s prior discharge of its Corporate Social Responsibility. That is, explain how the company’s behavior (prior to the adoption of your Proposal) demonstrates that it should be viewed as a Profit-Maximizer, Reasonable Contributor, Accountable Citizen, or Dual Actor. None of these categories will fit perfectly of course. Pick the category that fits best and explain why you chose it.
F. Using the models described in class, explain how you would categorize the company’s discharge of its Corporate Social Responsibility after it adopts your Proposal in good faith. That is, assume that the Board of Directors adopts your Proposal and that the company acts upon your Proposal in good faith (honestly and diligently). Based on its new-and-improved performance, what category would you place the company in now (Profit-Maximizer, Reasonable Contributor, Accountable Citizen, Dual Actor)? Why? None of these categories will fit perfectly of course. Pick the category that fits best and explain why you chose it.
A Useful Tip: Provide Detailed Support for your Answer: Take a look at Question E above. It is fairly easy to label a company that has made an ethics-oriented mistake a greedy “profit maximizer” without a lot of analysis or support for the statement. If you choose to answer that question, don’t make that mistake. In fact, regardless of which question you choose to answer in the Supplement, know that your grade is very much affected by how well you support your position. See the grading rubric published alongside these guidelines.
Length: You should probably be able to answer the Part 1 question in 250-500 words.
SUPPLEMENT PART 2
Here, I ask you to learn a little about “Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance”, a cluster of closely related topics that are referred to in industry as “GRC”. (No kidding – people use this specific acronym all the time.)
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Then, I ask you to answer ONE question.
Reading:
• Read the “Introduction” to GRC that I provided. This reading is an introduction to the subject
in a fine law school casebook on the topic. The introduction gives you a good overview.
• Read the Class Notes regarding GRC that I provided. These should clarify some of the ideas
you learned in the reading.
• Finally, briefly visit some of the websites you see on the last page of the Class Notes (“Where Can I Learn More?”). The U.S. Dept. of Labor website contains some great resources for all small- to medium-sized businesses regarding employment law. If you ever considered breaking into the healthcare field, compliance is a hugely important knowledge / skill set in that field. You’ll want to visit the HCCA website.
Part 2 Question: Please answer the following question:
• “Do you believe that the Company problem that you identified occurred in part due to a
failure in any one or more of the areas of Governance, Risk Management, or Compliance? Why or why not?” Try very hard to refer to the definitions of these areas, or examples of common failures in these areas (that you believe also probably occurred at your Company), or perhaps refer to how a failure might have occurred in one of the “Three Lines of Defense”. The idea is to demonstrate that you are applying what you learned about GRC to your Company’s failure.
• Length: You should be able to answer the Part 2 question in 100-200 words.
SUPPLEMENT PART 3
Here, I ask you to do some quick job hunting, so that you can learn about jobs in the “compliance” field. Go to a jobs website like http://www.glassdoor.com/, http://www.careerbuilder.com/, or http://www.indeed.com/, and enter “Compliance” in the Job Title, and enter a city of interest (such as “Houston” or wherever you happen to live and work) in the Location.
Part 3 Assignment:
• Give me a short description of a single interesting compliance-related job you found during
your search. Provide the following: (a) Job Title; (b) Employer; (c) Salary (if provided or
estimated); and (d) a Very Brief (But Interesting!) Description of the position.
• Length: You should be able to answer the Part 3 question in 50-100 words.
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VI. STEP 6: REVISE, revise, revise.
Once you’ve completed a first draft of your Memo and Supplement, step away from it for 24
hours and edit it again.
Also, have someone else read it. For example, ask a friend, significant other, or writing tutor to read it and tell you: (a) what they liked; and (b) what they found confusing, distracting, unclear, etc. Many times, when a friend reads our writing, he or she will say “Why did you write X here?” That’s a clue that we “jumped” to a new point without being clear about how it fits into the paper. Your friend’s comment may sting, but it’s worth its weight in gold. If he / she was confused, I probably will be too. And he / she isn’t grading you. Take them to lunch as a “thank you”.
Check the Grading Rubric for the Ethics Paper, and see what kind of score you would give yourself using that matrix. It’s the matrix I’ll be using to evaluate your paper.
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VII. STEP 7: SUBMIT your Ethics Paper in BOTH ELECTRONIC AND PAPER form.
A. Overview / Getting Ready
1. When I grade your Papers, I like to print them out, so that I can make
handwritten notes in the margins as I grade them. I give out better, fairer, and usually higher grades by grading this way. However, in semesters past, with 50+ students spread across multiple sections, I’ve spent a lot of money, each semester, using up expensive color toner cartridges (your papers and articles burn through a lot of ink).
2. So I have begun asking my students to send me BOTH an electronic copy AND a paper copy of their Paper, Article #1, Article #2, and Article #3. See the instructions below.
B. Electronic File Names: If your last name is “Smith”, your 4 electronic files would be named as follows:
• Smith Paper.docx or Smith Paper.doc: this file contains your ethics paper in Microsoft Word (Memo and Supplement all in one document);
• Smith Article 1.pdf: this file contains your Lead Article (with numbered paragraphs);
• Smith Article 2.pdf: this file contains the first of your 2 Other Articles (with numbered paragraphs); and
• Smith Article 3.pdf: this file contains the second of your 2 Other Articles (with numbered paragraphs).
C. Step #1: Electronic Submission: Submit the 4 electronic documents to me using the Blackboard Assignment tool. I’ll place the Assignment upload icon in the “Assignments” area of Blackboard for our course.
D. Step #2: Paper Submission: (a) In Person: Students in Face-to-Face classes, and Hybrid classes, can hand in the paper copies of the Paper and 3 Articles. (b) By Mail: Students in Fully Online classes (and FTF and Hybrid students who fail to connect with me in person) can mail the paper copies of the Paper, and 3 Articles, to me at the following address: Prof. Paul W. Fulbright / Univ. of Houston – Downtown / One Main Street, Office B-488 / Houston, TX 77002-1001. If you are a student living and working outside the U.S., and the paper mailing constitutes an undue burden, contact me to discuss the matter.
E. Submission Date: Your “official” submission date will be the date upon which you electronically submit your materials. Please hand-deliver or mail the paper copies as soon as possible after electronic submission. The sooner I get your paper copies, the sooner I can easily grade them, and the better it is for you.
F. Late Submission: The penalty for late submission is described in the Syllabus.
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