CommunicationMoral issues in business - 1925 Words

Communication:Moral issues in business (Essay Sample) Content: Communication: Moral Issues in Business Name: Institution: Date: Introduction The issue of morality in doing business has elicited continuous and heated debates over the last 10 years. According to Murphy (2015), the demands of modern capitalism of business have caused a great percentage of scholars and business operators to question the applicability of morals in business ventures. Although most believe that it is almost impossible for modern companies to comply, the truth is that it is always in th hands of th management to make the proper choice. Moreover, a dilemma exists in the modern business world as to whether companies should negate the application of morals and just give emphasis to profit maximization as long as firm operations are well within current legal stipulations (Hotten, 2015). However, as Adams (2015) argues this perspective of morality is highly parochial. In an attempt to enlighten on the subject, Paul (2015) opined that for proper comprehension of morality and its role in modern business should focus on companies not just as entities but rather as individuals who are expected to operate as driven by moral purpose (Paul, 2015). Despite the importance attached to carrying out business within moral parameters, many companies including Volkswagen have found it hard to cope with the current echelons of competition and still pay regards to morality. Volkswagen after becoming the leader in the industry in the beginning of 2015 attracted a lot of attention after the US-American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) went ahead to suggest that the company had found a way of going round emission tests in a manner that provided EPA with the correct results (Argenti, 2015). Further investigations revealed that the company had discovered and installed specific software branded as the ‘defeat device’ (Hotten, 2015). According to findings, this device provided the vehicles the ability to alter performance when undergoing testing in a way that improved the results to satisfy the EPA requirements (Holme, 2008). Scholars have since used Volkswagen as a case for studying the issue of morality in business. As Adams (2015) opines, such cases are most effective when there is need to identify particular deficiencies in conduct within a particular industry. These can then be related to the global arena in order to understand current regulation related trends. This paper seeks to discuss the various morality issues in business as drawn from the Volkswagen instance. Body Deception According to Holme (2008), the scandal faced by the company can be effectively understood by considering an analysis in terms of business ethics. This can be further understood by taking in to consideration the deception as observed in terms of firm leadership as well as company governance and culture (Adams, 2015). Moreover, a closer look at the bigger picture reveals that the company engaged in unacceptable business mor als by breaching Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and thus breaking the trust that its customers and the entire public had bestowed (Iguchi, 2015). According to Murphy (2015), this is a proper example of immorality in business because by using the installed software the company knowingly deceived and manipulated both the regulators and the public. Additionally, by doing so the company intentionally escalated the levels of pollution through emission. Research studies point out that it is immoral for any company to conduct business without giving regards to its responsibility as concerns environmental pollution. This is the very thing that the company did. Additionally, Murphy (2015) believes that any company operating within the tenets of morality must take in to consideration the impacts of its operations on the health of surrounding communities. Apparently, Volkswagen intentionally ignored the impacts of the increased levels of emissions and acted outside of moral requirements threatening the very existence of humanity through its deception (Rossouw & Vuuren, 2010). As such, the fact that the company intentionally indulged in deceptive business practices means that management did not consider moral tenets. CSR disclosure Studies point out that it is necessary and ethical for companies to provide accurate and unadulterated CSR disclosures. Considering that the company had just been awarded the prize for the world leading automobile business 10 days prior to the discovery of its immoral practice, this raises questions as to whether the CEO of the firm had anything to do with corrupting Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) (Schiermeier, 2015). Scholars have argued that morality in business entails refraining from any acts of bribery to interfere with CSR disclosures and as Iguchi (2015) opines there is a great possibility that Volkswagen negated this ethical principle to cheat the world concerning its CSR performance. Additionally, intentionally creating gaps in CSR disclosure is unethical and this is the very thing that the management may have been doing for a long time (Schiermeier, 2015). Corporate culture According to Iguchi (2015), companies that knowingly cultivate a culture of deceiving customers, the public and regulatory organizations negate their responsibility as embedded in the need to operate with honesty. The case of Volkswagen in the year 2015 has led to numerous suggestions as to whether the culture within the company was based on acceptable business norms. Additionally, studies indicate that one of the reasons why companies negate compliance to set moral standards for operation is that most have cultivated a culture of dishonesty (Argenti, 2015). This appears to be the case with Volkswagen because as Holme (2008) opines, a company’s culture usually manifests through it compliance or lac of it to standardized norms. However, this not only applies to the company in question but also to the regulating bodies suc h as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) that went ahead to crown Volkswagen (Paul, 2015). Considering the fact that the installed devises have gone unnoticed for years, it is not even clear whether the regulating bodies have known it al along or whether they too have been caught up in corporate cultures that serve to propagate unethical business practices (Adams, 2015). Industry spillover According to Adams (2015), it is ethical for organizations to consider operating within requirements of morality in order to avoid instances that will negatively influence other