A634.6.3.RB_What are Virtues?

Ben's 13 Virtues    

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e., Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Results from the Virtue Quiz

How You Measure Up: You made some very virtuous choices. You chose the answers that closely reflected Ben's own self-improvement plan. Although Franklin gave up on his formal effort to be more virtuous, he devoted much of his life to self-improvement. You've made a good start on that yourself.

You might want to think about how you approach: Temperance: as a young man, Ben tried not drink too much. Maybe you should consider being the designated driver next time you go out partying.

Response

I find that most people tend to try to live by Ben’s virtues although many could and often are hard to live by. After taking the quiz I was shocked to see that “temperance” was something I should think about because in all reality I am such a light 1 beer/glass of wine type of girl. I would have thought that silence would be my area to work on because although I am a good listener, I have an opinion and often voice it when it is unnecessary.

I realize that these tests are not 100% correct but they do prove a point. The point(s) they show is/are that people do live in excess more often than they think and it is because we live in a world full of abundance and we don’t often take the time to think about what we have and how that plays into the bigger picture of life. We don’t always need to do things to the extreme and that live in moderation can teach us valuable life lessons. I can speak from experience that I try to live a life of moderation because I realize that I don’t need a ton of things and there people out there with nothing. It truly kills me when I see my friends living excessive lifestyles.  A good deal of my friends have extremely high car payment that they can barely make and have credit card debt out the ying-yang.  I know we all want to have nice things but when do “things” define who we are? Is it ethical for the youth to live to lavishly when others live without? Some answers to the questions I have will never be addressed but it is interesting to ponder how the world could be different if we tried to live a more Ben Franklin lifestyle.

A634.5.4.RB_Is Marketing Evil?

Marketing is an essential tool for the business world and without it, people wouldn’t know about different products and services.  People tend to think that marketing is just what we see in print or digital ads but word-of-mouth is a form of advertising which is a marketing tool as well in addition to mass emails and phone soliciting.  Some feel that organizations can be invasive in the way they market while some don’t feel as though certain companies do enough, so where is the balance?  There are many different ways to understand marketing but one way is not think of it is as evil but a means in which to promote goods and services.  There will always be an invisible line as to what is appropriate and what is not but to think of taking marketing away as a whole would lead to extreme detriment to the economy.

Do you feel ethical guidelines make a difference to marketers?
I would like to think that marketing agencies and marketing personnel respect ethical guidelines but I know not all do.  Some people and or agencies are pushed to have high numbers and when sales are down, the marketing tools become more aggressive.  For many years people have been fighting the phone solicitors to either take off their phone numbers or to not call at certain hours but because of outsourcing, the time differences make it harder to respect potential customer’s wishes.  If there were stricter ethical guidelines in place I do think that people would have to respect them in order to get and keep customers but there will be a fine line between what is considered ethical for marketers and who creates and enforces the rules.

How can companies balance the need to win with being ethical?
You are only as strong as the business you have and continue to bring in; your customers are what you base your organizational wealth on.  In order to be considered a winner you have to have happy repeat customers without overstepping ethical boundaries.  The means to stay balanced will be different for each organization and industry so the organization will have to find the balance and maintain it; having a good reputation and motto can be key to continued success.

Is it ethical to track your buying habits or web visits to target you for marketing purposes?
I personally do not find it to be unethical or an invasion of my privacy to track my buying habits for marketing purposes but that just means they will use my information to find me better deals on the items I buy most often or fall into categories that I purchase from.  I would rather a store tailor their sales for what I buy most than just pulling things out of the air. We have to have data for most jobs and tracking is how some organizations so it.  If people find it to be unethical then they need to think about everything they do and realized how tracked they are without even knowing.

As a leader, how will you manage the ethical aspects of your marketing efforts?
I will promote that we as an organization protect our customers but also strives to bring them the best products and services available. I will remain balanced and professional at all times.  I will also do what most organizations don’t do, I will listen to the consumer, the industry and the needs of society best run my marketing efforts.

A634.4.4.RB_Is Affirmative Action Ethical?

What is affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including race, color, religion, sex, or national origin into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group in areas of employment, education, and business; also can be referred to as reversed discrimination

I am the believer that we should treat everyone equally and there shouldn’t be any form of discrimination but as we know that is an almost in possible task to do.  LaFollette (2007) stated, “everyone except diehard racists now admit that systematic discrimination against blacks is wrong. It was wrong to deprive people of jobs, housing, health, public benefits, and legal and civil rights merely because of their race.  Affirmative action, they claim, is wrong for the same reason; these programs discriminate against whites simply because of their race. Two wrongs do not make a right” (p.87-88). Shifting who to be discriminated against doesn't change the future but solidifies hatred from the past.

