A634.9.5.RB - A Reflection of Our Learning

Ethics is something that should be taught throughout our lives because we can all use a reminder of how ethics affects our daily lives, those of our families, our work environment and even strangers that may come into our lives at some point.  Overall I feel that this class taught me many things.  Most were reminders of how we should live our lives and others an eye opener of how others are treated because of the color of their skin, their gender and even their religious background.  Tolerance is something that we must all learn in many regards in order to adapt and move to the next level.

The three things I have taken away from this class are the Golden Rule, Living Morally and Ethics & Organizations.  Each of these elements brought out a better understanding of what ethics is about.  Some are obvious such as the golden rule and living morally but it also serves as a reminder that ethics is so very important in the business world.  What you do affects those that look up to you in the organization so your actions good or bad will observed and even repeated in some cases.

The Golden Rule is something that I try very hard to live by and to instill in my daughter as well.  Reading the articles and chapters helped me realize that sometimes we cannot live by the golden rule when it comes to certain situations that may cause our golden rules to be compromised such as lying and stealing or even killing if it means protecting our family.  Everyone wants to be treated with respect so we should treat others the way we want to be treated.  This may not be possible in every situation such as lying to protect a loved one from harm or to spare their feelings.  Or if someone was breaking into our homes and threatening our family, we would take every measure to keep them safe even if it meant taking another’s life.  We should all have a firm understanding of what is morally right and wrong and try to keep to those standards as well as following the Golden Rule.  Who doesn't want to be treated with kindness and respect?  Give it to get it.

Living morally, we all do this don’t we?  Perhaps but chapter 13 helped to bring this perspective to the forefront for me.  LaFollette listed five factors that he broke into three groups; knowledge of the context, psychological factors, and interpreting others behaviors.  Being able to understand how we may have some bias in these areas can help us to be more cautious and learn to face these bias and work to overcome them.  Knowledge of the context…basically you need to be sure you have all the information before you make a judgment about a person or a situation.  We have all heard the sayings, “don’t judge a book by its cover” or “walk a mile in my shoes before you judge”.  If you don’t have all the facts don’t make a judgment call it is as simple as that.

Psychological factors remind us how important it is to look at the big picture by zooming out and then being able to look at the details by zooming in to get a better understanding of it all.  We can question how things are done, what can be done to improve them and then to be able to explain how to make corrections as needed.  And lastly interpreting other’s behavior…you can’t take things personally when you don’t have all the facts.  It can be very easy to jump to conclusions and requires us to think critically about the situation and ask ourselves how to approach it with an open mind.  Sometimes you can’t take something at face value you have to get to know the person, problem, etc. before you interpret why someone is doing, saying or acting a certain way.

The last one Ethics and Organizations was a great learning lesson for me.  I am a firm believer that there should be some type of code in place in the work place.  A formalized code would be good BUT it isn’t enough to just throw together some guidelines and say here you go now manage these people. There should always be training inside and out of the company. A good leader should want to continue to strive for the best.  There are companies such as Zappos that have proven that having a code in place works.  It doesn’t need to be super detailed but it should be the right fit for your organization.  These codes need to apply to everyone in the company not just those at the bottom or at the top.  It has to flow up and down to make it work. 

We were asked to create our own code and I felt that mine could be applied both at work and at home:

·         treat your employees fairly

·         truly listen to your employees and be sure that information is flowing both up and down

·         be sure to provide training so that your employees can continue to expand their knowledge

·         trust and faith in your employees

·         common curiosity and open communication

·         be willing to continue your own training to learn all areas of what your employee deal with on a daily basis

I really enjoyed this class and everything that I have learned and been reminded of as well.  I feel that the material we covered was really good and current.  The only thing I feel that could have been covered better was the racism chapter.  I did like how LaFollette broke down the barriers as there were many things I didn’t know about however one would think that racism is just a black and white issue. Sadly it is much bigger than that. We have racism against religious groups, gays and lesbians, and other ethnic groups.  This needs to be exposed so that we can understand why it happens and we can do something about it by teaching tolerance at all levels and stop judging on the surface.  I am down to my last three classes and I look forward to learning more about leadership development and being able to continue to put what I have learned to good use.  