key players within the same industry. The incidence as later described in this paper proves that Volkswagen never took in to consideration the need to operate within moral principles that would not only protect the company but also shield other operators in the industry (Hotten, 2015). Although scholars assert that within the context of the current echelons of global competition and rivalry it is increasingly becoming d ifficult for corporations to consider the impact of their decisions on other industry players, Holme (2008) holds the opinion that despite such conditions it is the responsibility of each organization to ensure compliance to moral requirements. As such, Volkswagen should not have engaged in deceptive activities because this has drawn a lot of heat on other leading companies. In addition, the fact that the company did not operate within the set moral principles will affect the diesel automobile industry negatively (Murphy, 2015). This is because the demands for vehicles running on diesel will most likely slump as people had began to trust such vehicles based on the reputation of Volkswagen vehicles (Hotten, 2015). Reputation and legitimacy The issue of morality as concerning business endeavors has to do with the manner in which a company responds to incidences harming reputation such as Volkswagen faces currently (Hotten, 2015). It is also important to note that it is unethical for companies to deploy such strategies by seeking to communicate necessary changes in a deceptive manner. For instance, Volkswagen responded by communicating to the public that the company would authorize internal investigations (Adams, 2015). This is unethical because the company has known al along that the devices were in use and the response is just another attempt to deceive the public and make the world believe that the problem was accidental while it apparently is not. Studies also reveal that immoral practices in business entail attempts to alter the perception of stakeholders in the event of negative incidences (Argenti, 2015). As is, this is exactly what Volkswagen seemed to do by communicating to stakeholders that the issue only reflected a technical problem that would be solved with ease (Argenti, 2015). Engineering ethics According to Holme (2008), the scandal faced by Volkswagen not only serves to reveal the lack of morality in the represented industry but also reveals a dreadful truth that the engineering industry has also been caught in the lack of ethics phenomenon because the company could not have violated ethics tenets without the alliance provided by engineers. In agreeing to design and install the devices, the engineers ignored their fiduciary obligation, which is a direct violation of ethics within the field (Paul, 2015). This further indicates that the department f the engineering company that was supposed to ensure that operations did not endanger the environment adjudicated their responsibility leading to a direct indication of ethical canons governing the engineering business. Additionally, Iguchi (2015) argues that the alliance between the two industries to deceive the world is reflection of a greater truth. This truth as described by Adams (2015) is the fact that in modern business it has become normal for corporations to violate moral requirements in pursuit of supremacy and profits. More importantly such actions indicate that corpo rations around the world have propagated cultures of dishon...

Locke, Blake, and Wordsworth Understanding Experience - Literature Essay Samples

William Blake, in his work There Is No Natural Religion, and William Wordsworth, in his poem 1799 Prelude, challenge John Locke’s understanding of the nature of the self by offering alternative theories as to the ways in which we as humans perceive and interpret our experiences. Blake—and to a lesser extent Wordsworth—refutes Locke in his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, offering contrasting opinions as to how the self is formed. Locke’s view of the self is rooted in his belief that humans are born into the world as tabula rasa, a blank slate. He believes formation of the self is passive and empirical in nature, consequent of tangible experience. This suggests that as we perceive our experiences with the objective facts of the material world, our mind is passively constructing complex ideas from our perceptions, resulting in a reality that is limited to what has been directly experienced. Wordsworth and Blake oppose Locke’s tenet of a p assive mind, asserting a mutually exclusive theory: the presence of an active mind. Through the presence of an active mind, a creative imagination emerges, therefore allowing perceptions beyond Locke’s empirical worldview to appear. Thus, while Wordsworth and Blake agree with Locke in that as humans we perceive and experience the material world, both assert that our ability to perceive extends far beyond what our passive Lockean self would allow, instead declaring an intrinsically creative imagination. Locke’s idea that Man comes into the world as â€Å"tabula rasa† was born from the study of the scientific empirical method of discovery, which is in contrast to the doctrine of theologians who professed that Man, held an innate knowledge. Locke professes that knowledge is formed from sensation and reflection. Sensations are what we experience in the material world; Locke writes that the mind comes to be furnished via â€Å"experience,† which is defined as the past or current experiences of one’s life (Locke 21). The act of reflection is the way in which the mind perceives these experiences. Locke states, â€Å"These two, I say viz- external, material things, as the objects of SENSATION, and the operations of our own minds within, as the objects of REFLECTION, are, to me, the only originals, from whence all our ideas take their beginnings† (22). Thus, Locke believes our experiences, and therefore ones sensations can only be derived from objective, m aterial things. It is from these raw sensations where simple ideas such as â€Å"yellow, white, heat, cold, soft, hard† originate, which our mind then reflects upon via its own operations: â€Å"perception, thinking, doubting, believing† (21). This pattern of sensation and reflection is how Locke understands the identity of the self to be shaped. Hence, there can exist only objective realties, as our mind is only able to perceive the raw, actual facts of our surroundings. And so it can be said that according to Locke’s beliefs, the nature of self is inherently empirical as our perceptions, and therefore our sensations are limited to objective, material things. William Wordsworth