PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT — KTP2
COMPETENCIES
3008.1.2 Ethical Leadership and Code of Ethics
The graduate identifies influences on ethical leadership and analyzes a code of ethics.
3008.1.3 Policy and Program Development
The graduate develops policies, practices, procedures, and programs that foster organizational ethics and
socially responsible behavior.
3008.1.5 Legal and Regulatory Requirements
The graduate analyzes applicable legal and regulatory requirements to determine whether organizations
meet legal responsibilities.
INTRODUCTION
As a leader in your organization, it is vital that you are familiar with the laws that regulate your industry.
Sparked by the dramatic corporate and accounting scandals of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia and
WorldCom, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was implemented in 2002 in an effort to restore confidence in the stock
markets. Sarbanes-Oxley represents the most important securities legislation since the original federal
securities laws of the 1930s as it increased governmental regulation and oversight of publicly-traded
companies and established protections for whistleblowers. The False Claims Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provide a financial incentive for those who “blow the whistle”
and report fraudulent activity within their organization.
In this task, you will select and analyze an established company’s code of ethics, analyze how an employee
would raise an ethical concern within an organization, and consider the current laws and US Sentencing
Guidelines with respect to whistleblowers.
SCENARIO
You are an experienced ethics officer who has recently been hired by an established company. You have been
tasked with analyzing the company’s current code of ethics, and identifying areas in need of improvement.
REQUIREMENTS
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no
more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from
sources, even if cited correctly. An originality report is provided when you submit your task that can be used
as a guide.
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You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that
will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric
aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
Prepare a report (suggested length of 6–8 pages) in which you do the following:
A. Select an established company and analyze the company’s code of ethics by doing the following:
Note: You should be able to find the company’s code of ethics on the company’s website or in the
company’s annual 10k report. Only use the code of ethics for part A.
1. Analyze whether the code of ethics is lacking in the area of corporate social responsibility.
2. Analyze whether the code of ethics is lacking in compliance with legal mandates.
a. Describe the implications of being noncompliant with legal mandates.
b. Describe two legal or ethical safeguards your chosen company has in place or could put into place.
Note: If the code of ethics is not lacking in these areas, you must explain why.
3. Analyze whether the code of ethics facilitates the development of an ethical culture.
4. Explain how an employee would raise an ethical concern in this company.
a. Describe three resources available to employees.
b. Discuss which resources you would most likely use.
5. Include the code of ethics you analyzed in part A by copying and pasting the code into a separate
document. Please include this document as a separate attachment.
B. Develop a policy that instructs employees how to address unethical conduct observed at work by doing
the following:
1. Discuss the factors an employee would need to consider before deciding to blow the whistle about
unethical conduct observed at work.
2. Describe the process the employee should follow if the employee decided to blow the whistle.
C. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of paying whistle-blowers based on current laws (i.e., the False
Claims Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act).
D. Analyze the impact the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines might have on an organization.
1. Discuss three culpability factors that are used to determine fines under the U.S. Sentencing
Guidelines.
E. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or
summarized.
F. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.
RUBRIC
A1. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
NOT EVIDENT APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
COMPETENT
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A2. LEGAL MANDATE COMPLIANCE:
A2A. IMPLICATIONS OF NONCOMPLIANCE:
A2B. LEGAL OR ETHICAL SAFEGUARDS:
A3. DEVELOPMENT OF AN ETHICAL CULTURE:
An analysis of the code of ethics
is not provided or the analysis
makes no reference to whether
the code of ethics is lacking in
corporate social responsibility.
The analysis of whether the
code of ethics is lacking in the
area of corporate social
responsibility is illogical, or the
ideas presented are poorly
supported.
The analysis explains whether
the code of ethics is lacking in the
area of corporate social
responsibility and the ideas
presented are logical and well
supported.
NOT EVIDENT
An analysis of the code of ethics
is not provided, or the analysis
makes no reference to
compliance with legal mandates.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The analysis of whether the
code of ethics is lacking in
compliance with legal mandates
is illogical, or the ideas
presented are poorly supported.
COMPETENT
The analysis addresses whether
the code of ethics is lacking in
compliance with legal mandates,
and the ideas presented are
logical and well supported.
NOT EVIDENT
A description is not provided, or
the description makes no
reference to the implications of
being noncompliant with legal
mandates.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The description of the
implications of being
noncompliant with legal
mandates is illogical or the
implications described are
inaccurate or irrelevant to the
legal mandates.
COMPETENT
The description of the
implications of being
noncompliant with legal
mandates is logical and the
implications described are
accurate and relevant to the legal
mandates.
NOT EVIDENT
A description is not provided, or
the description makes no
reference to legal or ethical
safeguards.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The description does not
address 2 legal or ethical
safeguards, does not contain
sufficient detail or is illogical or
not relevant to the chosen
company.
COMPETENT
The description addresses 2 legal
or ethical safeguards, contains
sufficient detail, and is logical,
and relevant to the chosen
company.
