Question

Scenario - Roger Duke

Roger Duke is the manager of the Accounting division at GTC Industries. The group of employees that he oversees has many issues. Morale is low, and there is a lot of infighting within the group. They easily get sidetracked with their work, and Roger must constantly direct and oversee them to make sure they stay on task. Roger has also caught a few of them instant messaging friends on their computers while they should be working. A couple of them have also been caught stealing supplies, and three of his employees have failed drug tests in the past month. Because of this, top management wants Roger to monitor his employees' Internet use, keep an inventory of supplies on a regular basis, and give random drug tests every week.​
Which stage of moral development are Roger's employees currently at?

Answer 1

Roger Duke's employees appear to be operating at the pre-conventional stage of Lawrence Kohlberg's moral development theory, where individuals act based on personal desires and immediate needs, without adherence to societal norms or rules.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development, Roger Duke's employees could be demonstrating behavior aligning with the pre-conventional stage of moral reasoning. In the pre-conventional stage, individuals make choices based on their own immediate needs and desires, rather than following societal norms or laws, which is evident in the employees engaging in infighting, being distracted, and committing acts such as stealing and failing drug tests.

Actions such as stealing supplies and not adhering to work tasks suggest that employees prioritize their personal interests or immediate gratification over the rules of the workplace or the impact on others. The lack of internalized ethics and the need for external monitoring by Roger Duke further support the assessment that these employees are operating at a pre-conventional level of moral development.

Kohlberg's stages suggest that as individuals mature, they should be moving towards a more advanced stage, such as the conventional or post-conventional stages, where they understand and respect social rules or develop a personal code of ethics guiding their behavior beyond mere obedience to authority or personal gain.