A634.8.3.RB - Gun Control: What is the Answer?

I have never been a big fan of guns not because I am for or against gun control but because I have no real desire to use a gun.  There are no guns in my house and I didn’t grow up around guns either.  Most days you can turn on the TV and hear about a shoot-out or an accidental shooting.  I am frankly most surprised by the number of accidental shootings that involve children.  With all the safety that is involved with owning a gun AKA going through classes to actually understand the power of a gun you would think that these deaths would decrease.

            Wanting to be safe in your own home is a big desire to keep a gun in your house however you need to know how to use it, where to keep it and how to disarm someone who gets control of your gun.  I fired a gun a total of three times in my life.  One was a musket black powder gun (made for right handed people and I am a leftie), and two were 9mm. I was scared to use those guns or to even pick them up.  My hands were sweaty and shook when I held it.  Pulling the trigger though was a completely different experience.  It gave me a whole new respect for guns.  Guns are like a very complicated math problem.  It is not enough to know how to solve the problem you should understand why you are solving it. 

            The text talked about different ways for gun control and made some great arguments for and against guns.  Would making owning a gun better?  What about more rules in place for having a gun….tougher gun laws?  In the article I found online they seemed to think that more gun laws equated to fewer deaths but on the other side of this there were some states that only had a few gun laws and the death toll was still low.  Will making gun laws tougher really lower the death toll?  What about taking guns away from everyone and only letting the police or military carry weapons?

            I don’t think taking guns away is going to stop crimes from happening nor will it keep people from getting killed.  Cars are not designed to kill they are designed to get us from one place to another safely, yet people are killed by cars everyday either by drunk drivers, distracted drivers or accidents so should we ban all cars so that our chances of being killed by a car decreases?  No we find ways to improve the car to make it better, safer for everyone. 

            Perhaps the same thing should be done for guns.  Let’s improve gun safety instead finding ways to make guns more violent (why do we need bullets that can penetrate a vest).  Why do we need A-K 47 to go hunting?  Maybe we need to start looking at the types of guns that are available and decide what why we need them and how available they should be.  You have cases like the Zimmerman/Martin case.  If there was not a gun involved would Martin still be alive?  Perhaps but maybe he would have still died at the hands of Zimmerman or the other way around Martin could have killed Zimmerman by slamming his head into the concrete or been choked to death.   

            Banning guns is not going to lower the death tolls quickly but maybe over time it would but humans are crafty and we would come up with others ways to defend ourselves against those who would do us harm.  Making guns safer and taking some of the more dangerous guns and making them harder to get could make a difference. http://news.yahoo.com/more-gun-laws-fewer-deaths-50-state-study-224508338.html

A634.7.4.RB - Ethics and Behaviors

My organization takes pride in their values and each department takes it to the next level by being sure these values are upheld.  In my department because of the sensitive information we deal with it is clear how important it is to be honest and have integrity.   We have leaders in place who make sure we understand that we must be ethical and we must uphold the honesty of our students as well.  We work as a team and hold each other to the highest standards at all times. 

            I have witnessed a situation where a coworker was unethical which led to his dismissal at a previous job.  I had just started and had only been there for two weeks when things got bad. Over time is always a sticky topic that no one wants to really ever deal with.  Unless you are sitting with the person who is doing the overtime how you do know that they did it?  That they worked on work stuff and not personal stuff?

            This coworker, we will call him Jim, had worked for this company for a few years and there never seemed to be an issue with him.  When over time was offered everyone took advantage of this (it was very unusual for it to even be offered).  After all most of us had bills to pay and this extra income would be great.  Jim worked his regular hours and submitted 20 hours of overtime on top of his 40 hour work week.  When the manager asked if he was able to get caught up his reply was not even close.

