A633.2.3.RB- Butterfly Effect

If you asked someone what the Butterfly Effect is I would guess there would be two distinct answers. For a millennial like me I would have told you it is the movie starring Ashton Kutcher that came out in 2004. While the entire plot and outcome is a little shaky for me, the gist is that the main character wanted to change his life and the lives of those he cared about once they grew up because some of the things they either chose to do or endured set them on a course that left them with terrible lives. Kutcher’s character was able to go back in time and change one small event. The movie then flashed forward years later to their college years and he would see how one small change affected everything. Most of the time going back and pinpointing what went wrong changed things for the better for mostly everyone, but there would always be a flaw of something else that went wrong. For instance, once he stopped his friend from blowing up a mailbox with firecrackers and he ended up with severe life altering injuries. I believe the take away here is that it is the small choices can have a large impact.

Now that I have spent some time researching complexity science and theory I would put my money on it that the movie was inspired by Lorenz’s Strange Attractor which also became known as the Butterfly Effect based on the name he selected for his paper: Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas. It turns out that when graphing pressure, temperature, and wind speed that the simultaneous non-linear differential equations have an infinite number of possibilities. The graph itself looks like a butterfly which is why it earned the more common nickname (Obolensky, 2014). “In other words, when a situation has a great sensitivity to initial conditions a small change can have a  disproportionate effect” (Obolensky, 2014, p. 70). Examining the name of the paper, it is an interesting thought if something like the flap of a butterfly’s wings or even the absence of it would have such an impact. Previously I would have scoffed and said how ludicrous the notion is but I have learned that with the absence of bees humans would struggle to survive and eat after about five years. Earthquakes can produce tsunamis and even the Cynefin framework when discussing complexity notes that one change in a rainforest can drastically change the landscape and function due to the interrelatedness of the ecosystem (Snowden & Boone, 2007).

So, what if we bottled up this idea and started making small changes? Obolensky drew the conclusion that within complex organizations small changes can yield large results. He referenced several companies who have proven this idea. Even better I have seen this at work within my organization. The first example was set in motion several months before I started my position. Every term we would make announcements that students could enroll and some would pick their classes. It was odd that someone was pursuing a degree but not all that actively engaged throughout the year. Such is the plight of distance learners. Our leadership thought it would make a difference to do an outreach to each individual that was actively enrolled in the term to give them course suggestions and offer to assist with enrollment for the next term. We call this the term to term outreach. Sure enough we are still doing this because our retention made leaps and bounds of improvement. This is wonderful for our students because they are reaching their goal to graduate within a timely manner.

A second example is something that our team had not realized we could do!  We thought the Procedures Manual still noted that method of payment must be taken at the time of registration. We were enforcing that tuition assistance forms and payment already be made to register. While this kept our records tidy, it was not a great way to do business with our students. For lack of better analogy it was like holding the class they wanted over people’s heads and asking them to jump through the hoop to get it. That is not exactly encouraging if you examined the message… we want you to be a part of our institution and we are going to show you by making it difficult! It turns out the undergraduate team was not doing this and it made doing business with our students much easier. It was a breath of fresh air for the graduate advising team that we could enroll students and have the method of payment was in place by the first day of the term. Sure enough this also improved getting students into their classes.

Very recently we have seen a lot of changes. We have changed our Learning Management System from Blackboard to Canvas. To support our new LMS we have created what we are calling ERNIE 2.0 to support the new platform. If you were a student a year ago and came back to classes it would basically be unrecognizable. In a lot of ways it does create chaos at first. However, once everyone has acclimated to the changes it should be easier and better, thus allowing for more order than there was before. Hopefully this will make way for more growth. The implication of the first two examples of change is that you can use small strategic changes that can drive improvements, neither of which cost our department anything additional in the budget. It was not essential to throw globs of money at the problem to do something better, we took what we already had to work with and did it a little smarter. The lesson here is start with what you have to make small changes and watch what happens before deciding what big changes need to be implemented. You might end up surprised.

References:

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). Gower

Snowden, D.  & Boone, M. (2007).  A leader’s framework for decision making.  Harvard Business Review, 85(11), Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making%20

A633.1.2.RB- Leadership Gap

I went to see the action film San Andreas starting The Rock last weekend and cannot stop thinking about it. Surprisingly it is his character that has stayed on my mind. Wow, what a leader. In the movie he is a veteran and a rescue helicopter pilot who has extraordinary skills well versed in flying planes, sky diving, and driving cars and boats. Sure his mission eventually became self-serving when he went to rescue his daughter instead of other people who needed help, but that is what makes him a leader in my eyes. He did not wait for someone to show up and pin a title on him and say you are a leader now, it was simply within him. You can look at movies and see seemingly ordinary characters and start to identify those with leadership and those without it. Because you see the story unfold from beginning to end this is the easiest place to start. Then look at real world examples. There are wonderful, talented people out there every day in our world taking initiative and being a leader. Some have titles like those who startup companies and become CEOs and there are also those who remain relatively anonymous and volunteer their time, energy, abilities, and passions.