In the idea of ethics playing a role in affirmative action, I don’t find it ethical to discriminate against any one and I find it ethical to allow for the best person, regardless of gender, race, creed, or any other signifier to win.

As I have stated before each person is going to see ethics differently so for me the only ethical way to see affirmative action is something in means of an explicit, aka bulls$*&.  Some believe that humans are a form of evolution, the idea of “survival of the fittest” and if that’s the case then affirmative action goes against evolutionary theory. You cannot give someone the right if they didn’t earn it.  People were and are designed to fight for what we believe in and taking that right away allows for state to come in and change nature.  Even if we were to look at affirmative action by means of a Biblical stance, there is nothing in the Bible that states we are to be given anything but yet we are to work for what we need, defend it and honor it; how can you honor a right given to you when you didn’t have to work for it?

I find that women are just as capable as men in almost all profession and regardless of race we are people and should be treated fairly. If you work hard for something it should be yours and not because the government says so.  Ethically the right thing to do is listen to the people and remove affirmative action and allow everyone to be equal regardless of the laws.  Some may feel that laws help create the culture and shape the future but that is only true if it is promoting something positive instead of inflicting pain or hardship through means of discrimination.

A634.3.5RB_The Harder They Fall

I never realized that the drive to get to the top could change a person so dramatically. According to Kramer (2003), “genius-to-folly syndrome -- a swift and steady rise by a brilliant, hard-driving, politically adept individual followed by surprising stints of miscalculation or recklessness” can take place in those who are fighting their way to the top and happened often during the creation and boom of Silicon Valley in the 1990s. It is common in those who so desperately want to make it to the highest position possible to lose who they are in the process and can often forget why they fought so hard to make it to the top; was it for personal gain or were they doing it in order to help others below them?

I find that it happens more times than people want to think or agree with me on but people do change each time they move up within an organization even if most people cannot tell the change; it is there. I know that speaking from experience when I graduated the University of South Florida and was hired at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that I things were going to change but I didn’t think I would. It wasn’t until my relationship at that time started to fall apart that it was brought to my attention that I was changing for the negative. Now I will agree with my partner at that time that yes I had changed but my changes were not the reason of the end of the relationship; in the grander picture my job helped to show me a new side of me and opened my eyes to a new life I was just started to uncover. What was changing? I suppose that I was subconsciously realizing that I was no longer a child or a young woman in college but I was now an adult, with a college degree and a career. As powerful as these changes were, they were also very scary for me and I sure that is what may have changed the way I approached people as in the Kramer example in the text. I will never forget the day someone told me that I was acting better than them and that I was not the person they fell in love with. For those who know me I am relatively down the earth and slightly high strung at times but I never want those who I love and care for to think I am changing that much to the point where I am making people feel belittled in my presence. After 6 months of thinking about what was going on I knew that it was a combination of getting out of my relationship and surrounding myself with people who were more like me and also taking a big chunk of time to reflect on the changes that were taking where was I am able to balance myself out to a more respected place.

I think people are often in the dilemma to prove themselves to others; they have to make it to the top not for them but for someone else. When situations like these occur the person fighting their way to the top is less likely to think of the damage they are committing as the swiftly move to the top and will also do things that are not in their nature; by any means possible to get to the top.  During this process it has been my experience that the person changes both inside and outside of the workplace often losing compassion, sympathy and empathy for others and begins to only feel for themselves; to me it is the worst thing that could happen to a person.

It is important to always want more, they want better and the want to push yourself to the top but doing it for the right reasons and using the right path. We have to be grateful to those who get us where we are and continue to support those coming up behind us. I know that as I continue to grow in my career I will not forget those who helped me and I will lend a helping hand when I can because I don’t want to fall back into that “I am better than you” mindset again.

A634.2.3.RB_The Theories of Ethics

In this blog response I am going to first outline both Consequentialism and Deontology and then I will reply with my thoughts.