            This made the manager question how it was possible to not be caught up if he had indeed worked 20 hours he could be completed caught up with his work.  When asked if he had used all 20 hours for work he replied that he had.  The manager asked him what all he had done during his overtime which he state that he returned phone calls and answered emails.  So he should have been able to prove that he had had done his work but when asked for documentation he could not provide it and claimed that his computer must have crashed and wiped out all the data.

            The manager then asked that his computer be checked to see if it actually crashed and if he was doing work such as returning emails. When it was checked the manager found out that Jim’s computer had not crashed nor had not done the work he said he had done and he was on many social websites for most of the time.  So Jim was asked one last time to come clean about the overtime.  That if he did that it would just go in his file and that he wouldn’t be allowed to work overtime until he could prove he could be trusted.  Jim still maintained that he worked the overtime so the manager had no choice but to fire Jim.

            Watching both videos one major point stuck out for me that really tied this together for me and that was that every choice we make there is a consequence for it.  Good or bad it is there.  Jim was given a chance to redeem himself but he chose his pride over being truthful and it cost him his job.  If he had offered an ethically intelligent apology and took ownership of what he had done I feel that he would probably still be with the company.  He could have used that lesson to learn more about himself and why he did what he did.

A634.6.3.RB - What are Virtues?

I took the Virtue Quiz and scored pretty well overall.  There were two areas that were suggested that I could improve on and that was temperance and order.  I am a firm believer of self-improvement as I believe we can always make ourselves better individuals and this will reflect on those around me as well.  The three virtues that stuck out the most for me were temperance, order and resolution.

Temperance: Eat not to dullness.  Drink not to elevation. This has been something that I have been trying to make a big change in for the last 6 months and it takes constant awareness and will power to do.  I love food!  I love to make it, I love it eat it and I love to buy it.  Growing up I didn’t have the luxury of being able to have filet migon for dinner or making fresh salad or even fresh fruit every day. We also didn’t get a lot of food either so we were always grateful for what we did get.  Second helpings were the rare occasion not something that would happen all the time.  

As an adult I have the opportunity to buy the things I like because one I can afford it and two I get to make the things that involve fresh ingredients.  The issue I have run into is stopping myself from getting second or third helpings of the things I like.  When I was in high school I could eat so much and not gain any weight because I was on a dance troupe and took several classes so I burned off everything that I ate.  Now that I am older and not nearly as active as I used to be taking all those extra helpings is not such a great idea.

Besides making sure that I don’t over eat it is important that I teach my daughter that you should only take what you need and not overindulge just because it is there and it tastes good.  We have a rule where we have to wait 15 minutes after we eat to see if we really are still hungry and 9 times out of 10 we aren’t!  This also teaches patience and understanding the difference between what we want and what we need.

Order:  Let all your things have their places.  Let each part of your business have its time.  This is a big one for me.  First let’s tackle everything having its place.  This is something that I am working to be better at though it has been something I have dealt with my whole life.  Growing up nothing could ever be out of place.  You took it out you put it back not in a little while, not the next day but as soon as you were done with it. So when I became an adult I developed a sort of disorganized organization.  My desk may look like a hurricane came through but I know exactly where everything is.  This however is not something I like.  I prefer to have everything in its place as it represents a cleaner, orderly environment.  I realize that when I have everything in its place I am more relaxed and calm I don’t feel overwhelmed or confused.

The second part let your business have its time.  This too is something I have to make an effort to do.  I talk about work when I am not at work, or other things that should have a time limit to talk about.  This causes my brain to continue to think about things long after I should.  For example, I had a coworker continue to question me about a process after I explained it several times that I began to dream about it and start to doubt myself and my abilities.  I have to know when to leave it at the door.  When it is time to think about other things I do not want to have to worry about these lingering ideas.  I have taken to writing things down so that I can cross them off my list and that means when it is off the list I cannot think about it unless it goes back on the list.

            Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought.  Perform without fail what you resolve.  Now this one is one that I am working so very hard to do.  I started working out about 4 months ago and I have kept at it with the exception of two weeks that I took off.  I feel that when I set a goal for myself and I follow through on it I did something for me.  I started grad school back in 2010, took one class loved it signed up for more and realized it was not what I was interested in. Then the MSLD came along and I am taking my 9^th class toward my masters.  If you had asked me a couple of years ago if I would have ever thought I would be here I would have said no way.  I didn’t think I was smart enough or driven enough to do it.  Yet here I am proving myself wrong.