NOT EVIDENT
An analysis of the code of ethics
is not provided or the analysis
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
COMPETENT
The analysis explains whether
the code of ethics facilitates the
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A4. RAISING AN ETHICAL CONCERN:
A4A. AVAILABLE RESOURCES:
A4B. PREFERRED RESOURCES:
A5. CODE OF ETHICS:
makes no reference to
facilitating the development of
an ethical culture.
The analysis of whether the
code of ethics facilitates the
development of an ethical
culture is illogical, or the ideas
presented are poorly supported.
development of an ethical
culture, and the ideas presented
are logical and well supported.
NOT EVIDENT
An explanation is not provided,
or the explanation makes no
reference to how an employee
would raise an ethical concern in
the company.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The explanation of how an
employee would raise an ethical
concern in the company is
illogical, or the ideas presented
are missing key details.
COMPETENT
The explanation addresses how
an employee would raise an
ethical concern in the company,
and the ideas presented are
logical and include key details.
NOT EVIDENT
A description was not provided,
or the description makes no
reference to any of the
resources available to
employees.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The description does not
address 3 resources available to
employees or the description is
illogical or is missing key details.
COMPETENT
The description logically
addresses 3 resources available
to employees, and includes key
details.
NOT EVIDENT
A discussion was not provided,
or the discussion makes no
reference to which resources
the candidate would most likely
use.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The discussion of which
resources the candidate would
most likely use is poorly
supported or is illogical.
COMPETENT
The discussion logically
addresses which resources the
candidate would most likely use
and is well supported.
NOT EVIDENT
The code of ethics the candidate
analyzed is not included in a
separate document.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
N/A
COMPETENT
The code of ethics the candidate
analyzed is included in a separate
document.
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B1. WHISTLE-BLOWING CONDITIONS:
B2. WHISTLE-BLOWING PROCESS:
C. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF PAYING WHISTLE-BLOWERS:
D. IMPACT OF U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES:
D1. CULPABILITY FACTORS:
NOT EVIDENT
A discussion was not provided,
or the discussion makes no
reference to the factors that
would need to be considered
before an employee blows the
whistle about unethical conduct
observed at work.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The discussion about the factors
that would need to be
considered before an employee
blows the whistle about
unethical conduct observed at
work is illogical, or the ideas
presented are poorly supported.
COMPETENT
The discussion about factors that
would need to be considered
before an employee blows the
whistle about unethical conduct
observed at work is logical, and
the ideas presented are well
supported.
NOT EVIDENT
A description was not provided,
or the description makes no
reference to the process the
employee should follow if the
employee decided to blow the
whistle.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The description of the process
the employee should follow if
the employee decided to blow
the whistle is illogical, or
contains some inaccuracies.
COMPETENT
The description of the process
the employee should follow if the
employee decided to blow the
whistle is logical and accurate.
NOT EVIDENT
An analysis was not provided, or
the analysis makes no reference
to the advantages and
disadvantages of paying whistleblowers.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The analysis of the advantages
and disadvantages of paying
whistle-blowers is illogical, is
missing key details, or does not
specifically reference current
laws.
COMPETENT
The analysis is logical,
appropriately details both the
advantages and disadvantages of
paying whistle-blowers, and
specifically references current
laws.
NOT EVIDENT
An analysis is not provided, or
the analysis makes no reference
to the impact the U.S.
Sentencing Guidelines might
have on an organization.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The analysis of the impact the
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
might have on an organization is
missing key details, or the
analysis is illogical.
COMPETENT
The analysis is logical and
appropriately details the impact
the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
might have on an organization.
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E. SOURCES:
F. PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION:
NOT EVIDENT
A discussion is not provided, or
the discussion makes no
reference to culpability factors
that are used to determine fines
under the U.S. Sentencing
Guidelines.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The discussion of 3 culpability
factors that are used to
determine fines under the U.S.
Sentencing Guidelines is missing
key details or contains some
inaccuracies.
COMPETENT
The discussion is logical and
accurately addresses 3
culpability factors that are used
to determine fines under the U.S.
Sentencing Guidelines.
NOT EVIDENT
The submission does not include
both in-text citations and a
reference list for sources that
are quoted, paraphrased, or
summarized.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
The submission includes in-text
citations for sources that are
quoted, paraphrased, or
summarized, and a reference
list; however, the citations
and/or reference list is
incomplete or inaccurate.
COMPETENT
The submission includes in-text
citations for sources that are
properly quoted, paraphrased, or
summarized and a reference list
that accurately identifies the
author, date, title, and source
location as available.
NOT EVIDENT
Content is unstructured, is
disjointed, or contains pervasive
errors in mechanics, usage, or
grammar. Vocabulary or tone is
unprofessional or distracts from
the topic.
APPROACHING
COMPETENCY
Content is poorly organized, is
difficult to follow, or contains
errors in mechanics, usage, or
grammar that cause confusion.
Terminology is misused or
ineffective.
COMPETENT
Content reflects attention to
detail, is organized, and focuses
on the main ideas as prescribed
in the task or chosen by the
candidate. Terminology is
pertinent, is used correctly, and
effectively conveys the intended
meaning. Mechanics, usage, and
grammar promote accurate
interpretation and
understanding.