Does Cheating in Golf Predict Cheating in Business free essay sample

Approaching to the ethical principles, utilitarianism, a teleological principle, asserts that â€Å"we should always act so as to produce the greatest ratio of good to evil for everyone†, or for other words we should take the action that represents the â€Å"greatest good for the greatest number†. However this theory has some weaknesses (as any theory) such as the fact that it ignores the means, it just focuses on the ends, so using the utilitarianism reasoning, the end justifies the means, and relating this with the case we could have the situation when if we cheat and it will represent the â€Å"greatest good for the greatest number† according to this principle there’s nothing that makes that action ethically incorrect. However, Kant’s Categorical Imperative, a deontological principle that focus essentially on duties, bases in 3 formulations: act only on rules (or maxims) that you would be willing to see everyone follow; each person has dignity and moral worth and should never be exploited or manipulated or merely used as a means to another end; and we do not need an external authority—be it God, the state, our culture, or anyone else—to determine the nature of the moral law. We can discover this for ourselves. This principle is more subjective, but we can summarize that for example in the golf match I believe that anyone would like to lost a match because your opponent cheat, so and using the first assumption referred above, you should not do it too. Here we have the ethical issue in the case and we can summarize it in one question, is cheating worth it? The ethical issue of cheating is sometimes really tricky because even ourselves were in some situation when a little cheat will not hurt anyone University of Southern Denmark Stakeholder Management Nuno Graca CPR nr: 300492-3749 nd anyone was looking so it seemed so easy and will make us stay ahead of the others, but it still a cheat. So going back to the topic of the case what should they do? Cheat but win the bet in golf and try to overtake the competitors in business or be honest and let your skills decide the result of the bet and try to improve your company based on your strengths without dirty tricks? Society says that cheating is wr ong but at the same time exerts an enormous pressure for people to achieve success, what makes some people deviate from their character and personal ethics and forget the means as long as the goal is achieved. ) I think is clearly evident that today we are living in a cheating society where everyone does everything to succeed even if they have to be unethical or going against the law. Almost every day we read news about some company that has hidden millions of dollars in offshore tax-havens to escape to pay the taxes or about another doping case in some sport, cheating became t be something so usual that we got used to hear about. Nowadays if you fail you have someone on your back to take your position, failure is increasingly not tolerated and the fear of not be succeed is constant because we don’t want to disappoint our family, friends, colleagues, boss, or everyone who has a stake on us – our stakeholders. That makes us feel an inexplicable desire to achieve success at all costs not only for us but for everybody who is counting on us. It’s this pressure that everybody feels that is becoming the society day by day a society based on cheating, cheating to win a bet, cheating to take advantage of our competitors in the business world, cheating to win in any sport, basically cheating to achieve the success. For everything that I wrote before it’s easy to deduce that I agree with David Callahan when he points exactly this climate where â€Å"you kill or you die†, all for the success and also points four reasons that explain this cheating society where we live today. It could be ironic to say, but the truth is the society pushes you to cheat because as Callahan said today the rewards are a consequence of a win and the temptation is always present when you want to win you will try all ways to do it and moreover if you know that others are cheating too you will think they are doing it and they can take advantage of it and even overtake me because of that so I’ll do the same, University of Southern Denmark Stakeholder Management Nuno Graca CPR nr: 300492-3749 and then we get in a unending cycle of cheating. Today there is so much to be gained by being just a little better than others by running a little more faster than any other athlete, by getting to and staying at the very top of the corporation, or by being the absolute best in any other field. Salaries and rewards for those who come out on top have gone crazy. CEOs got 40 times what the average employee in their company earned in 1980, and 400 times by 2000. Who would settle for less when they are bombarded by ads like Nikes during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics: You dont win silver. You lose gold? The winner-take-all culture exists in almost every area of today’s life. Tempted by these rewards, some people climbing the ladder may do almost anything to get to the top, and some who already have made it there will do almost anything to stay. Athletes turn to performance enhancers to remain superstars as they age, corporate executives falsify the books to retain their immense pay and perks. Adding to the temptation, athletes, high school students and scientists may convince themselves that anyone who is on top has cheated to get there, and therefore they rationalize it for themselves. So, we have become a society captivated by the winner. We have made the one who comes out on top in sports or rises to the peak in business a new kind of royalty. It is no wonder people cheat. It’s a cultural problem of our society, maybe we ought to reward more the one who strives to be successful and valorise less the results. In the day that the effort will worth more than a victory people will stop cheating. 3) I would say that cheating outside of the work has a relation with cheating at work. They are for sure two different realities but from the Starwood study presented in the case we can reach a conclusion. 99 percent of the executives interviewed consider themselves honest in business, however 82 percent admit they cheat at golf. So this means that they are open to admit that they are not honest in the golf field but when we talk about their professional life their attitude change and almost everyone says that they don’t cheat, because there the topic is more serious is maybe the work of a life and they don’t want to be judge they want people to recognize their merit. University of Southern Denmark Stakeholder Management Nuno Graca CPR nr: 300492-3749 When the executives cheat in a golf game is not for the reasons that I wrote above in the second question, is not to reach the top because they’re not golf players, there they have another reasons such as their pride. Golf is not a normal sport, is a sport hardly associated with business, and business as a competitive e world even when is just a simple golf game nobody wants to be bad in the â€Å"picture†. In other side, cheating at work is much more according the reasons that I pointed before, about being successful and reach the top at all costs. Let’s imagine that an executive that cheated on golf had an opportunity to cheat and make thousands of dollars with that, what do you think he will do? In my opinion someone who cheats for a small prize in a golf game doesn’t have any problem to cheat for a much bigger reward. Obviously, I’m not saying that is always like this, the relation is not exactly direct and is not true in every case but I think in most of them we can do this logic. The data present in the case also support my point of view, because 72 percent of respondents believe business and golf behaviour parallel each other. So now there is a relevant question to be answered, cheating is all about your personal character? If you cheat once you’ll be a cheater in all the areas of your life? To the first question I don’t think I have the competence to answer accurately, but what I think is your character can be moulded and even if now you avoid completely to cheat there is nothing that can guarantee that you will never do it. To the other question my answer is no, because there are some moments in your life that even if you are the most honest people in the world, if the happiness and future of the people that you love depends on that you will do it and in my opinion it doesn’t make you a cheater and it doesn’t mean you will cheat in everything in your life from this moment on. University of Southern Denmark Stakeholder Management Nuno Graca CPR nr: 300492-3749