Here is a short essay I've written for my Ethics class - maybe other students will make use of it :)

An Array of Ethical Violations at Work and School

Pat is a graduate student and my coworker.

Communicating ethically is a vital component to maintaining a healthy and effective communication process. When strong ethics are maintained and used throughout all instances and forms of communication, the end result is commonly improved and those involved will not be subject to having questions raised regarding poor ethics. Likewise, communicating with academic integrity is also of equal importance. Academic integrity is necessary not only in an educational setting, but in a job setting as well. Therefore, the situation that occurs in scenario one serves as a prime example as to how easily ethics can be violated which may prove detrimental to those involved.

First, in the situation where I am Pat's coworker, it is completely understandable that Pat's betrayal may result in tension. Since I can remember, the importance of honesty and integrity has been instilled into my mind as a source that should serve as a strong motivator in pursuing justified, ethical actions. Clearly, Pat felt that the opportunity to move himself up in a company through means of deceit was appropriate regardless that another individual was betrayed. It is evident that Pat has abandoned any importance he placed on ethical communication as he purposely did something unethical.

Moreover, this scenario also demonstrates that academic integrity was violated as this situation can be compared to academic plagiarism. When somebody uses somebody else's words or ideas and fails to provide that individual with proper credit, such actions are subject to stiff academic penalties. It can be said that the actions Pat took violated academic integrity as he used another person's idea and passed it off as his own. In this situation, the listening process was exploited by Pat because he used another person's verbal communication in an attempt to cover up the fact that he was having difficulty creating ideas about how to reduce department costs. With that said, Pat has violated not only both ethical and academic integrity, but he also exploited the listening process at the same time.