My personal attitude of a leader has changed in my lifetime, largely due to pursuing a Masters in Leadership. I have a great admiration for those who are able to bring people together and accomplish great things. I am sure I had a rose colored naivety about leadership because sometimes I became disappointed that a teacher or an adult leader that I had squandered their opportunity and dropped the ball on a class project. I just assumed that those who were leaders had it completely together and would always be there for others and wouldn’t let me down. I used to think if you were to leader it meant you were the A plus out of all of the A plus qualifying members. When we believe leaders are superheroes it puts a lot of pressure on very human people and it opens us up to want to criticize them for not being perfect.

I think a lot of my beliefs came from my father who was taught by his parents and generationally Baby Boomers really believed in putting blood, sweat, and tears in for the company. Millennials, my generation, see how our parents and grandparents have spent their countless hours in the office sometimes without any retribution and at times when the company turns its back on aging employees and forces them into early retirement or even lets them go in the midst of their prime. It is hard not to have the attitude that it is all about serving me first and an organization second. This creates a lot of entitlement and perhaps why there is a changing trend in attitudes.

When we see these leaders in fancy suits, with luxury cars and access to private planes that jet off to vacations most will never have in their lifetime mess up there is a Marie Antoinette-like response that we the people want to eat cake and it is off with their head! The internet age has made every mood highly visible. Not to say Britney Spears is a leader by any stretch of the imagination, but this is one of the first celebrities where the boundaries were pushed to know every move of this person. This has since become to norm. Nothing is entirely a secret anymore. This extends to those in government and private leadership to athletes and actors. We even keep tabs on our colleagues through social media. I think this also shapes why there have been changes to the perception of leaders. I looked up my house on Google Earth and can see details of my life on full display for anyone with the internet to see. The game has completely changed and everyone is on notice.

Obolensky (2014) quotes Lau Tzu’s definition of leadership:

The worst leader is one that lies and is despised; not much better is one that leads using oppression and fear; a little better is the leader who is visible, loved and respected; however, the best leader is one whom the people hardly knows exists, leaving them happy to say, once the aim is achieved, ‘We did it ourselves’. (p. 6)

This brings me back to The Rock and the Leadership Gap. Leaders can be from any walk of life, title or no title. To me a leader is someone who is an example, who helps others with betterment, and energizes others. Though I am not a manager, director, or someone who gets paid to be in a leadership position I am still a leader. I work with adult students and part of what I do is to bring my best self to work every day and give all I can do help solve problems and get my students to reach their goals. If I have five hundred students admitted to the University that belong to me, my desire is for all five hundred to earn their diploma and even better would be to see them in their cap and gown. I might be considered an anonymous leader but I am still a leader. I have responsibilities that I carry with me whether I am at on the clock or at home. You do not check out for the day on being a leader, it is who you are through and through, day in and day out and not just because the internet is watching. It is the mark of real leadership.

Many companies are specialists in their industry whether it is medicine to fashion. I have worked at several small companies that have no form of structure and the leadership lacks in something to be desired. It is not uncommon to believe leadership is super easy and you innately know what to do. I think one of the reasons there is an explosion of study is because leaders and followers feel a void and realize that things could be done better and there could be more fulfillment for both parties in the process. Seeking the structured knowledge that exists can only benefit in closing the leadership gap.

References:

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership: Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2nd ed.). Gower.

A634.9.5.RB- A Reflection of Our Learning

I am a bit amazed that until this class I have never taken an ethics class. I was not really sure what to expect. I was excited because I heard rave reviews about this class. I was also nervous because I thought that even though I try to be on the up and up that maybe I should be worried that I am going to find out how tragically immoral I am. Luckily, it turns out I am doing alright! While there were aspects I found challenging I feel like there was a great value in checking in with these ethical concepts to reinforce doing the right thing even when it is tempting not to or when you just aren’t sure it matters. It does matter. Without further ado, these are a few of my favorite things:

One of the first things I realized when I started examining ethical theories is that I am largely not a consistent person. Consistency was one of the most interesting themes to me throughout the course. I have the Piccadilly of ethical beliefs. I pick and choose, just like at the restaurant, what I believe. I have mentioned before in my blog that if Jack Bauer breaks a bunch of laws and acts unethically but at the end of the day saves the world then the ends justify the means. I do not usually tend to allow consequentialist ideas to be my guiding light. The saving the world analogy is an above and beyond circumstance. If it is a regular Tuesday and you are trying to make it to the bus on time and you push people down and shove past them just to make it that is quite a stretch. That would be an example of hiding behind ethical theories. Just when you think I am going to bob I weave and my opinions are not necessarily predictable based on one theory. However, a classmate of mine and a dear friend told me that no ethicist worth their moral salt sticks to one ethical theory for everything. I learned that it is okay to examine things as if they are relevantly different, which is what universalizability asks of us. I fail to be consistent in the concrete, but I would like to believe it is because I am keeping a watchful eye for relevant differences.