            I have always wanted to write and a part of that is because of my love for reading.  Back in 2003 I finally started writing a little bit at a time and 145 pages later I have most of a book written.  I stopped a few years ago because I felt that what I wrote would not be interesting to anyone but me.  Then last year I wrote about an incident that happened to me over the summer and I was told that I should be writing for others to read so I started a blog.  I never dreamed that it would have followers and that they would want more and more each time!  My next resolution or my next step in this resolution is to get published.  I have come this far, done so much more than I ever thought I could so what is stopping me?  Only I am so here I am writing it for you and everyone to see that I will get published by next year.  That is my goal.

A634.5.4.RB Is Marketing Evil?

If one were to believe advertisers and marketing planners we would have the big “O” every time we used Clairol’s Herbal Essence Shampoo or we would be sailing on that big sail boat because we are wearing Tommy Hilfiger or we will get that beautiful woman or drop dead gorgeous man because we are drinking Skyy vodka, our kids would be completely safe because we drive Saab and the list goes on.   Marketing is a necessary evil in that we as consumers want to know about the next great product and we want it now so marketers must be smart, witty, and fast to get and keep our attention to buy their products so marketers have to find more outlandish ways to get our attention. 

But is it evil in the way they do it?  Perhaps or maybe they are just clever little devils.  Think about it we are bombarded with advertising everywhere we go.  On the highways, in stores, even at the movies we see commercials before the main feature.  We are told what we should be wearing, drinking, eating, driving and for some of us we run right out and get that product because if it is being advertised it must be right for us.  Disney channel and Nickelodeon channels aim directly for kids by advertising the latest and greatest toys and then you get, “mom! I need that (insert toy here) right now.”

Companies need to find a good balance between wanting to advertise their goods and getting and keeping consumers.  With social media being so huge these days it is easy enough to give the low down on a product by simply asking the question, “has anyone used product X and what did you think about it?” So this leads us to the next question, is it ethical to track our buying habits or web visits so that we can be targeted by specific marketing groups.  I have to say that I see it from both sides and it is a blurred line for sure.  On one hand there are consumers who want to know about the latest and greatest so asking these consumers for their information such as zip code, phone number and even their email tells the consumer they are going to aim for their business.

On the other side of this I don’t think it is ethical to track a person’s buying trends or web visits without their knowledge.  This can push certain advertisement toward these consumers and leave out many more because of a web visit or give them higher end products because of their implied income or the brand of laptop a consumer has.  As a leader I feel that it is important to walk the line and be sure that I am honest with consumers.  What is wrong with asking for what is trending by taking surveys via social media?  With media sites such as Face book, Twitter and Instagram it is easier than ever to get feedback on products.  We have become a society that wants everyone to know our business, what we like what we don’t like and how we like it.  There can be honesty in marketing and advertising it isn’t going to scare consumers away as it may have done many years ago.  Gives us something to think about doesn’t it. 

A634.4.4.RB - Is Affirmative Action Ethical?

To be honest I never really got affirmative action.  Now don’t get me wrong I understand what it was intended for but I feel that it has gotten away from the main point of what it was supposed to do and that was to give minorities and women an equal footing to be considered for jobs and getting into college.  So why has it become an issue yet again and some calling it reverse discrimination? According to chapter six on affirmative action, “these morally relevant differences show why this objection is not telling, why it is a mistake to say that blacks receive affirmative action simply because of their race” (LaFollette, 2007).  So Affirmative Action wasn’t put in place because of this reason.

