During our first class someone raised the idea that it would be best to not do business with an unethical country in order to, basically, force that country to begin ethical practices. But a counter to that was also raised: do more business with such a country, for doing so would help that country rise above its ethical quagmire and move into better business practices and better lifestyles for its people.
That idea has been swirling in my mind ever since. Would this really be a way to help a country? Isn't that just like rewarding a person for bad behavior?
So, it was to my surprise that I learned just today that the Dalai Lama takes the latter position in dealings with China.
He is currently living in exile in northern India, and his culture - Tibetan culture - is dying at the hands of the Chinese government. Some people protest China and refuse to continue buying products with any relation to China due to these unfair dealings with the Tibetan people. However, the Dalai Lama believes that we should continue buying and supporting trade with China. He thinks that doing so will help place his people in a better light amongst the Chinese people; this will soften the Chinese to the Tibetans and eventually grant them the freedom they so earnestly seek.
I guess the Dalai Lama has some interesting ideas not only for the religious and spiritual world but also for the world of business.
New Question: When approaching an ethical question or difficulty, is it wise to reflect on spiritual advice to help you gain an answer?
Monday, January 31, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Ethics - Day one
Last night - January 24, 2011 - in our first Ethics class we had a discussion on ethics in a general sense in order to prep the class towards the focus on ethics as it pertains directly to accounting. Some questions were raised and discussed:
Within a work-related setting, who decides what is or is not ethical?
I look at my career - as brief as it was - as a teacher and can recall instances in which I disagreed with the way(s) in which the administration handled various issues dealing with both students and my fellow colleagues. For example, one member of the administration would treat students in ways that I considered to be quite rude, all the while chastising colleagues (and myself on occasion) for similar behaviors towards students. It was a very do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do mentality that this person carried around. And it was quite hypocritical. When teachers attempted to use more positive methods that were not rude and/or got the problem solved so the rest of the students were able to learn, the administrator was up against them. The students could see this in that person's actions on many occasions and wanted to speak up about it (not to mention the teachers on happy hour).
Then came the question for me: do I encourage or discourage these students from speaking up about this? They will easily be punished for "insubordination" - a favorite of the school's punishments. However, I think of it as a necessity for us to teach people that speaking for their rights is important. It's a dilemma, faced on more than one occasion.
I handled it as this...If a student wanted to come and talk to me about something upsetting him/her, I was happy to listen, empathize on the general feeling (not necessarily about the same person though...keeping job is good) of hypocrisy, and basically give them advice on how to handle "those types of people and situations" when encountered in their future. I take this to be an ethical response, but at the same time I would really have liked to encourage the students to bring forth their complaints and angst in a format that would be taken seriously by the offender and not just blown of as "insubordination". I do not like that I was basically stuck with the best option being to tell them how to "deal with it" while in school and not get in trouble. Especially since what they were saying was a very genuine complaint.
It is like their trouble spot of not being able to say anything is so similar to how people feel in the workplace. Say something, get fired. Keep quiet, keep your job. I hope that the school system is not producing or reinforcing that type of behavior, but now that I step outside and look at it, I fear that it is.
Back to the question: What is the ethical obligation in such a scenario? Going with rules set aside by superiors? Or going with what an individual believes to be right?
- Are ethics something that keep our society moving forward?
- If you look at it as work-related, who decides what is ethical?
- Is outsourcing ethically good, bad, or somewhere in between?
- As a company, should you do business with a country that is - according to your standards - unethical?
- Is it good to do business in such a country in order to help bring that country up - eventually raising it out of unethical practices?
Within a work-related setting, who decides what is or is not ethical?
I look at my career - as brief as it was - as a teacher and can recall instances in which I disagreed with the way(s) in which the administration handled various issues dealing with both students and my fellow colleagues. For example, one member of the administration would treat students in ways that I considered to be quite rude, all the while chastising colleagues (and myself on occasion) for similar behaviors towards students. It was a very do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do mentality that this person carried around. And it was quite hypocritical. When teachers attempted to use more positive methods that were not rude and/or got the problem solved so the rest of the students were able to learn, the administrator was up against them. The students could see this in that person's actions on many occasions and wanted to speak up about it (not to mention the teachers on happy hour).
Then came the question for me: do I encourage or discourage these students from speaking up about this? They will easily be punished for "insubordination" - a favorite of the school's punishments. However, I think of it as a necessity for us to teach people that speaking for their rights is important. It's a dilemma, faced on more than one occasion.
I handled it as this...If a student wanted to come and talk to me about something upsetting him/her, I was happy to listen, empathize on the general feeling (not necessarily about the same person though...keeping job is good) of hypocrisy, and basically give them advice on how to handle "those types of people and situations" when encountered in their future. I take this to be an ethical response, but at the same time I would really have liked to encourage the students to bring forth their complaints and angst in a format that would be taken seriously by the offender and not just blown of as "insubordination". I do not like that I was basically stuck with the best option being to tell them how to "deal with it" while in school and not get in trouble. Especially since what they were saying was a very genuine complaint.
It is like their trouble spot of not being able to say anything is so similar to how people feel in the workplace. Say something, get fired. Keep quiet, keep your job. I hope that the school system is not producing or reinforcing that type of behavior, but now that I step outside and look at it, I fear that it is.
Back to the question: What is the ethical obligation in such a scenario? Going with rules set aside by superiors? Or going with what an individual believes to be right?
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