This brings me to one of the biggest eye openers for me and perhaps my favorite lesson, moral relativism. I read the LaFollette text and was still at a loss. A couple articles later and Pecorino dropped some knowledge on me. Another source to feeling that I am inconsistent lies in the fact that we have relativistic ideas operating in my system. I concur that unless you walk in another’s shoes it is hard to say what is right for someone else. What is right for me might not be for someone else. I am not one to push my beliefs off on another person, especially if I only assume I understand what someone else has gone through. On the other hand, there are Middle Eastern countries sometimes believe in honor killings. If a woman is raped the family kills them. That seems pretty harsh when in our society we tell victims it is not their fault, because it isn’t and we try to help them piece together their lives. To me honor killings are insane. But here I am with my relativistic ideas in conflict with each other. I am holding two opposing ideas at the same time. It blows my mind how I thought I was so open-minded, but within mere sentences I am contradicting myself. The LaFollette text points out that not all moral beliefs are equally as good.  

Lastly, when critical thinking meets logical fallacy and ethics we meet the slippery slope argument. There are two types plausible and implausible. Slippery slope arguments are a form of logical fallacy that is based upon a chain of reasoning that follows a format such A leads to B, and if B is not morally permissible, therefore A is unacceptable and we should stop A. “The key claim in the fallacy is that taking the first step will lead to the final, unacceptable step. Arguments of this form may or may not be fallacious depending on the probabilities involved in each step” (Dowden, n.d., para. 2). This reminds me that just because something is said at work, by a friend, in the media etc. that is might not be a valid claim. This reminds me of mudslinging in political campaigns. “This candidate was seen watching Fifty Shades of Grey in theatres; therefore they are too immoral to be our leader!” Okay, that is a total parody and was never said… but if you think about it that is kind of how slippery slope arguments work. It also reminds me how those with certain moral beliefs can let fear become fuel for anger and how there can be an outcry to stop social progress. I am thinking about Equal Marriage Rights here. When these arguments are used it can impede our ethical thinking about what we ought to do with often unfounded and incomplete thoughts that are not based upon fact or critical thinking.

References:

Dowden, B. (n.d.). Fallacies. Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/#SlipperySlope

LaFollette, H. (2007) The Practice of Ethics. Malden, MA; Blackwell Publishing

Pecorino, P.A. (2000). Relativism. Retrieved from: http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%208%20Ethics/Relativism.htm

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

Gun control or the right to bear arms… this ethical issue is something in which I feel surprisingly complacently neutral. My understanding is also fairly rudimentary and I feel that there is so much mudslinging on both sides that the waters are not clear enough to discern fact or fiction when listening to televised debates and conversations, after all just because it is said does not make it correct. So this is how I initially started thinking about this issue: Some people have guns and others do not. Some people like guns and others do not. Sometimes people fear what they do not know or understand and this could be true for both sides of the argument. Guns can be used to hurt people and hurting people is something I am passionately against. Though anything can be used to hurt people, which is why the definition of what constitutes a weapon has been expanded for when people get creative. In fact, airplanes were involved in terrorism and glue and spray paint are used as drugs, sadly even the most innocent seeming items can be turned into something dangerous.

My experience with guns began when I was ten and my dad bought me a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. Funny enough I had not seen A Christmas Story until last year despite the fact it airs for twenty-four hours on Christmas Eve almost every year without fail.  I had very clear instructions that I was never to touch this outside of my dad’s supervision and this is something I honored. I loved going in the woods and shooting soda cans that we found off of logs. A couple years ago a bunch of my friend’s and I got together and did some target practice. I have several friends’ that have extensive training with guns so they were teaching me and some of the other novices the proper handling and use. I am virtually at sniper status with a .22 rifle (soda cans beware!), but I have no business with a handgun. I do not feel capable that I would not shoot my own miniature fingers off. This became one of my many concerns of why I did not want a gun in my own home. I felt that an accident was more likely to occur, with my luck, than the need to use it to protect myself. Eventually we settled on a shotgun and it took a long time for me not to be paranoid that my cat was not going to make it shoot the house, us, itself, the other cats, the dog etc. somehow magically, you know because magic makes guns discharge…

