Introduction
In the book, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, Tom Morris argues that the teachings of the ancients can and should be applied to today's corporation. His message is that the four virtues - truth, beauty, goodness, and unity - form the foundation of human excellence. Putting them into practice leads not only to self-fulfillment, but ultimately to an open, nurturing, and ethical workplace that is more productive and successful in the long-term. The purpose of this essay is to examine how Morris treats the system of ethics in relation to these four virtues.
Ethics and Big Business It's difficult not to be cynical about how “big business” treats the subject of ethics in today's world. In many corporations, where the
…show more content…
However, after reading further, I concluded that Morris' statement has a great deal of merit. He infers that this type of query is actually involved with “self-interest, which is not the same thing as selfishness” (Morris p. 117). Asking this type of question can really mean that we are looking at the effect something might have on our immediate or long-term personal fulfillment, financial security, etc. Doing the right thing is not always going to affect us in some positive way immediately. In fact, we could suffer short-term negative effects by electing to do the right thing. But the long-term benefits to our personal fulfillment will nearly always be positive, because doing the right thing brings blessings from the Lord. God honors right living. Exhibiting spiritual health by behaving morally and ethically in all our dealings (both personal and in business), injects harmony into our lives. Morris believes that harmony is at the heart of ethics. Spiritually healthy people create socially harmonious relationships just by the very act of doing the right thing. My grandmother taught me that “there is no excuse for bad manners,” and I have taken this little piece of wisdom with me throughout life. People in today's world seem to have thrown away manners and have forgotten that common decency, basic kindness, concern, respect and courtesy can not only open doors of opportunity, it literally defines their
Good manners can and will make you more successful in life. Many people don’t consider others and only care about themselves. This can not only be harmful to your well-being, but being rude can affect more people than just you. As Lauren Tarshis wrote in “Is Anything Wrong With this Picture,” “Manners serve to make the world a happier and more pleasant place to live.” The reason that manners exist is to keep us civil. Without them, everyone would be extremely rude and not much would be achieved. Classes would constantly be interrupted, people’s feelings would be hurt, and no one would have any respect for others. Thus, we all must try to use good manners and be
In the “Corporate Roles, Personal Virtues: An Aristotelean Approach to Business Ethics,” Robert Solomon argues that toughness is a virtue, but callousness and indifference is not. Solomon views the Aristotle approach the proper way, because it considers both personal and business values. However, Albert Carr argues that business and personal ethics don’t mix; and game-strategy in business leads to success. In this paper, I will argue that Carr prevails Solomon’s business ethics and his claim.
Acting morally in the business field is not easy, especially today in corporation models where capitals and profits are the priorities of mostly any business.
Modern Businesses are becoming increasingly powerful. In fact, some businesses have so much influence, that they believe they can act above the law and become over-controlling of certain aspects of people’s lives, such as healthcare (Boylan 289), and computer and military technology, with influences even extending into politics (Brenkert 1). Many Businesses boast to be run by the best moral and ethical standards, yet these businesses are still being faced with legal suits against them. The argument that is made by these companies is that they did whatever it was that they did, in order to bring about some other ‘good’. I believe that these types of businesses should be better policed on upholding their own ethical policies that
Simple things like saying thank you when someone holds a door for another or saying please when requesting a drink refill no longer seem to be the social norm. What has become the norm is to be waited on by a cashier, “all while having a conversation on her cellphone” (Weeks, 2014). In a telephone survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports, 77% of respondents believed that American adults were becoming ruder ("77% Think Americans", 2013). With society’s manners dwindling, the ease of caring only for ‘me’ has become easier. Hartwell-Walker (2008) believes that if you teach manners to children it will produce empathy. If one were to step back and put themselves into the shoes of the person that their selfishness is going to affect, they may be less likely to follow through with that
Some teenagers today, may not know what business ethics are. Well, business ethics is the difference between right and wrong in the business realm. There are so many companies with good business ethics but in our world we only hear about the companies with the bad ethics. One of those companies is called Enron. Enron is a gigantic corporation that deals with the electrical power in Dallas, Texas. Enron may have destroyed many people’s lives due to the company declaring bankruptcy. Enron’s collapse has devastated the world; especially the market place because no one thought that a corporation that big would ever fall. What the Enron executives did was morally despicable, lying to their fellow “blue collar” workers and not telling them the truth behind all of Enron’s debts. “In the space of five days last week, the story of Enron’s collapse went from the merely unusual to the truly baroque, with plot elements lifted from the pages of Robert Penn Warren and John Grisham” (Time Feb 2002 18). Enron executives have brought loads of controversy upon themselves. How does the seventh wealthiest corporation collapse? Why did it collapse? Who was behind all of this? Questions like these are wandering through investor’s heads who invested their money in this company.
