Scenario:
Sue Yoo is a new attorney fresh out of law school. Yoo has accepted a position with the Grantham County District Attorney’s office as an assistant prosecuting attorney. The first day on the job, Chris P. Bacon, who is also an assistant district attorney introduces himself to Yoo and says, “I am your mentor for the first 90-days to help you get acclimated to your new job.” Bacon shows Yoo to her office. As Yoo admires her, new oak desk and bookcase filled with brand-new law books, Bacon hands Yoo the large stack of files he had been carrying. Bacon tells Yoo, “These are your files to prosecute.” Bacon turns away from Yoo and starts to walk toward the door, but instead of leaving, he shuts the door quietly. Bacon then turns around and walks back to Yoo’s desk and states, “I do not know what you learned in law school, but in the real world, the attorneys around here work under time and money constraints.” Bacon continues to explain how the attorneys handle the cases in their office and the point system. Yoo looked confused, and asked Bacon, “What are you trying to tell me?” Bacon said, “Yoo, you look like a smart girl, so let me lay it out for you, get through these cases quickly, offer the defendants’ plea deals, and for each case that ends with a conviction, you will get five points.” At the end of the month, the assistant district attorney with the most points receives an extra day of vacation, off the books, of course.” Bacon pauses, looks Yoo in the eyes, and states, “If you have a problem with this, there is the door, and this conversation never happened, but if not, welcome to the team.”
“Always remember that law is considered the basement of morality; even if you never break a law that does not automatically make you a moral person” (Pollock, 2019, p. 75).
References
Pollock, J. M. (2019). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Assignment:
Apply two out of the seven – Bandura’s mechanisms (workgroup and organizational influences) to the above scenario. Evaluate how the ethical climate of an organization precipitates how employees behave and believe what acceptable ethical behavior is in the workplace.
