Psychological Corollary

A person should recognize his or her obligations to other people.

Lesson Objective

Students will be able to identify obligations they have to others. For example, employees owe employers loyalty, honesty, and integrity.

Social Behaviors

This lesson shows students that successful people:

• show loyalty
• demonstrate honesty
• show integrity
• are trustworthy
• modify behavior based on feedback
• act responsibly
• support others' rights
• resist pressures to behave inappropriately

Social Vocabulary

• loyal
• "pot calling the kettle black"
• “ripping off”

Other Vocabulary

• short-order cook
• busboy
• recipe
• rotten

Suggested Lesson Plans

Introduction

• Have students define ethics, honesty, loyalty, truthfulness, and integrity; have students compare their definitions to those found in a dictionary.
• Ask students to identify situations in which the above terms are relevant, for example:
• Taking an exam
• Being a witness to a crime
• Being offered a bribe to do someone a favor
• Finding a person's wallet
• Observing a salesperson purposely cheating a customer
• Introduce vocabulary.

Group Use of Student Workbook

• Ask students to take characters' parts in the first section of the play, "Debate at the Diner," read aloud, and then discuss the question at the end of this section. (A, B, and C are all true.)
• Ask students to read the next section and answer the questions. (A, B, and C in the first question are all true; C is the answer to the second question.)
• Ask students to read the last section. Have students complete the dialogue between Tomas, Randy, and Lenny.
• Ask students to share their conclusions to the play.
• Discuss the rationalizations each of the characters made for what he had done (Randy - no harm to talk on the phone when there's no work to do; Tomas-Frank never told me not to give away the recipe, and the lady will only make it for her family).
• Discuss whether or not the characters' reasons justified their actions.
• Review the meaning of the word ethical. Discuss the questions of ethics Lenny, Tomas, and Randy faced.
• Discuss the resolution of the play; that is, all three agreed that they were stealing from their boss and that they had been dishonest.
• Discuss what the characters should do now; for example, should they try to pay Frank back in some way? Is being consistently honest and loyal in the future a good way to make up for past mistakes?

Follow - Up

Ask students to think about conflicts of interest that might arise between being loyal to a boss and loyal to a friend. Ask students what they would do in the following situations:

• Assume that you and your best friend work together at a store. Your friend has been taking store merchandise home with him.
• Assume that you and your best friend have a job collecting money from vending machines. Your friend has been skimming a few dollars worth of change from each machine that you empty.
• Assume that you and your best friend have a job ticketing illegally parked cars. As you ticketed one car, the driver walked up and offered your friend $5.00 to tear up the ticket. Your friend took the money and tore up the ticket.

Behavior Development Activity

To encourage students to show loyalty and integrity, demonstrate honesty, and be trustworthy:

• Divide the class into small groups or have the class work as a larger group.
• Assign each group a business or service category, for example:
• A restaurant
• A drug store
• A grocery store
• An auto repair shop
• A business office (e.g., insurance)
• A police precinct
• Tell groups that they are executives in the business or service they have been assigned. Have groups:
• Identify ethical problems--for both employers and employees that are likely to arise in their line of work.
• Devise a code of ethics for both employers and employees, including specific rules and policies as well as consequences for infractions.
• Decide if their business will offer rewards to workers who "rat" on other workers.
• Have groups share the results of their work on the above assignment; ask students to identify ethical problems common to all kinds of businesses and services.
• Ask students to explain why employers expect workers to be loyal; have students describe specific ways of being loyal to an employer.
• Have students discuss and debate the relative gains and losses for a worker who violates company ethics (e.g., the person who risks being fired by taking home supplies or doing personal business on company time).
• Ask students to describe how they would feel if they were caught violating company rules.
• If time permits, have pairs of students roleplay the situations that follow:
• Resisting pressure from a co-worker to spread vicious gossip about another worker
• Resisting pressure to remove negative information from company personnel files
• Resisting pressure to take company supplies or equipment
• Resisting pressure to punch a friend in on the time clock before he or she arrives at work
• Have students reverse roles of persuader and resister; have observing students give feedback to the resisters.

Review

• Ask students to identify four obligations workers owe them (e.g., to be honest, trustworthy, and loyal and to show integrity).
• Ask students to identify three specific ways to be honest, loyal, and trustworthy to an employer (e.g., to work a full day, to refrain from exploiting company equipment or materials, and to refrain from assisting co-workers in working against the employer's interests).