Business ethics is an extremely important topic in our world today. This is especially true because of the fact that we live in a changing society where it has become increasingly common to see more and more cases of companies that participate in illegal, immoral and unethical activities. So that we can prevent these behaviors, it is necessary to study and understand how these situations can occur and what we can do to prevent them from happening.
The larger a population grows, it seems the worse manners become. That is too bad, because in a large, busy society, good manners become even more important. Common courtesies such as holding a door open for someone, saying "please" and "thank you," and allowing an elderly or disabled person to go to the head of the line all make the world a nicer place to live in. Good manners do not cost anything, and it takes little extra time to practice them.
Ethics in the workplace and sometimes the lack thereof can significantly influence the success of an organization. Effective leaders often approach ethical dilemmas by identifying alternative actions and their consequences on stakeholders. The aftermath of the disasters caused by Enron, WorldCom, and other businesses, once prominent companies, resulted in a significant loss of confidence in business leader’s conduct. Organizations in today’s highly competitive business environment must develop an ethical culture to withstand the ever increasing scrutiny by customers, governmental regulatory agencies, and their competition. In order for companies effectively to navigate through the ethical
In an ideal world there would be no corruption, no conflict, and no need for regulations. But this is not an ideal world and these problems happen every day. The business world is not exempt from this problem. Many businesses rely on ethics to help guide their company successfully. Our textbook Business Ethics: How to Design and Manage Ethical Organizations Denis Collins defines ethics as, “the set of principles a person uses to determine whether an action is good or bad” (5). All over the world there are businesses that take part in unethical behavior for many different reasons. Some countries even allow these unethical conducts, such as bribery, as a part of the norm. But for the United States, we have a stricter set of principles in place to try and stop unethical business practices from happening. That doesn’t mean that they don’t happen. Collins discusses a 2009 survey conducted by The Ethics Resource Center on 3,010 employees. Collins states that, “approximately half of the respondents observed at least one type of major ethical misconduct in the workplace during the past year, and nearly half of these violated the law” (6). If uncovered these corruptions are not tolerated and can lead to the fall of anything from a small mom and pop business to massive a Corporation. That is exactly what happened to the Enron Corporation back in 2001. In this essay I will discuss what exactly Enron is, the unethical business practices that occurred, and my opinion on the scandal and
Ethics, as stated by Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander and Linda F. Harrison in The Legal, Ethical & Regulatory Environment of Business in a Diverse Society, are considered subjective laws as well as a how-to-guide for businesses in how they conduct themselves with their suppliers, customers, employees, and anyone else they do business with (2012). It is not enough to know how to run and conduct business, it is also important that good judgment, situational experience and common sense be used in order to be successful and remain that way (Bennett-Alexander & Harrison, 2012). There have been companies in the
In the business world, when ethics meet with profit, the moral value often shifts. Companies are eager to maximize their profit and neglect to frame an
Ethical issues in business are common. However, some people believe that if they just follow the law, that business will be ethically robust. “No matter how important, the law cannot and should not solve all the difficult issues which currently confront business people” (Cracium, 2015, p.43). Following the law does not always ensure morally sound decisions. Companies and each of their employee’s make choices that can have ethical implications. "Ethical standards play a specific and irreplaceable part in the decision-making process involved in a fair market economy” (Cracium, 2015, p.44). We will take a closer look into the details surrounding an ethical issue for the well-known company, Apple in this paper in detail.
Manners were always great and extremely common to have back in the day. But if you truly put it into perspective, they have changed a lot over the years. When I was a child, I was always taught to be the nicest, caring person I can be to every living person and every living thing. Of course I was taught to say “please”, “thank you”, and “excuse me”, but I was also taught to be considerate of others and to be kind no matter what, and that’s a big part of having manners. Manners have changed overtime due to technology, the raising of today’s children, and the loss of respect between one another.
In the earlier years our society was pretty decent when it came to using their manners. Today’s society no longer know what good manners are. Has one ever experienced bad manners in their life time? In my life time I have experienced good manners, but my experience with bad manners occurred at the golf course, grocery store, and while traveling on the road.