Topic: 20 questions for an ethical assessment
I found this topic interesting because as a field marketing intern for a well known tech company, I find it interesting that neither I nor my colleagues were given any sort of guidelines in assessing whether our word of mouth campaigns are ethical. As most employees do, we all had to sign a document addressing ethical behavior, and we did an in office tutorial on "how to be ethical." However, I find it particularly interesting that my employer has not made a clear effort to address ethics especially when it comes to issues of responsibility and respecting the rules. The internship is exciting and competitive, but I have found myself stuck in ethical dilemmas when it came to making decisions that would benefit my position and advance me within the company.
Over the summer the company held a training competition that encouraged interns to train store employees about the benefits of our product compared to other similar products in the store. There weren't (and usually aren't) any clear ethical guidelines to follow when constructing our training programs. A few interns used videos to show how their trainings went. I was surprised to see gross misrepresentations about exactly what the product can do, but what was more surprising was the lack of reprimand from my supervisors. The company has no clear plan in dealing with inappropriate word of mouth and as interns under pressure to perform well, we struggle with honestly representing the products we sell without embelleshing on what the product can actually do.
The company I work for relies heavily on interns to spread word about the product, and its a shame that many of the stores that we do business with don't have a positive opinion about the interns because of how the internship is structured. I think this tool kit would be a great way for my employer to review interns' ethical practices and restructure the internship based on those guidelines.
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