Unit 4 Live Chat Summary

By: Amber White

3/15/2023

Unit 4 Chat started off with a motivational reminder that we only have to push through for 15 more days and will have Dr. Walker’s class
completed this final course for our degree. Promoted to a manager has promoted you to the Manager of Global
Expansion and made a decision to expand into two countries which has become your top priority. The first obstacle MGMT295
came when the two governments of the two countries delayed approval of the expansion plans. You held a meeting w/
your employees to brainstorm on how to overcome the delay and one of them suggested for you to off er a bribe to the
government official because he had worked w/ them before and stated that future deals would go much smoother if
you bribed them and get the expansion plans rolling. On the other hand, without a bribe, we might lose the deal
(Extra Credit Assignment
altogether. This sort of bribe is normal practice in these countries, and is not considered foul play/illegal. After the Unit 4 Live Chat Summary)
meeting, you (I) are to decide whether or not to off er a bribe and why? We will be using the PMI (Project Management
Institute) Ethical Decision-Making Framework which I provide a quick breakdown of below:
 Step 1 is the Assessment.
○ Make sure you have all the facts about the ethical dilemma.
 What is the Law?
 PMI Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct?
 Employer's Code of Ethics & Conduct?
 Client's C.O.E. and conduct?
 What are your ethical values?
 Ethical values of the surrounding Culture?
 Step 2 is the Alternatives.
○ Consider all choices you may have before making your final decision.
 Step 3 is the Analysis.
○ Identify your candidate decision and test its validity.
 To what extent does your candidate decision impact or bring harm to….
□ Project Managers?
□ PMI Staff or volunteers?
□ Clients?
□ Your employer's organization?
□ Environment?
□ Diff erent Cultures?
□ Future Generations?
□ Other Stakeholders?
 Step 4 is Application.
○ To what extent is your candidate decision consistent w/ the values of :
 Responsibility?
 Respect?
 Fairness?
 Honesty?
 Step 5 is Action.
○ To what extent are you willing and able to:
 Accept responsibility for your decision?
 Make your decision public and feel good about it?
Following this, we were shown the template provided for us to use as a guide when writing our paper for this
Individual Project. Once again, we are to include a Title Page, an Introduction, the steps with a brief discussion of each
of the PMI Ethical Decision Frameworks and the importance of each.
Next Dr. Walker told us about the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) which states it is unlawful for a U.S. person or
any company to off er, pay, or promise to pay money or anything of value to any foreign offi cial for the purpose of
obtaining or retaining business. This would be one of the things to fact-check in Step 1 (the analysis) of the PMI
Decision Framework if the U.S. was one of the countries someone was considering doing an expansion to. There are two
major components of the FCPA and they are Financial Record Keeping & Internal Control Provisions and Anti-Bribery
Provisions. The first one requires specific records and financial internal controls to be maintained to provide reasonable
assurance of the accuracy of financial records and to demonstrate compliance of these rules and regulations and the
second component strictly prohibits most bribery and non-routine payments to foreign government officials. The
enforcement authority for the FCPA is the Department of Justice which regulates all criminal enforcement and all civil
actions except those against issuers and the Securities and Exchange Commission is who regulates only those civil
actions against issuers. FCPA Penalties are as follows:
 Criminal Violations:
○ Companies = Up to $2M per violation.
○ Individuals = Up to $100K per violation, OR
 Imprisonment to 5 years, or both!
 Civil Violations:
○ Companies = Up to $100K per violation.
○ Individuals = Up to $10K per violation.
We then jumped into the Unit 4 Discussion Board topic which is on Global Organizations that embrace diversity and
some of the benefits they experience. Having a diverse workforce in a global market can help different employees to
understand diff erent markets and promote innovation. We are given a short video to watch and then answer two main
questions for our DB primary post assignment this week. The two questions we need to answer are "What is one of the
benefits to diversity in a global workplace and why it is beneficial?" and "Why and how would an employee and the
customer base be similar in a global company?". Just from watching the video and listening to the Live Chat, we have a
few answers to put for the first question in the DB assignment. For the second one, we can look back to this chat, the
video again, or our other resources in the library or Smart Tutoring.
We finished up with a discussion about diversity. Diversity covers a lot including culture. As we expand diversity, you
can see our workplace can provide an opportunity for us to tap into the diff erences to benefit the organization.
Contributors to diversity are:
Race/Ethnicity
Color Sexual Orientation Experiences
Age
Disabilities Religion Assumptions
Sex/Gender
National Origin Communication Style And so much more!
Nowadays HR expands to encompass all diversity to include values, ethics, and morals in the workplace; some even
have new disability departments, but most incorporate Diversity & Inclusion Training or department. A lot of companies
actually include something about their code of ethics when referring to diversity on their website or somewhere
accessible to the public to clarify their values on the issue. Some benefits of diversity is creativity stemming from teams
with varying backgrounds and perspectives which usually results in greater ideas. Diversity is very beneficial in a group
dynamic because it eliminates the "popularity vote/group think" (when 1 person says something and the rest of the
group just agrees or follows along with that one individual.) Being able to leverage strength and experiences in order to
get the job done provides efficient organizational eff ectiveness and the more diversity in a team that is able to leverage
their ideas against and with the others builds cohesiveness and produces great team development and strategy building
experience within the group. To sum up what diversity means, it is approaching situations with a diff erent perspective
and way of thinking than your peers, and then being able to recognize such diff erences in order to explore them further.
All the while appreciating and respecting such differences in order to use them to better understand or resolve the issue
at hand.
Dr. Walker ended the chat with a Dr. Suess quote stated below and an opportunity to ask any questions we may have.

"You'll never get bored when you try something new. There's really no limit to what you can do." - Dr. Suess