Where do I stand on this issue?  I feel that affirmative action is important to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to get into the school of their choice or to get the job they are qualified for.  But I will say that it needs a definite overhaul in many ways.  It isn’t just blacks or women that it affects….it also affects Muslims, Hispanics, Gays, etc. so it needs to be reevaluated and figure out what is working and what is not working.  People need to understand what the point of this action is for and why it is so important.  On the other side of this a person should be admitted to school based on their merit not the color of their skin or their sex.  This also applies to the job market.  I shouldn’t be a block to be checked because an organization will have met their affirmative action quota I should be hired based on my qualifications.

How do we fix this?  Should we remove all questions about race and gender from job applications?  What about something along the lines of The Voice where we choose an applicant based on their voice and their qualifications without actually seeing their faces first.  Why does it matter what the color of my skin is or what my gender is?  At the end of the day isn’t it all about what is between my ears…my brain?  We have to change the way we view the world and stop seeing colors, religions and even gender as a means for getting a job or even getting into school.  Some very deserving people will not get hired for the whole reason of affirmative action just like those that are undeserving and under qualified are hired because affirmative action is in place.

I wish I had the answers to make this system better, to make it work, to make sure that there was no racism, sexism or bias in any way but I don’t.  The only thing I can do is to make sure that my daughter grows up without biases and racisms but she already has two strikes against her….she is a female and she is mixed (Mexican and Italian).  My hope is that by the time she is ready to apply to colleges this will not be an issue.   The text stated it well, “We must undercut racist habits, and corral racist institutions.  Affirmative action is a reasonable and effective way to do both” (LaFollette, 2007).

Reference:

LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Pub.

A634.3.5.RB The Harder They Fall

Have you ever had a friend who was on the heavy side and kind of shy?  She didn’t talk too much and tried very hard to blend into the background so that she didn’t attract attention to herself.  You are her friend and always have been.  You encourage her to do what makes her happy and to not listen to those people who make fun of her for her weight, the way she dresses or the style of her hair.  Then she starts losing weight and working out.  She starts styling her hair and dressing really nice.  And people notice lots of people. 

This friend has now attracted a whole new group of friends who like the new her.  Soon she starts changing becoming picky and not wanting to hang out you anymore.  She makes comments about other girls who used to look the way she did.  Her attitude has changed and she starts to see herself in a different light, a better light than you.  She tells you that she is so much more attractive now and that she doesn’t think she should hang out with you anymore because you are not as cool as her new friends. 

Change the situation a bit to a coworker who suddenly gets promoted into a position of power.  He is always be told how great of a job he is doing, how smart and amazing he is and that everyone thinks he will go far in the company.  You used to do the same job and now he barely talks to you and criticizes you for some of the actions you do in your job that he used to.  He becomes demanding and belittles you in front of others.  You wonder what happened to the great friend and coworker you worked next to every day. 

These types of dilemmas happen more times than we want to think.  This friend has gained the confidence that she never had before and she doesn’t know how to handle this change so she does what she thinks is right and that is to be around the ones who like the new her.  The coworker has a new found power at work now because people listen to him and they do what he says.  But why does this happen?  As far their friend or coworker why do we stand by and allow it?  Shouldn’t we give them a dose of reality?

Some people know how to balance their new found fame, weight loss, promotion, etc. with grace and a hearty dose of reality.  They understand that fame can be fleeting and that it is very easy for someone better, younger, smarter or more talented to come in and knock them down a few pegs.  Perhaps they have true friends and coworkers who keep them in check and tell them like it is or they know that the fall from power comes just as fast as the ride up.  They take the time to see what their weaknesses are and understand them while conceding to them in order to prevent failure from happening.  They take the time to become more reflective instead of less reflective by stepping back and thinking without wanting to take action right away.  Sounds like the Wu-Wei approach (observing without taking immediate action) doesn’t it?

There is no way of predicting what kind of leader we will be, how we will handle the pressures, the money, the fame, the power of it all.  Will we be sure to keep ourselves firmly planted on the ground or will we let all the wonderful things we are told go to our head?  Will we hold that ‘magic’ mirror up in front of ourselves exclaiming to all that we are the fairest of the land or will we be sure to set those ‘alarms’ to remind us of who we are and where we come from.  It is completely up to us to be able to make that judgment call.