ARMPD- Lecture No. 8 (ETHICAL ANALYSIS)

ETHICAL ANALYSIS AND BUSINESS ETHICS(26/07/12)

Today's lecturer started off with the 5 steps of Ethical analysis which includes the following

step 1 - Identify stakeholders involve in ethical issue and the facts pertaining to the issue.

step 2 - Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher order values involved

step 3 - Identify the stakeholders

step 4 - Identify the actions you can take which are reasonable

step 5 - identify the potential consequences of your options.

After the discussion about the above next we moved into the topic of business ethics

What is business Ethics?

Business ethics are moral principles that guide the way a business behaves. It is the same principle that determine an individual's actions also apply to business. In simple terms business ethics check whether the operations that business perform its right and wrong activities.

read more : http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/anglo-american/business-ethics-and-corporate-social-responsibility/what-are-business-ethics.html

Two main characteristics of Business ethics 

- Tells people what they ought to do

- Set of principles or rules

The discussion led to a very important topic  called Concepts of Ethics. There are 4

- Relativism

- Egoism

- Utilitarianism

- Deontologism

Each of the above concepts should be evaluated because each has its own problems.

Relativism

This concepts states that there is no universal standard or guidelines.

example:  what is correct in one society may be wrong for another. There are few problems in this concept such as There are no absolutes  - Rape, murder, slavery, Torture also it leads to a  conclusion that everyone's opinion is correct.

Egoism

According to this concept it says that one should act in his or her own self interest.  It doesn't strictly say to obey the law if the person likes to follow the law he or she can follow it. This is also one of the main problems in this Concept. The reason is if the person has a unethical interest it will be harmful for the society as well as to the individual.

Utilitarianism

This concept states that the morality of an action can be determined by its consequences. In the concept the action is ethical if it promotes the greatest good for the greatest number.

example - Harry Truman made a decision to bomb japan by launching Hiroshima  bomb and still there are Japanese victims who face bad experiences however this action ended the world war 2 which is a good result happen from the bad action.

Deontologism 

In this concept it says that actions are not justified by their consequences. Here you determined the rightness of the action.

Reflection for today's Lecture

Today we learnt a very important lecture about business ethics and the concepts of ethics which extended from the previous lecture. now i have a better idea about what ethics are  which i didn't have before. Business ethics will be more useful to us once we go into the business world as employees it will help us to engage in  ethical operations and to guarantee professionalism. The lecture was concluded by giving us a simple activity to decide whether a particular action is ethical or not.  Finally we were asked to do the test on actions of 30 individuals and told us to give comments based on the result.

ARMPD- Lecture No. 7 (ETHICS)

ETHICS(23/07/12)

What is Ethics?

Ethics is a system which consist of moral Principles. 

"Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty"

According to what our lecturer explained ethics is a set of guidelines which tells us what to do.  Religion and laws help us to act in a socially responsible manner and with harmony. Therefore  Ethics are molded based on the culture, religion, family background etc. What we think might me different to the others. 
ex-  Sending parents to elders home is unethical in Sri Lanka culture however it is a different case in some other western countries.


After this we discussed about IT and how it affects the ethical issues. majority of the organizations collect information about its customers through IT media in order serve them better. This is ethical in point of view of the firm but may be unethical when it comes to customers because it violates the code of privacy.


Basic concepts of ethics are as follows

Responsibility     -     You are accountable for the actions you make
Accountability    -     You are responsible and you must bare what ever the consequences you have to face
Liability    -     Laws to identify the person who is guilty, the person who is guilty should bare the consequences and the innocent party will get a compensation

The lecture was concluded by the lecturer by giving us a role play and to act it out in the last 15 mins. we were divided into groups and then we came up with our own drama about ethics and acted it out. Our topic  was based on APIIT Dress codes. That was it for today.


more details click this  http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html


Reflection of Today's Lecture 


Ethics are guidelines which tells us what is wrong and what is right. It helps us to be better citizens with better qualities which in turn leads to a better quality of life. From today's lecturer it taught us how important ethics is to our lives and what i learned from this lecture is to be ethical in everything i do in my life.

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ARMPD- Lecture No. 6 (Time Management Part 2)

                                   TIME MANAGEMENT(19/07/12)

Today's lecturer highlighted another important section of  Time Management. That is Prioritization of tasks.

