Kramer Concepts

Using concepts from the Kramer (2003) article as a baseline, share your insights on dilemmas that happen in society, work, and in your life.

            The concepts which are talked about in the Kramer (2003) article are dilemmas which people face every day when they are losing themselves in this fast paced world, and the qualities which got them to the position which they are currently in. There are many times in life when I will get too comfortable with a certain situation and start to slack off from my regular routine. Rather it be at the gym, at work, or at home, it is important for one to re-evaluate our current position in life and see how it can be improved.

            Many times I have noticed that when I start to go outside of my beliefs, things start to go south very quickly. If and when I ever begin to lose my relativism, I find that the outcome is not as favorable as I would like. “In different societies each with their own cultures there are different ideas concerning how humans are to behave.  Different societies and cultures have different rules, different mores, laws and moral ideas” (Pecorino, 2000). This quote lets me know that whatever I can attribute my success to, has a great deal to do with my standards in life and what I believe in. If I fall out of touch with what I believe to be my standards I am traveling over unchartered territory.

            In the example of the CEO named “Peel”, she seemed to get caught up in behavior which is unacceptable to the title of a CEO, she felt invincible and she eventually lost it all. Peel came from a humble back ground, hard work and honesty is what got her to where she was a CEO. In this example it shows that as soon as she let go of her ethics and began to play with fire, she got burned. I believe that a large portion of this result is due in part to the fact that this was not part of her culture or relativism. Peel was not used to being in charge and she was in a realm which was outside of her norm.

            As I read on in the article, I found an example of a person that maintained their relativism and does not steer too far from their foundation, this person which has been considered to be successful for a long time, never lost their relativism.  The person which I am talking about is a person that is at the top of the food chain as far as Hollywood is concerned. "I love this industry, but if you get caught up in the glamour and celebrity, it's easy to lose touch with reality. I just don't do the star parties or the private screenings or the power breakfasts any more than I absolutely have to. I love the Oscars--but I watch [the show] every year from my couch, surrounded by my kids and a few friends, just like everyone else" (Kramer, 20003). Reading this lets me know that it is important to remain relatively grounded and in touch with everyday people. The worst thing that someone with a lot of power can do is lose touch with the consumer of their products and feel as if they are above everyone else or the law.

            Throughout my life, I have noticed that there is nothing which will bring the demise of a leader quicker than one that is overconfident or one that feels like they are above everyone else. Disgruntled employees will want to quickly bring down someone that displays this type of behavior. For me I realized what always worked was the fact that I have been a fair leader which makes my employees feel wanted and welcomed. I make a point to maintain my ethics and be professional so that I do not give employees under me a chance to take me out of my spot. People in charge need to realize that you will always have people that want their spot, the key is to maintain your core ethics and relativism which got you to where you are. Once we lose these key components, this type of leadership leave the door open to a bad situation.

References:

-       LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

-       Pecorino, P. A. (2000). Relativism. Retrieved from Queensborough Community College website: http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%208%20Ethics/Relativism.htm

-       Kramer, R. M. (2003). The Harder They Fall (Links to an external site.) . (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 81(10), 58-66.

            

Consequentialism and Deontology

In Chapter 2, LaFollette (2007) discusses Consequentialism and Deontology. Discuss your thoughts on these two theories.

            Consequentialism, this is something that we have been dealing with throughout our entire lives. Since we are toddlers we are constantly dealing with the consequences of good and bad behavior. Of course as we grow older, the consequences can become much more severe than rather we get a prize or quiet time in the corner.

Consequences can exist in three different dimensions, “which consequences we should count, how much weight or consideration we should give those that do count, and how we should use these considerations when deliberating” (La Folette, 2007, pg. 25). It seems that ethics revolve greatly around consequences, our text gives us the example of a son who has a sick father in the hospital and just heard that his father’s sister has passed away. The son has to decide rather he tells his father the news, even though it could further jeopardize his health, or he can wait another week until his father is much healthier.

Proper ethics are not as simple as one would believe, one has to take the consequences into consideration if one is to arrive at the correct ethical answer. Coming to the correct ethical decision is based on how we weight out the consequences and what is the best decision. Weighing out the consequences is not an easy choice but it is a skill which many humans have been working on since early childhood.

It is important how we put into practice the three dimensions of consequentialism when we are working on the correct ethical decision which we must make. Sometimes these decisions may even come faster than we can even think of a good response, our decision then becomes instinct. In last week’s assignment we had the example of a man who has to choose which lives to save when they are faced by an oncoming train while being in control of the switch, this switch can move the train in either direction; no matter the outcome one or many lives will be lost. These are hard decisions to make and one must live with the consequences which may come from their actions.

