...Abbey Bartosiak Final Paper Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 Businesses and Ethics: They’re Surely Not Your Top Running Candidate for “The Golden Rule” The Golden Rule is a rule that is universally known. Although it has been translated differently and all the words may not be the same, it has the same universal meaning: “Do to others what you would want done to yourself.” This rule is one of the few rules that every person is the world is taught and abides (or tries to abide) by in their everyday life. When young children learn this rule, they are told to never forget it and to use it for the rest of their life: through school, for families, for work. There becomes a gray area, though, when The Golden Rule is brought into the workplace. For some reason, offices and workers feel that this rule doesn’t apply to them. They don’t need to be honest because, in some way, they are benefitting themselves. Business is where The Golden Rule gets tossed and people and firms start to act out of egoism, a form of moral belief. To uncover the “how, where and why” of business ethics, one must explore deeper beyond the surface. First, to understand how big businesses violate ethics, one must know what business ethics are and what they consist of. Second, to understand how businesses and workers act of out egoism, one must know what egoism is and what the beliefs pertain to. Then, connections and examples of businesses violating their ethics and how this unites it with egoism...
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...of breaking the rules, or attempting to achieve personal gain through fraud or deceit.16 To cheat is to deprive of something valuable by the use ofdeceit or fraud, to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice, to practice fraud or trickery, to violate rules dishonestly, or to be sexually unfaithful.11 A cheater (sometimes called acheat) gets something by dishonesty or deception; or by depriving one of his or her rights and usually connotes deliberate perversion of the truth; or by large-scale cheating bymisrepresentation or abuse of confidence.11 Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others. Cheating implies the breaking of rules. Cheating is a primordial economic act: getting more for less, often used when referring to marital infidelity.3 Cheating is when a person misleads, deceives, or acts dishonestly on purpose.17 Cheating fundamentally includes several elements of both lying and stealing, with specific motivations to gain something of value by illegitimate means. That is why lying and stealing are discussed before cheating. Cheating is lying and/or stealing with the intention for acquiring something for more than merely the "pleasure" of fooling or depriving others. Children Cheating as a concept is not understood by children until around age seven. Preschoolers often change the rules to a game...
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...Golden West Financial was one of the best savings and loans institutions operating in the banking industry during its time. There are many rules and regulations pertaining to banks operating in foreign countries. As a savings and loans institution, Golden West Financial would have to be very careful on where they decided to operate, if any where besides America. A country that I think would’ve been best suited for Golden West Financial is Europe. There are characteristics of the European banking and financing department that would assist in Golden West Financials success. Golden West Financial had many characteristics that were pertinent to their success. They originated high-quality loans and did not engage in subprime lending, closely monitored its loan portfolio, had regular contact with borrowers about their loans, and many more features that led to their success. (Golden West) Well the European market takes just as much pride in their daily operations as did Golden West Financial. “The key policy instrument to achieve this goal is the development, implementation and application of EU banking and financial conglomerates legislation with all stakeholders, covering regulatory and prudential rules for credit institutions, financial conglomerates and investment firms.” (Banking) Although, there are many rules and regulations domestically, it is important that the Government wants quality banks, credit institutions, financial conglomerates, and investment firms to operate...
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...Case Study – Never on Sunday 1. The personal beliefs of McCoy and the Cathy families influenced the organizational culture by only expecting from their employees what they expect of themselves. People deserve a day of rest. They deserve a break. The McCoy’s and Cathy’s share their values and beliefs and incorporate this into the expected behaviors. Their cultural rules based on their Evangelical Christian belief in their faith through letting their “feet do it” shows the commitment to their God through what they do. 2. The lessons for developing high performance organizational cultures for business that are not family run is that it is proven effective. It is a golden rule that all parents teach their children as they grow up. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. Business relationships are not different. This relationships need to follow the golden rule too. Companies can use organizational development techniques to manage, nurture, and guide cultural change and adaptation. With strong commitment to collaborative efforts and human values (the golden rule), group and/or individual intervention is effective. 3. The challenges for a new leader who is interested in moving their organization in the direction of the McCoy’s or Chick-fil-A is to get management to buy in that a day’s worth of lost sales is worth the moral and positive attitudes of the employee’s. Employees consider the no workday as a benefit and feel rewarded. Feeling rewarded...