As students we need to prioritize the time based on the following criteria,

• Spend 75% of your time on things you MUST do
• Spend 20% of your time on things you SHOULD do  
• Spend 5% of your time on things you LIKE to do  

The lecturer told us to compare the Our time log activity with the above measures. If the Time log confines to the above then it is an effective Time log and it shows how good our time management is.

"Pareto Principle explains : When you put 20% effort on a particular task it will produce 80% of the output"

When we prepare the to do list it is important that we do the high prioritized tasks first when your energy levels are high. In that case we will be able to obtain optimal usage from the tasks.


Then we had an important discussion about the Time Wasters which acts as a major barrier for our day to day operations. There are 2 main Time wasters

• Self Generated (Internal)
• Environment(external)

Self Generated factors include : 

Dis Organisation, Procrastination , Lack Of interest, Unnecessary Perfectionism, Burn-Out

Environment factors include : 

Visitors, Telephone calls, Junk Mail, Wasting for someone, Unproductive meetings, Crises

If we avoid the above Time wasting Circumstances then we can do better time management. The lecture was concluded by giving us a activity to do in class. The activity was to answer a set of questions using a software called BRAIN and find out whether what kind of a Learner. Whether Auditory, Visual or Kinesthetic. 

Reflection of the Lecture

As students it is essential for us to prioritize our day to day operations and perform those operations at a stage where Energy levels are at the peak. This will allow us to achieve Optimal Usage levels. It is important that we  overcome the time wasters which acts as a major barrier to our success. 

ARMPD- Lecture No. 5 (GOALS)

In Today's lecture we discussed about goals which should be achieved at some part of our life time. The lecturer asked each student  to present short term and  long term goals. few mistakes he pointed out in my goals was that some goals were not  optimistic and it did not have a Time. He explained us that a good goal should consist of SMART factors. It can be shown as follows,

Few of my goals were to 

- complete the degree with a first class within one year time period 

- complete my network course within this month

- Increasing study hours and high concentration power within 2 months

the above goals are few of  my short term goals. The lecturer highlighted the fact that we should have a proper balance between the above SMART factors. Also He explained another goal type which is known as life time  goals which should be achieved at the end of the life stage.

Categories of Goals

- Artistic Goals

- Attitude Goals

- Career Goals

- Educational goals

- Family Goals

The above are few categories of goals explained by our lecturer today. He concluded the lecture by giving us a tutorial about Goals and Time Log which should be completed by next lecture, and our assignment for this module.

Reflection of Today's Lecture

Today's lecture was a important one because i was given an opportunity to present my short term, Long term and Life Time goals and i found out the weak point in those goals which were not confining to the SMART factors. I started to think about life serious after today's lecture which was a positive turning point in my life. I  feel that this module should not fade away from the course because it taught us very important things about Time management, Life Goals and etc. This is the 5th  lecture and my interest never went away ever since we started to learn about ARMPD.  I am happy to say that today's lecture ended by teaching me very important things about life. From today onwards i will be taking things in life in a more serious manner than before and i will plan my future in a such a way it will bring success towards me.

ARMPD- Lecture No. 4 (Time Management)

TIME MANAGEMENT

Today's lecturer highlighted the importance of Time Management. 

It all started with the lecturer explaining to the student why they fail in managing their tasks daily. He explained us if we manage our time in our day to day activities we can expect more productive output at the end of the day. For us to Check our productivity levels he assigned us a simple class activity which should be completed by each individual by next lecture. 

The activity was to prepare a Energy Chart and a Energy Cycle of what we did during today from morning to evening. He showed us some of the sample activities done by the past students and gave us a idea of how to complete the task. 

To manage our time the lecturer explained us the importance of Prioritizing the activities, preparing To Do List based on the importance, Multitasking. These are few of the important things that we should implement in order to manage the time in a effective manner.

Today the lecturer gave us one of the main advises that will lighten up our future, he said

  "Use the time efficiently and  productively and do not waste it because the time which is wasted cannot be regained "

I thought about  the above advise he gave for a while and then i thought i would be using the time effectively in the future and will not waste it as i have done in certain stages in my life. this will be a major turning point in my life which will lead to a positive outcome.

Starting from today on wards i thought of maintaining a Time Table which can be used for effective time management. Also thought of calculating my daily  productivity level from the following formula so that i can continuously work on increasing the productivity in the future.

