Ethics and Morals
Today in Doherty's Class (Applications of IT), we did something very interesting. Doherty's classes are always interesting anyways, however, today we played a simulation. Each member in a group of five were given a personality profile. The scenario was that each group of five represented a board meeting. I got to be the president (big surprise, heh). After we read the case and got into the role we are supposed to play, I started the video-conferencing meeting.Apparently, my manager of operations in Indonesia wanted a $35,000 'consulting' fee in order to insure that we meet sales expectations for next year.
My manager in Russia had employees with unequal pay, repairment expenses and a way ot of paying less to the customs fee let the shipment enter the country.
As for my manager in Sudan, he needed an OUTRIGHT bribe to finish the 'testing' of equipment to start production in that facility.
hmmm... are you starting to see a pattern here? LOL
Obviously, it was a case about ethics. During the course of the dicussion in class, many people of course were not taking it too seriously. A couple were joking (I think) about what kind of more evil things they can come up with. I realized at that time how wrong that is. How people have veeeery different interpretations of what ethical is. If you take someone out to dinner, is that a bribe? How about if the dinner cost $1000. What if you gave him a present? a cheque? Where is the line?
A guy in class argued that this is how the business environment operates. You need to be that kind of person. Especially if you want to manage international corporations. If you want things to run smoothly, you gotta pay the required bribes and 'fee' or 'expenses'. Guess what, he was the other Muslim person in the class besides me and two other girls :S Way to go man to keep a nice, clean picture of our religion.
Complete and Utter B.S.
I believe in Ethics. There ARE no different interpretations. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Call me naive, but I believe that the good guy always wins and the bad guy always loses in the end. Always. The business world is no exception. The more and more I learn with my transition from a technie to a BP, the more and more I refuse to believe that I have to sacrifice an inch of my principles to succeed.
So there =)
posted by SunShine @ 5:31 p.m.
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