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...Takes Flight Southwest Airlines is well known that they have the best customer services. Their Golden Rule is “treat people the way you want to be treated.” The airline’s mission statement is posted every 3 feet at all Southwest locations. For example, one time the weather was bad, so passengers had to be on the plane for a long time. A frantic mother asked the flight attendant to get off the plane just a moment in order to buy food for her hungry toddler. The attendant didn’t let her out but went to buy food for her child instead. She came back to the plane with food for her kid and other four children as well. This flight attendant not only took care of some frantic parents and their screaming children but also indirectly helped other passengers not to deal with children’s noises. This outcome came from the belief of Colleen Barrett, the president of Southwest Airlines, and the company’s cofounder, Herb Kelleher that if employees are treated well, they would treat customers well, and the airlines would succeed, too. Herb treated everybody equally, and he disagreed with traditional hierarchies within the company. For instance, when Herb was a lawyer, he hired Colleen to be his aide even though she had no experiences. Colleen said that “Herb always treated her as a complete equal to him.” Then Colleen became the president of the airline in 2001. She established the Golden Rule and developed a model that focuses on the happiness of employees and customer satisfaction. The...
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...subscribing to the Judeo-Christian ethic by means of following the golden rule, emphasizing work and thrift, and understanding the importance of business. This country was founded on the idea of a Judeo-Christian ethic because our founding Father’s heritage was influenced greatly upon this ideology. This school of thought permeated every aspect of their lives including business. With that thought process comes the idea of the way we treat each other using the “golden rule” and the Ten Commandments as a guide. These guidelines help to develop the students’ character. The Northwood idea also teaches the students that we have individual responsibility. By using the Ten Commandments and the golden rule we learn to respect each other and their property. Without these ideas as a foundation society as a whole will break down and ultimately fail. Work and thrift allows for human progress. Work is the effort one puts forth to gain a present or future benefit. Thrift is what allows us to preserve the benefits of said work. Both of these create and strengthen ones character by learning self-control and how to be unselfish. The free market is the most efficient way to utilize these ideas. As we are developing our character we will move forward as a society. As our character develops we learn how to cooperate with one another. This allows us to conduct business. With voluntary cooperation comes the creation of business, which has led to the free market society....
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...Current Ethical Issues XMGT/216 February 10th, 2013 Axia College of University of Phoenix Current Ethical Issues In today’s business environment, ethics take a toll far greater than that of previous years. It is more important now than ever that business ensure their ethics program is solid. For Upbeat Financial Service it is important to ensure the six characteristics that build a good solid ethical decision. Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and good citizenship are known as the “six pillars of character.” (Josephson, 2002) In this paper we are going to outline the services of Upbeat Financial Services and the moral and ethical issues they face. Upbeat Financial Services is a company that offers financial services and a “One-Stop Mortgage provider.” They offer mortgages at the lowest rates available, credit reports, appraisal, and home inspections upon approved credit. (Placeholder1) Their mission statement is as follows; “Upbeat Financial Services will be the preeminent provider of low cost mortgage services using state-of-the-art technology in the five state areas of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. We thank you in supporting our mission!” Upbeat Financial Services offer their clients the most efficient and effective processing of mortgage applications...
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...A six year old child calls another child ugly. Should this child be charged with bullying? I would say absolutely NOT! So where do we draw the line with the anti-bullying law? Who decide what exactly can be considered bullying? I believe that our society has forgotten how to teach our children to love themselves despite what someone else might say! It is a shame that children are taking their lives because someone is bullying them. The recent rise in adolescence suicide is evidence of this. I believe that these issues are solely based on a child's self-esteem. I think the responsibility lies on the parents to teach their children how to love themselves. It is silly that simple childhood name calling can cause a child to be arrested. What happened to the old saying of teaching a child to have "tough skin?" No, instead we blame the school and everyone else for not protecting the child. Children need to be taught how to have high self-esteem. We have become a generation that seems to lack time and interest in our children. A parent's daily reminder that a child is pretty, or smart, or has nice eye, can help build a child's self-esteem. Yet, instead we work long hours trying to achieve this American dream of the rags to riches ideology. We now choose to blame the system for our lack of involvement. Bullying is unavoibable, but it is the adults who need to change how they respond to it by not running to the courtrooms. We’re talking about kids. Kids — and I don’t want to ruin anybody’s...