                        My daily productivity level =   the number of total hours worked      *100

                                                                                              2 4 hours

The lecturer assigned us another activity(2 nd activity) to be done at home. He told us to identify 5 short term and Long Term goals which we want to achieve in the future then he concluded the lecture for today.

Reflection For Today's Lecture

Time is one of the most important aspects in life. If the time is gone you cannot regained it. That was one of the biggest lessons i learned from today's lecture. I thought for my self that i will some how manage my time effectively specially when i am in APIIT premises and at home because as APIIT students we waste most of the time in those two locations mostly. Therefore it is important for us to concentrate more on our work and manage our time effectively without wasting. Preparing a Time table, prioritizing the tasks preparing To Do List  to manage time will be one of the main tasks i would focusing to achieve more productive outcome in the future.

ARMPD- Lecture No. 3 (Mind Maps)

 MIND MAPS (12/07/2012)

Today's Lecture started with a topic called Mind Maps.  

Mind Maps.. Mind Maps.... Mind Maps.... What is this Mind Maps?

That was the question which was running in my mind until the Our lecturer Mr.Eranjan Padumadasa Explained  what a Mind Map is.

He explained the use of Mind Maps and how it can be used for effective study sessions. It is a very useful tool which summarizes information in a way in which we will be able to retain and memorize it and recall it.

             

The above diagram is an example of a Mind Map. It shows the Guidelines Required for Mind Mapping. Take a closer look at the diagram. The key words are highlighted so that the reader can easily recall it. I realized the effectiveness of this Mind Maps and thought of implementing it in my studies in the future.

After explaining the use of  Mind Maps he explained the the 3 types of learners and how they  store certain information in their brains.

• Visual Learners -  A person who is more leaned on to the Visual Sites and learn things quickly by seeing things

• Auditory People - A person who learn things quickly through listening carefully.

• Kinesthetic People - A person who engages in the studying process by practically doing things.

Check out this you tube link and it will help u to understand more about the above 3 learners. 

Click here for an interesting video  => http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jwz_h0zXsY&feature=related

Today's lecture was concluded by the lecturer by giving us a group activity to be done at home. He told us to create a Mind Map about the topic System. That was it for today and i hope to extend my coordination and leadership skills which i learned from the previous lecture and do this group activity with my members.

 Reflection of today's Lecture

Today's lecture helped me to master a very important tool for studies which i was searching for the past couple of years which is Mind Maps.  From today onward i look forward to use mind maps in my day to day studies because i found it to be a  very effective mind tool for summarizing information. 

Furthermore i was able to identify what kind of a learner i am and i got to know that i am more  of a Auditory and a Kinesthetic person who learns things by listening and doing things practically. Therefore starting from today i would be focusing on the strategies that would suit my type of learning which i believe would help me to  enhance my studying skills in the future. 

ARMPD - Lecture no.2

Second Lecture Of ARMPD (10/07/2012)

In today's lecture we were divided into five different groups by our ARMPD lecturer Mr.Eranjan Padumadasa . Each group consisted of 5-7 group members. The groups were 

chosen randomly so that it will be fair for all students. Our group consist of 6 members and the names are as follows,

•  Anne
• Sumanji
• Nadheem
• Hashan
• Gayaramya and my self

After Dividing the groups our first task was to come up with a meaningful name and a Logo for our group and it was named as Super 6 since we had Six talented members who have 
many skills in our group.


The Logo was designed in a meaningful way representing each member. In the middle of the logo the number 6 is positioned and it is covered by all 6 group members cartoon faces which shows that all 6 group members work together to achieve  the group goals. The Word super represents the Strength of the group and it shows that the group is not second to any other group in the class.


After designing the rough sketch of the logo and the group name each group member was given the opportunity to introduce another group member in the group.  ex- group member's  name, age, interests, academic background and etc. 


After the above activities the lecture was concluded by the lecturer and was informed to post a note in the blog about today's lecture and as a result this blog was created.

reflection of today's lecture

It was a effective brainstorming session where Coordination between the group members was required. What i learned from this lecture was how to coordinate with the group members in a manner which would satisfy everyone. I consider our group as an organization/firm, and in order to succeed proper coordination between the business partners(members) is a key.  Leader ship skills is another important lesson i learned today. There were times that i have to take the role of a leader and guide my group members to the correct path. In the future i am hoping to implement the lessons i have learned and i am thankful for my lecturer to providing an effective lecturing session today.