Consequentialism

• Is a claim that we are morally obligated to act in ways that produce the best consequences (p.23).
• Adequate consequentialist theory must specify (a) which consequences are morally relevant (i.e., which we should consider when morally deliberating; (b) how much we weight we should give them; and (c) how, precisely, we should use them in moral reasoning’s (p.23).
• Must explain which, weight and how we should use considerations when deliberating (p.25).
• Refers to the Results as the ending point  (the final answer).
• Key Words:
• Costs/Benefits
• Results
• Outcomes
• Consequences
• Ends

I find that I am the type of person who is more likely to evaluate the consequences before I evaluate the principles.  Growing up, my generation was and is about the “here and now” and the “end results.”  I like to know what the cost and benefits are for me and what I will gain once I have done the action. With that being said I also do feel that it is important to understand the morality of the situation.  I suppose it is safe to say that I like to look at things from all perspectives as it will help to come to a strong conclusion but I do lean more towards the consequentialism side of these two theories.

Deontology

• Content there are strict moral limits on what we can do to others; consequentialists do not (p.24).
• Deontologists think rules or principles are important independently of consequences, they disagree about what actions are right (or wrong) and just how right (or wrong) they are (p.24).
• Deontology has two marks in its favor; one, reflects the way most of us acquired and developed our moral beliefs and two, its main competitor is subject to seemingly serious criticisms (p.31).
• Refers to how you get to the results (the process).
• Key Words:
• Principles
• Rules
• Means

Principles and rules are extremely important but speaking for myself I am more likely to go down a path that I know what the end will be and worry about the path when I get on it.  I want to stay living a morally sound and ethical life but I know that in reality that isn’t always the easiest thing to do.  I would be more likely concerned with the end then how I get to the end but I  know I would not make a decision that was too far off the moral path that it would hinder my physical well-being or my moral/ethical presence.

Conclusion
As you can see my thoughts fluctuate between both consequentialism and deontology theories depending on the situation.  It has been my findings that those with a more Christian or religious background tend to lean more towards the deontology theory due to its principle/rules roots but I think that doesn’t play as big of a role in how I view the theory.  In addition it has been my findings that those who side more with the consequentialism are less concerned with the religion but I think that you can be both religious and or non-religious and appreciate both theories.  There are many reasons why people select different theories to live by but I find that it is best to address situations from an open-minded perspective but then apply these theories after an initial analysis.

LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. (1 ed., pp. 1-296). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing

A634.1.6.RB_The Buck Starts and Stops with You

I never really thought that business schools were teaching anything that would be considered harmful to graduates (or not prepare them to become strong leaders) and there places in the workforce but I believe that is because my first two college business classes had 300 students in each and I withdrew from both (business classes never truly fit me and maybe this is why).  I found that for me, it was hard to get engaged in the material but I suppose that will vary from person to person and school to school.  Management is a style and an art.  You cannot manage a group of individuals if you only see things from one perspective; you have to be multifaceted and open to change (adaptability).

I have been working in higher education for 7 years now and I have always been an advocate for high standards within the classroom but due to the ability for faculty to have academic freedom, it can be more difficult to monitor what is being taught and how that can affect both the student and the industry as well.  Also I don’t often find business schools changing their course curriculum or degree plans to accommodate changes within the industry.  It’s always been my thoughts that you want to teach business from an ethical approach and that applies to good business practices you have to teach other humanity studies in order to create culture mixes with business.  It is hard for me to think that the conventional way of teaching would harm today’s future leaders but then again it all relates back to how the information is taught and what the learner retains. 

According to the article, “business schools will never become part of the solution, until they reinvent themselves” (Podolny, 2009, p.1) this is extremely true if you think that the material being taught is out dated, irrelevant and or harmful to student and industry success.  Also in the article, Podolny states, “…that by studying the arts, cultural history, literature, philosophy, and religion, people develop their power of critical and more moral reasoning” (p.3) and due to my communications (humanities studies) background I think the more cultured and well-rounded you are the better you fit into the business world and or become a better leader due to a list reasons.  Being cultured make you more likely to want to see things from multiple perspectives there for altering you from making rash decisions which can affect you as a leader.  The change from a traditional approach to a more holistic approach will take a whole culture of change and unfortunately many of those running the top business school are under that “old school” methods and are not as likely to embrace substantial changes to the way things are run.

Below I have created an example of what I think would be the best way to start creating a culture of change within any business school or college/university that wants to office BSBA or MBA degrees.  The more we create well-rounded leaders, the easier it will be able to change and adapt to changes within most industries.

Example: If I was to be the Dean of a Business School I would require the following from each student in order to graduate

1. General Education Course Work – 60 hours (standard)
2. Business Core Curriculum – 40 hours
3. Business Core Electives/Specializations – 15 hours
4. Business Humanities Studies Courses – 15 hours

The example above I believe would prepare students for an Undergraduate degree in business studies that would allow for more well-rounded leaders and business professionals.