Although schools aim to achieve their institutional goals by guaranteeing the scholar’s academic excellence, successful educational establishments combine both community service and learning objectives to ensure that they develop into productive community members. Service Learning means an educational approach in which a scholar learns philosophies in the school environment while still involving themselves with non-profit or community services agencies and reflects on what they are teaching (Bringle, Phillips, & Hudson, 2004). Typically, community involvement is integrated through a project with academic and community development objectives in a course or sequence of lectures. The project was conceived by collaborating with professors and community members, such as NGOs or government entities. The project calls on students to use the content of the course for community activities (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999). The new approach to teaching and learning also offers students the chance to learn from real-life contexts and build their skills to stimulate discussion while providing community partners with the opportunity to meet significant needs. Thus, this short discourse illustrates the significance of my engagement with the Hickman Community Charter District to ascertain their roles in achieving this course’s aims.
The community amenities also welcome students and families from districts other than their own to our home and campus programs. As a charter district, the supervisors are confident that they can serve students within their district boundaries without requiring inter-district transfers. Although the community education center is located in Hickman, California, its services are extended to other unfortunate students from other districts. Thus, selecting this California-based establishment resulted in their commitment to enhancing the transformation of students into better and more productive community members and their positive reputation amongst the locals and other external partners (Hickman Community Charter District). The commitment of the social amenity stakeholders to safeguard students, staff, and parents from any potential harm and value and respect them makes it an excellent choice for this reflection assignment.
My time with the Hickman Community Charter District made me value the significance of all key players in promoting business ethics. The stakeholders can be descriptively understood as features of the strategic terrain of a company in the quest to pursue its goals. However, in business ethics, stakeholders are primarily regarded as conduits or items for a company’s ethical duties. The stakeholder theory is a view whereby the managers of a company must ethically pursue their interests in the joint conduct or balance them with each other in conducting their business (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999). Additionally, the responsibility of stakeholders includes the review of the project items delivered. For example, architectural diagrams, plans, and construction drawings can be included in the project deliverables. Project participants are subject to the approval of these items by engineers, designers, and contractors. A company’s stakeholders working on business activities may have particular project responsibilities depending on the initiatives they fund. For instance, the public educational facility included all stakeholders, including the locals, staff members, and the students on attachment or internship. Each player has their distinct duties towards ensuring that they utilize the available resources efficiently.
Notably, the Charter School staff depends on public funding to guarantee that they execute their distinct operations therein. School districts are public schools that receive less government funding than traditional schools in the district. Charter schools are therefore financed publicly, privately run, and semi-autonomous educational institutions of choice. Charter institutions must have the same academic responsibilities as conventional schools. Interestingly, the amenity does not charge the enrolled children for tuition. Similar to classical schools, they receive public funding. However, their budgets, personnel, curriculum content, and other activities are provided for free (Stukas Jr., Clary, & Snyder, 1999). They must produce academic results and sufficient community demand to remain open in exchange for this freedom. However, the school’s success in realizing its social responsibility goals depends on the efforts of all the key players to execute their distinct duties.
The Charter School’s management values the significance of stakeholder orientation in promoting the much-needed social responsibility. Social responsibility refers to an ethical hypothesis in which people are liable for their civic tasks, and an individual’s actions must benefit society as a whole. Thus, the alignment between economic development and social and environmental welfare must be struck. If this balance is maintained, social responsibility will be achieved. Each person should act in ways that benefit society and not just the individual. In both personal and collective capabilities, commitment to society and ethics concepts apply. It should be included in daily activities, especially those that impact other people and the environment (Bringle et al., 2004). The code is used within this group and during encounters with other specific people or groups to promote social responsibility and ethics. For instance, the Hickman Community Charter District takes the initiative to enlighten the staff members and other stakeholders regarding the company’s values, vision, and mission statements to understand society members’ lifestyles better.
The charter continues experiencing ethical issues despite the efforts by the management to ensure that the entrusted staff members promote diligence, trust, diversity, and integrity while executing their divergent responsibilities. Ethics in business cover a broad range of fields within the ethical standards of an organization. Fundamental ethical concerns incorporate trying to promote integrity and trust-based behavior. Still, more complicated problems include addressing diversity, empathic decision-making, adherence, and management aligned with the organization’s values. Ethical issues in business involve the emergence of and resolving moral conflicts (Stukas Jr. et al., 1999). In other words, it is an opportunity to question the standards of morality. Sometimes, these conflicts are legally dangerous because some alternatives to resolving the problem could violate a given law. On other occasions, the problem may not have legal consequences, but third parties could react negatively. Moral questions are confusing because if no regulations or statutes are known, they are hard to deal with. The organization realized losses with multiple cases of financial mismanagement during my service learning.
The workers within the institution partnered with the management and the locals to address the specific moral concerns identified. However, their success depends on the extent of the controversy. Ethical problem intensity concerns the employees’ awareness of the ethical component of specific issues. It looks at how significant these problems are to an institution or how it wants its employees to deal with these problems. Sensitivity is developed from the top down through education, codes of ethics, communication, and actions (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999). However, it is not always easy to achieve an ethical result while following these principles. The integration of preconceptions, ethical principles, interests, religious views, beliefs, and motives is different for everyone. Moreover, what is ethically sound for one person can be morally wrong for another. What can be harmful to someone or a group can also be beneficial to someone else. Consequently, managers often disagree about ethical issues. Thus, many professional and industrial associations have moral codes, which are debated and authorized by critical stakeholders to offer individuals and companies a starting point to decide on a conflict when they face it.
All interested parties have equal opportunities to ensure they play a crucial role in making the critical decisions within the institution. The intensity of the ethical issue emphasizes the importance of a moral case for individuals, groups, and organizations. Most choices are taken by a set of people rather than by one person, as companies are concerned. To reach an ethical decision, the members of this group must decide which of the issues is the most important and which decision is the most necessary (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999). Additionally, the operations within the institution uphold the specific values and principles needed for decision-making. Besides acknowledging the significance of the distinct party players, the entrusted managers advocate for supporting the existing moral values and principles.
In conclusion, the operations by stakeholders within Hickman Community Charter District enabled other students and me to understand the application of the six-course objectives listed for this course. Effective service-learning bolsters both study and community-based service objectives. The practice of learning is based on goals, improves discipline, involves students in well-defined assignments, and enables both summative and formative evaluation. Activities that serve genuine community needs give students meaningful tasks and promote cooperation and interaction with community members. Thus, my interaction with the Hickman Community Charter District helped me understand the significance of service-learning in promoting the development of students into academically successful and productive society members by upholding the much-celebrated corporate social responsibilities.
References
Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (1999). Reflection in service learning: Making meaning or experience. Educational Horizons, 179.
Bringle, R. G., Phillips, M. A., & Hudson, M. (2004). The measure of service learning research scales to assess student experiences American Psychological Association Washington DC.
Hickman Community Charter District, Web.
Stukas Jr, A. A., Clary, E. G., & Snyder, M. (1999). Service learning: Who benefits and why. Social Policy Report, 13(4), 1-23.