MAA250 Ethics for financial

professionals

Topic 1 seminar

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Activity 1

After completing Topic 1, Section 1.2, reflect on how you have

understood and related to the idea of ethics in your life.
How much of it is similar to what you are reading in the textbook?
Please share your reflections during Week 1 seminar in small groups
where possible.

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Activity 2

After completing Topic 1, Section 1.3, reflect on the challenges you

have faced in your daily life when deciding on the right thing to do.
Was doing the right thing always obvious to you and an easy choice
to make?
Please share your reflections during Week 1 seminar in small groups
where possible.

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Activity 3

After completing Topic 1, Section 1.4, reflect on the kind of

professional you would like to be as you complete your business units
at Deakin.
What qualities that you do not already possess do you think you
need to develop?

Please share your reflections during Week 1 seminar in small groups

where possible.

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Activity 4

Topic 1, Section 1.4, have you completed Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI)
survey ?

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CASE STUDY 1
Volkswagen: The result of a shift in purpose
After reading the Volkswagen case study, share your thoughts on the following
questions:
1. When achieving a certain outcome, can the “end always justify the means”
of achieving the desired result?
2. What is ultimately the measure of success for a business and profession: is
it profit or is it something else entirely? What does it say about the
“culture” of the business?
3. How important is it for a business and profession to clearly articulate and
adhere to its own core values? What happens in the absence of this?

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CASE STUDY 2
Sherron Watkins (enron)

• Sherron Watkins, a VP at Enron, sent a memo to CEO Ken Lay

expressing concerns about the company’s questionable accounting
practices.  She was hoping to turn things around in order to right
the wrongs before they were exposed to the public. She brought to
his attention the fact that many people knew about, or were
suspicious about, the inappropriate behaviour occurring at the firm
and that they would not be able to hide it much longer. She also
voiced her concern for the investors as well as for the Enron
employees that she knew were aware of the situation and were
almost desperate for the company to get caught. 

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CASE STUDY
Sherron Watkins (enron)

• Watkins was featured on the cover

of Time magazine after Enron’s
collapse and honoured as a
corporate whistleblower (we revisit
this in more detail in Topic 9),
although she never shared her
concerns with anyone other than
Ken Lay before “blowing the
whistle.” Was Watkins an ethical
hero in taking these steps?  Should
she have gone further in reporting
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potential wrongdoing to outside
authorities?  
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 Discussion Points

• What facts would you want to know before making a judgment about
Watkins? What ethical issues does this situation raise? 
• Besides Kenneth Lay, who else might have had an interest in hearing from
Watkins?  Who else might have had a right to be informed?  Did Watkins
have a responsibility to anyone other than Lay?  
• Other than informing Lay, what other alternatives might have been open
to Watkins? 
• From this section of the memo, how would you characterize Watkins’
motivation?  What factors seem to have motivated her to act?  
• If you were Ken Lay and had received the memo, what options for next
steps might you have perceived? Why might you have chosen one option
9 over another? 
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Five minute paper

1. What did you learn about yourself during this seminar?

2. What did you learn about others?

3. What did you learn about ethics?

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