 It seems that consequentialism is severely based on the negative aspect of consequences. Many times in consequentialism we will realize that we say things like do not steal or you will go to jail, this is a negative consequence which governs our actions. Essentially we are not being good because we want to be, we are being good because we do not want to feel any pain.

Deontology attacks ethics from the opposite spectrum, in deontology we do good things for the mere fact that it makes us feel better. Deontology has become an appealing way for many people to instill ethic in others. Deontology has two marks in its favor; “one, it reflects the way most of us acquired and developed our moral beliefs, and two, it’s main competitor is subject to seemingly serious criticisms” (La Folette, 2007, pg. 31). Many people believe that consequentialism is flawed because it plays no role in moral growth, it promotes people behaving well because they fear the consequences and not because they enjoy being good.

The core basics of Deontology are very basic yet complex at the same time. In deontology morality is a set of rules, some rules are weightier than others. We come to the conclusion of good ethics in deontology based off of our own decisions and what we find to be more important. This way of thinking depends heavily on your own personal way of thinking and morals which you are raised with.

Between consequentialism and deontology, these are two methods of how we come up with ethical decisions in life. I believe that both ways have their pros and cons, giving people an ultimatum is not always the best path towards helping an individual become a productive member of society. On the other hand, certain people need boundaries to keep their behavior in check. There is a lot to consider when counseling an individual and their progress towards proper ethics and good moral decision making. These are two techniques which need to be evaluated and perhaps a balanced mixture can help individuals make better decisions in life.

References:

 LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

    

THE Buck Starts Here

Many believe that management education has contributed to the systemic failure of today's leaders. After reading the Podolny (2009) article, in your reflection blog share your thoughts on how business schools can best prepare future leaders to adopt a holistic approach to business problems and ethical dilemmas. Be sure to share benchmarks and examples of how some of the B-Schools are accomplishing this.

            It is no secret that many people have an issue with what they perceive the typical business personnel to be. Many people believe that business men and women in today’s society are crooks and are only out for their own good and wealth. With large cases like “Enron” and the fact that many CEO’s earn vast amounts of money compared to their subordinates much further below, it is no surprise that the MBA students and schools can sometimes have a bad reputation.

            In this article Podolny talks about what is lacking in the education of an MBA, not until recently schools have begun to show interest and also a need in exploring the benefits of classes dealing with leadership, ethics, and business law. “With corporate scandals and billion-dollar bankruptcies dominating headlines for more than a year, ethics has become almost a hotter topic than earnings on business-school campuses” (Newsweek, 2003).  Business schools have come a long way from what the normal topics were considered to be, from the 1950’s to the 1990’s many business schools were mainly concerned with analytics, the numbers side of business. In many major business schools today, there is a culture in which many people have heated discussions on ethics and how to be a good leader. As a proud student of the Embry Riddle business school, I myself am amazed by all of the different topics which we have covered in this business leadership degree.

            What many people have come to realize, and what I believe is the future of business, is the leadership qualities which a manager will possess.  It seems to me that the analytics portion of business, all though it is very important, this is a job which can be accomplished by a computer with today’s technology. The part if business which cannot be taken over by technology will be the leadership portion of it, a computer can never compute what is ethical and have good moral standing. It is important that as business students we realize that even though technology will take away some jobs, good business leaders will be able to find new ways to make their business much more successful.

            As business students if we are to regain the trust of the people which we serve, we need to recapture the human side to business and not solely look at the profit which we can make through loop holes. I thought it was a great idea which Podolny had when he said “Managers can learn from doctors and lawyers. Before those professions had strong national associations, they created governing groups, usually connected to universities, which certified individuals as worthy of practice. In the same way, a business school, its faculty, and its graduates can constitute a governing group” (Podolny, 2009). This is a great new approach and the right direction we need to take towards having accountability in this profession. It is a way to restore trust in not only the MBA, but also in the business student and in the business man. If business men and women deal with human lives, large sums of money, and the future of our nation; similar to how doctors and lawyers do, then why should we not be held accountable to the same standard as they are? I believe that having a business degree which can be revoked if you are involved in unethical work is a step in the right direction. A step like this could change the way in we hire future business employees, and it will also hold us all accountable.

            I believe that future of the business world is a strong one because we have continued to evolve on many different fronts. There are so many different topics which range from ethics, to leadership, to even the way we handle business with other cultures across the globe. The business schools seem to be heading in the right direction, it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world gets on board and realizes that the business man or women of the future is a truly developed being with skills in many departments.

References

-       Podolny, J. M. (2009). The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School. Harvard Business Review, 87(6), 62-67.

-       "An Ethical Dilema." News Week, 18 Feb. 2003. Web. 14 Aug. 2015. <http://www.newsweek.com/ethical-dilemma-139869>.