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...lending and the housing market downfall were huge contributors to our economic downfall. These situations were actions of an ethical crisis since moral errors were contributed. The Conventionalist ethic is that in business it is all right to take an action if it does not violate the law. Throughout this ethic, it characterizes business as a game, basing the playing of game as everything goes as long as it doesn’t break the law. A good example would be the business of insurance where they are allowed to refuse insurance to individuals and families and cherry pick who they would supply because it is legal. They are in the business of making money like all business and are allowed to pick and choose by their own criteria who they would like to insure which are the healthy ones since premiums are being paid and healthy people don’t go to see the doctor’s very often. The conventionalist ethic was the more obvious ethic applied during the crisis since there seemed to be arrests made for the actions of others which caused this economical downfall. Instead they retired and or resign with their pockets and bank accounts full while others suffered. Morally wrong yes but not illegal! To compare business to a game was more of an error as business or the act of conducting business through world-wide networks will...
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...First of all, I’m not sure who created these Golden Rules, but they do not apply to a majority of work environments. They do not take into account the size of the company, the number of employees, or the style in which the business is managed. I will focus on a “not so Golden Rule” that I strongly disagree with. Rule 2. Cater to every need – make it easy, not hard, for people to perform. I don’t believe the best results come from catering to every need of an employee if you are a manager/owner. It is a manager’s duty to point their employees in the right direction, but to provide them with everything they need is just not practical, and in some cases, impossible. Also, the more dependent an employee becomes on a manager, the less adequate he will be on his own. It is essential to provide the proper training and possible resources for success, but to cater to someone’s needs builds dependency, and discourages resourcefulness. A manager should reinforce the idea that being able to find answers is just as good as knowing all the answers. If you catch a fish for a man, he can eat for a day. If you teach him how to fish, he can eat for life. Here is a true Golden Rule that should be added to this list: Praise publicly, reprimand privately. When someone does well, let everyone in the company know. This will create a positive image for the employee and boost his morale tremendously. To let someone know that they are appreciated is a tool that is slowly forgotten and left...
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...interpreting legislation there are rules one needs to adhere to, to construe the meaning of words. In courts the starting for the interpretation of statues is the Literal Rule. All words in a statue which are given their ordinary and natural meaning, the Literal Rule gives it. Even if the outcome or result is silly, under this rule the Literal meaning must be followed. In R v The City of London Court Judge (1892) Lord Esher stated that once words have clarity in an act they must be followed even if they lead to manifest absurdity. An example of the Literal Rule was in the case of Whiteley v Chappel (1868) states that in the aim of preventing electoral malpractice a statue made it an offense to impersonate ‘any person who was entitled to vote’ at an election. The accused had impersonated the dead and therefore he was acquitted. A dead person was clearly not entitled to vote. Advantages of the Literal Rule are that it promotes certainty. It reduces litigation and it is constitutionally correct. Disadvantage of this rule is that it is an automatic and unthinking response. It fails to take into account of the inevitable imperfection of draftsmanship. Often may the Literal Rule be the correct one but it is not automatically so. When the answer to the problems cannot be found in words of a statue the Literal Rule is useless. The Golden Rule is used when the Literal Rule seems to cause incongruous or discordant results. It is an extension of the Literal Rule. Disputed words, court gives...