and William Blake, however, hold perceptions of the self which contrast with Lockes. They did not understand the mind solely as a collection of experiences; instead, they sought to understand what innate forces shaped the way in which one interprets the world. Both Wordsworth and Blake directly challenge the notion of a passive mind by arguing the presence of an active mind, which allows for the emergence of a creative-imagination. Wordsworth does not disagree that we perceive through our senses; however, he chooses to introduce an external force, which he argues is the source of our active mind. Wordsworth writes: Blessed the infant babe—†¦ Doth gather passion from his mother’s eye Such feeling pass into his torpid life Like an awakening breeze, and hence his mind†¦ Is prompt and watchful, eager to combine In one appearance all the elements (Wordsworth, 20) Wordsworth suggests our life to be â€Å"torpid,† or passive before the mothe r instills the intangible â€Å"passion† within us. It is from this passion that his sense of self and his sense of knowledge are formed through nature. And thus, nature nurtured his â€Å"eager† and creative mind as a child. Furthering these ideas, Wordsworth demonstrates enhanced perception through a reflection upon his youth. Rowing in a stolen rowboat, Wordsworth personifies nature, as he believes nature is both encouraging him to take the boat and rebuking him for doing so: â€Å"lead by them,† he steals a boat in â€Å"an act of stealth / And troubled pleasure†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (94). The â€Å"troubled pleasure† are the feelings he felt from acting on â€Å"The passions that build up our human soul† (95). Wordsworth believed that nature punished him for this transgression when a â€Å"creature† appeared: â€Å"As if with voluntary power instinct / [it] Upreared its head† and â€Å"with purpose of its own / And measured motion like a living thing / strode after me† (94-95). This personification of nature demonstrates that Wordsworth interprets his surroundings through creative imagination. While Locke’s perception of this event would have been limited to objective facts, Wordsworth is able to perceive the cliff with â€Å"undetermined sense,† resulting in the operations of his mind working in â€Å"unknown modes of being† (95). Therefore, his mind is allowed to construct complex ideas beyond what Locke believes possible. Even though what Wordsworth perceives the â€Å"creature† to be is seemingly unclear, it appears to exceed material facts of the outside world. In fact, he uses this event to provide an example of subjectivity resulting from creative imaginations. That is, an â€Å"eager† mind allows humans to perceive beyond what is purely â€Å"material† and, as a result, colors experiences based upon the past. Applying Locke’s ideas, it is seen that as the mind experiences, its reflection upon these perceptions is tainted by the creative imagination. Therefore, as the self encounters new experiences, our perceptions of them will be influenced by our past. Considering the text directly, ho wever, Wordsworth suggests that he is recognizing nature’s attempts at demonstrating a sense of morality to him: a sense of right and wrong. Therefore, it is through the use of an external figure, the mother, that Wordsworth is able to demonstrate an awakening of the creative imaginations within us, which allows us to see and perceive beyond what is â€Å"material† or fact. And thus yielding from Wordsworth’s beliefs are realities that become increasingly subjective through our attainment of experiences. In a manner similar to Wordsworths, Blake challenges the idea of a passive mind by proclaiming the presence of a â€Å"Prophetic and Poetic character† within us. Blake goes further in challenging Locke when he proclaims, â€Å"Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception† (Blake 89). Furthermore, within Blake’s writing, he makes two distinctions: â€Å"the ratio of all† and â€Å"the Infinite† (89). â€Å"The ratio of all† is synonymous with Locke, as it represents the ratio of our past experiences, or rather the ratio of what is material or objective. Thus â€Å"the Infinite† represents the perceptions that extend beyond â€Å"the ratio of all.† More precisely however, â€Å"the Infinite† is perceived by the active mind through the creative imagination in order to combine ideas beyond what would be possible in a Lockean world. Blake verifies this by writing, â€Å"he who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only†(89). Therefore, if one is only able to see â€Å"the Ratio† then he is limited to his empirical self and thus his reality becomes increasingly objective. However, if one is able to see the infinite then one must be able to experience or perceive the infinite, allowing the â€Å"Prophetic and Poetic character† within him to perceive beyond what is objective and material. This ability results in an increasingly subjective reality. Unlike Wordsworth—who wrote that our passion, creative imagination and active mind were direct results of an external force, the mother—Blake believes â€Å"the Poetic or Prophetic character† is inherently within us (89). This is demonstrated as he writes that if it were not for such a character, the â€Å"Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things, stand still unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again†(89). Thus, he argues that without this character, our perceptions would become limited to â€Å"the ratio of all things† and would begin to â€Å"repeat the same dull round,† or the passive nature of Locke’s sensation and reflection. Therefore, through our ability to see the infinite rather than solely the ratio, Blake demonstrates how our creative imagination—the Prophetic and Poetic character—perceives beyond the objective facts of the material world, thus resulting in the coloring of our experiences and subjective realities. Wordsworth and Blake both challenge Locke’s view of a passive, objective self by asserting the presence of a creative and active self. Wordsworth demonstrates this through an active imagination and passion, while Blake asserts an inborn spirit that is more than our collective experiences. As a result, the ability to perceive beyond what would be possible according to Locke creates a heterogeneous human experience among all beings. This subjectivity allows for a diversity of beliefs and allows us to assign significance or meaning to an experience that is uniquely our own. The ability to find meaning in an event based upon past experiences, and thereby grow the mind, allows for a self to emerge greater than the sum of its individual parts.