Programme overview
Introduction:
Work ethics and professional integrity lapses rarely start with fraud; they start with an undeclared supplier friendship, a padded timesheet, a borrowed laptop or a confidential file forwarded to a personal inbox. Each small shortcut erodes trust, slows decisions and drains productivity. This Core Concept course gives employees, supervisors and line managers a shared vocabulary and a practical method for recognising ethical risk in daily work, reasoning through grey-area dilemmas and setting the example for their teams. Participants compile an Ethics Dilemma Casebook and a Team Ethics Charter for their own unit.
Course Objectives:
- Explain how work ethic, professional values and trust influence team productivity, service quality and organisational reputation
- Identify and declare actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest, and respond to offers of gifts, hospitality and favours using clear acceptance criteria
- Handle confidential information, working time, equipment and expense budgets honestly and in line with organisational policy
- Resolve workplace dilemmas with a stepwise ethical decision filter and quick self-tests, including choices made under target and deadline pressure
- Model ethical behaviour as a supervisor, reinforce fairness and respect, and respond proportionately when misconduct is observed
- Produce an Ethics Dilemma Casebook and a Team Ethics Charter for adoption in the participant's own unit
Target Audience:
- Front-line employees who handle customers, suppliers, cash, data or company assets in daily work
- Team supervisors who allocate work, approve timesheets and expenses and set day-to-day standards
- Line managers responsible for a small team's conduct, feedback conversations and first-response escalation
- Public-facing staff in reception, customer service, protocol and public relations units who represent the organisation externally
- Administrative and purchasing support staff who process requests, orders and approvals
- HR officers who induct new joiners and brief staff on expected workplace behaviour
Course Outline:
Day 1: Work Ethics Foundations, Professional Values and the Productivity Link
- Work Ethic Seven-Factor Profile: Self-Reliance, Hard Work, Centrality of Work and Productive Use of Time
- Legal Minimum Versus Ethical Expectation Spectrum With Grey-Zone Workplace Examples
- Core Professional Values Map: Honesty, Reliability, Accountability, Fairness and Respect
- Cost of Small Shortcuts: Trust Erosion, Rework and Lost Output Case Review
- Personal Work Ethic Self-Assessment and Team Values Card Sort
Day 2: Ethical Reasoning Models and Everyday Decision Tools
- Consequence, Duty and Character Lenses for Routine Workplace Choices
- Stepwise Ethical Decision Filter: Facts, Affected Parties, Options, Rules and Values
- Quick Self-Tests: Publicity Test, Mirror Test and Trusted Colleague Test
- Rationalisation Traps: Everybody Does It, No One Gets Hurt and Just This Once
- Grey-Area Dilemma Sorting Grid: Right Versus Wrong and Right Versus Right
Day 3: Integrity in Daily Work: Interests, Gifts, Information and Assets
- Conflict of Interest Types: Self-Dealing, Outside Employment, Nepotism and Close Relationships
- Interest Declaration Form and Recusal Steps for Recruitment, Purchasing and Approvals
- Gifts, Hospitality and Favours Decision Tree: Value, Timing, Intent and Reciprocity
- Confidential Information Handling: Classification Labels, Clean Desk and Personal Device Use
- Honest Use of Working Hours, Equipment, Vehicles and Expense Claims Checklist
Day 4: Target Pressure, Leadership by Example and Public-Facing Conduct
- Target and Deadline Pressure: Early Warning Signs of Corner-Cutting and Figure Massaging
- Moral Person and Moral Manager Model: Role Modelling Through Social Learning and Social Exchange
- Fairness and Respect in Task Allocation, Recognition and Treatment of Colleagues
- Ethics in Public-Facing Roles: Protocol Etiquette, Media Statements and Social Media Posts
- Observed Misconduct Response Ladder: Informal Word, Escalation Route and File Note
Day 5: Ethics Dilemma Casebook and Team Ethics Charter
- Multi-Sector Dilemma Cases: Retail Cash Handling, Government Service Counter and Engineering Site Purchasing
- Dilemma Casebook Compilation: Scenario, Options, Reasoning and Agreed Response
- Team Ethical Climate Pulse Check Using Ethical Leadership Scale Items
- Team Ethics Charter Drafting: Shared Values, Expected Behaviours and Declaration Routines
- Casebook and Charter Presentation With Peer Challenge
Skills You Will Gain:
- Ethical Dilemma Analysis
- Conflict of Interest Declaration
- Gifts and Hospitality Judgement
- Information Confidentiality Practice
- Resource Stewardship
- Ethical Role Modelling
- Ethical Climate Building
- Proportionate Misconduct Response
Why Attend This Course:
- Leave with an Ethics Dilemma Casebook and a Team Ethics Charter tested by peers from other organisations
- Answer an awkward gift offer, supplier invitation or data request on the spot with a clear test instead of guesswork
- Hold the line on integrity when targets and deadlines tempt the team to cut corners
- Compare grey-area cases with employees and supervisors from retail, public service, engineering and finance settings
Conclusion:
Integrity at work is built through small, repeated choices rather than policies on a shelf. The course moves from the meaning of work ethics and its link to productivity, through practical reasoning tools and quick self-tests, to conflicts of interest, gifts, confidentiality and honest use of time and assets, then to target pressure, leadership by example, fairness and public-facing conduct. The final day turns this material into an Ethics Dilemma Casebook and a Team Ethics Charter that participants can introduce to their own teams.