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...Rules for High Performance Organizations (graded) | This week our text discusses the definition of organizational behavior and in particular its applied focus, and our lecture focuses on high performance organizations (HPOs). Right at the intersection of those would be the “Ten Golden Rules of High Performance” listed below. What do you think should be added to the list? Is there anything on the list that you disagree with? Please support your opinion with evidence from our readings and also from your own work and life experience. Please also remember to respond to your classmates’ posts to stimulate further discussion. Ten Golden Rules of High Performance 1. Hire by committee – make sure recruits talk to their future colleagues. 2. Cater to every need – make it easy, not hard, for people to perform. 3. Pack them in – put people to work close to one another. 4. Make coordination easy – use technology to keep people talking together. 5. Eat your own dog food – make use of the company products. 6. Encourage creativity – allow freedom to come up with new ideas. 7. Strive for consensus – remember that “many are better than few.” 8. Don’t be evil – live tolerance and respect. 9. Data-driven decisions – do the analysis and stay on track. 10. Communicate effectively – hold many stay-in-touch meetings. Responses | | | Response | Author | Date/Time* | | | Ten Golden Rules of High Performance | Zachary Brechler | 9/2/2012 5:43:26 AM | | | I think...
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...Atticus should defend Tom Robinson because he has the ability to place himself in others position or in other words, Atticus is a strong follower of the Golden Rule. In chapter 27, Atticus follows the Golden Rule on Bob Ewell. Atticus says, “’It might be because he knows in his heart that very few people in Maycomb really believe his and Mayella’s yarns’” (335). This statement shows that Atticus is placing himself in Bob Ewell’s shoes by acknowledging his side of the story as well as his way of thinking and emotions. Instead of going directly to what Atticus “sees” about Bob Ewell, he tries to understand his point of view. Atticus also looks out for his neighbors by making sure Jem and Scout do not disturb others mentally and physically. Chapter 8 states, “’You can’t go around making caricatures of the neighbors.’ ‘Ain’t a characterture,’ said Jem…’Mr. Avery might not think so’” (90). This quote shows that Atticus follows the Golden Rule by seeing things from...
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...Business Ethics, A Ceaseless Battle I have chosen to evaluate the following rules of ethics as they apply to the world of business: utilitarianism, moral rights and the justice rule. In this paper, I will define each approach and provide the strength and weakness of each as well as compare and contrast the theories I have chosen. UTILITARIAN APPROACH When employed in the use of making business decisions, the goal of utilitarianism is to maximize the greater good for the greater group of people or on the contrary, minimize the negative effects of a decision experienced by a group of people. (See essay by John Stuart Mill, Utilitarism, 1863) While it forces you to consider how the actions of a business could affect its employees, consumers, shareholders, etc., the problem is that it is often very difficult to give value to and measure the benefits of a decision versus any negative result of said action. As an example, you could look at a business’ decision to outsource jobs on a global level. The decision to outsource would benefit the business, shareholders and consumers if it increases the company’s profit margin. However, this decision would no doubt result in layoffs of domestic employees which would also affect that community. Although the business may dislike the effects of outsourcing on the community, they have to consider certain outcomes resulting from resident production such as the bankruptcy or liquidation of the business. The utilitarian approach...
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...recommendation is a business plan that is use to make a business more profitable and efficient. A business uses strategy recommendations to create goals and strategies for the company. Strategy recommendations help a business to better understand what a customer wants. The presented assignment I will discuss the strategy recommendation for JcPenney. This assignment will identify the specific business that I will use for the recommendation, the reason why I chose that particular business, and two academic resources from the Capella University’s Library. A strategy recommendation is a business plan that is use to make a business more profitable and efficient. A business uses strategy recommendations to create goals and strategies for the company. Strategy recommendations help a business to better understand what a customer wants. The presented assignment will discuss the strategy recommendation for JC Penney. This assignment will identify the specific business that I will use for the recommendation, the reason why I chose that particular business, and two academic resources from the Capella University’s Library. Identity of the Specific Business That I Will Use For Strategy Recommendation The business that I will be using for my strategy recommendation is JC Penney. JcPenney was created in Kemmerer, WY in 1902 by James Cash Penney. Penney called his first store the “Golden Rule”, which was foundation of both his business and philosophy. Explain Why You Chose This Business The...
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