Ethics in Hrm

Guest Speaker Group Paper

Group # 2

July 12, 2014

Rachel Hedrick, Kelley Martin, and Sean Satogata

        Our class had the chance to listen to an interview with two women who both have a large amount of experience dealing with HR and ethical issues. Michele Abrams was once the VP of a United Way branch here in Ohio and has had several other leadership positions throughout here career. Cheryl El-Alfi worked overseas for several years in the medical field and now runs her own business. They both had amazing paths that led them to be in such successful positions. Michele Abrams had a strong leader to look up to when she was young. Her grandfather owned a small dry good store and she quickly learned how to run a small business. Her mother was also a businesswoman who she looked up to. She was a buyer at Lazarus and then help at the dry good store. Michele went to Miami University and took leadership responsibilities on campus. She had a passion of building a community and reaching out to others. This led her down a path of working for a corporate company in community relations and working for various non-profit groups. Cheryl El-Alfi had a very strong father who was a naval officer and a role model. He taught her discipline and that there was, “never a wrong time to do the right thing.” Her first job out of college was for a physicians group which lead to various other jobs in the labs of different companies working on very interesting projects. She then moved to Dubai and was the assistant hospital administrator. This was a large responsibility but she learned many lessons while in Dubai. She now owns her own business and helps smaller companies with supplier diversity.

        Throughout both of these women’s careers, they learned many lessons and found out what aspects of business they excel in. Michele Abrams that the most important thing for her is to create new leaders. This mindset is one of a true leader because she is helping others become leaders and create a stronger community. Cheryl has excelled in helping others achieve their goals. This shows that she truly enjoys seeing others succeed, which is crucial to being a great leader. Both of these women have achieved amazing goals and helped others achieve their dreams.

        In these leadership roles and in the corporate world, many situations arise where ethics are questioned. One of the key situations for Michele was when she was on the board for the chamber of commerce. She was well qualified to become the president and was never selected because of gender bias. She was later told, off-the-record, that it was because they did not believe Middletown was ready for a woman to be president of the chamber of commerce. This type of discrimination would hopefully not happen in 2015, but it is sad to hear that it was not addressed back then. Cheryl worked in the infectious disease ward and had to make many tough decisions during that time. She had to follow the rules precisely to make sure everyone was safe and many times, people would try and get around the rules. Explaining why a family member could not bring in certain objects happened several times and working in a different culture brought its own complications. She improved her communication skills and learned how to adapt to her surroundings. These women learned from the situations they were in; they helped shape them into the leaders they are today.