Staff photos by Clay Schuldt Ellie Sorenson presents her group’s solution to a business ethical problem during the New Ulm Rotary Club’s Ethics Workshop Tuesday at the New Ulm Country Club.

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt
Moderator David Rodburne
of St. Thomas University looks on as
Sara Todesco presents her group’s solution.

NEW ULM — Forty juniors and seniors from area high schools received a crash course in business ethics as part of the annual Rotary Club Ethics Workshop Tuesday.

The New Ulm Rotary Club’s Ethics Workshop is an annual event hoping to educate student leaders on the complexity of business ethics. As part of the program, the students were divided into seven different groups and were given a fictional scenario involving a fictional company facing ethical dilemmas. Each member of the group was given an administrative title in the fictional company and they had to work together on how best to address the ethical concerns facing an apparel company plagued by scandal.

In the scenario, the students learned of potential human rights violations at overseas factories producing their products and rumors of a company vice president taking bribes from corrupt governments. The students also had to contend with domestic workers concerned with losing their jobs to cheaper international labor.

David Rodburne of St. Thomas University helped the students run through the ethics exercise. He said the goal was to give students a feel for the complexity of business management. Each member of the small group had different information about the project and they had to work together to figure out the best solution.

The scenario was conducted in two sessions. After the first session, the groups received additional information about their fictional company that further complicated the narrative. After working on the problem for an hour, a representative of each group had to stand up in front of the class a present how they would resolve the crisis and why it was the most ethical solution.

No two groups presented the same solution. Most felt it was important to maintain domestic jobs and reduce or cut ties with potentially corrupt foreign supply lines. Many groups believed focusing on online sales was an effective cost-saving method in the short term. A few groups made the decision to remove senior officials from the company for making unethical decisions.

During each presentation, students in other groups could ask questions of the presenter. Some of the question-and-answer sessions could get hostile. The fellow student held their peers to a high standard.

After the presentations, Rodburne said he had a great deal of empathy for each student presenting. He said each group had a lot dropped on them ins a short amount of time. He said the scenario presented to the students was based on real-life events involving multiple companies but acknowledged all of the problems hitting the company happened over a longer period of time rather than all at once. The real-life companies also had more time to develop a response.

The event was eye-opening for many of the students. Robbie Fingland, the presenter for group three, said his biggest takeaway from the exercise was seeing how decisions can impact many other people and it is important to think of others.

Ellie Sorenson, a presenter for group one, said the greatest challenge was the time limit. With more time the company could have taken a more in-depth approach to the problem and had a stronger solution. Her greatest take away that perception and presentation were important. She said it was important to be careful about what you said to the press.

Cathedral High Junior Alexa Hornick said the workshop taught them a lot about ethics it was an enlightening experience to see the complexity of the issues.

The students were encouraged to run any decision they made through the Rotary Four-Way Test of ethics.

The test was invented by Herbert Taylor in the 1930s after his aluminum company faced significant challenges. The four questions a person must ask: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?