One of my main qualms for forms of gun control is that I am not a proponent of challenging the Constitution, if our founding fathers felt it important enough to want to include this then there has to be something with historical context that they felt we would be disadvantaged not being able to bear arms. I have never lived in a time in which this was not a freedom we had; I cannot imagine what it was like during the creation of this law. My other issue is that when has banning anything ever caused stopped anything. LaFollette and I were on the same page in terms of the example of prohibition. Outlawing alcohol made it that much more of a commodity with back channels, bootlegging, the rise of the speak easy, gangsters, and crime. Anyone with alcohol was automatically a criminal. Illegal drugs are also not sold on the open market, yet they exist. At this point trying to enforce severe control or banishment would not mean the disappearance or use of guns, though that is not a terrible idea at its core.

Ethically I feel like LaFollette makes another good point that there is not really a need for bullets to be able to pierce bulletproof vests. My frequent ethics argument is just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. So certain gun control actions could have its benefits. Conversely, if someone other than the police are wearing Kevlar that would make stopping the situation perhaps more difficult. So to get a little more perspective I wanted to get both sides of the story from both gun proponents and those that support gun control. Pratt makes a strong case in his blog that schools like Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi were able to stop a situation with the proper use of a gun before the situation escalated in 1997. Some store owners during the LA riots kept their businesses standing while others burned to the ground. This was attributed to the fact that they loaded down their store with large capacity gun magazines for assault weapons (Pratt, 2012). Pratt goes on to make note that in 2012 “all of the mass shootings that have occurred in this country, with the exception of one, have taken place in gun-free zones” (Pratt, 2012, para. 3). On the other hand, the Brady Campaign is working diligently to ensure that guns are sold with a background check so that they are not sold to fugitives, felons, of domestic abusers. While some, like Pratt, are not so keen on the work of the Brady campaign as their vision is to change gun laws, gun culture, and the gun industry.

Is it possible to meet in the middle between making sure citizens are safe and can protect themselves when chaos ensues simultaneously while controlling who can get a gun? That is a large goal with a lot of conflict toward the other’s point of view. Ethically it is hard to say that either is completely wrong or completely right. For now I am still sticking with the opinion that taking something away doesn’t mean it will go away or the problem will be solved. While there are differently places on the scale that those who support gun control sit the answer is not to completely take guns away. There is no indication in history that such a thing has been successful.

References:

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2015, from http://www.bradycampaign.org/

LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing

Pratt, E. (2012, December 19). Stricter Gun Control Laws Will Only Make Citizens Less Safe. Retrieved May 17, 2015, from http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/did-the-sandy-hook-shooting-prove-the-need-for-more-gun-control/stricter-gun-control-laws-will-only-make-citizens-less-safe

A634.7.4.RB- Ethics and Behaviors

Ethics and portraying our values is not only important in our personal lives but also our professional lives, because like any open system, one feeds back into the other. Two interesting, but brief videos outline the ideas of ethical behavior and the costs in which it can have when we make a departure from our best behaviors. At first it can seem rather innocent, but isn’t one action a possible gateway into another?

Dr. Bruce Weinstein, “The Ethics Guy”, discusses ethical intelligence saying that ethically intelligent people know how to use this awareness the right way. Being ethically intelligent doesn't just mean knowing what is right, but also having the courage to do what is right. Weinstein's work simplifies five principles: do no harm, make things better, respect others, be fair, and be compassionate. Dr. Weinstein believes that making ethics our main concern is the best way to lead a richer, more fulfilled life and by taking ethics seriously, we serve as role models to our children and increase the chances that they will go into the world and make us proud (Weinstein, 2007, n.p.).

Chuck Gallagher’s concepts appear to expand on why behaving ethically is paramount. He explains that the choices you make will have a lasting effect on the life that you lead. Our choices and decisions do not go away after they have been made. Gallagher uses a slippery slope argument regarding professional ethics and generally accepted behavior to illustrate how easy moving from unethical to illegal may be:

Not good for the customer: Selling a customer something they do not need

Not good for company: Using company resources for personal use

Policy violation: Misrepresenting expense account charges

Unethical behavior: Harassment, information sharing

Illegal: Actions that result in jail time

I have been with ERAU for a year and a half and have never seen my superiors behave unethically, and I do feel that they really are models of ethical leaders for our company. When I think about Gallagher’s slippery slope argument of ethical behavior I realize that the area I am most guilty of is doing something not good for the company. I have printed tickets to a concert before I dashed out the door on personal leave (vacation time) or have printed an assigned reading article for school. This is bad and I should definitely not do this ever again! The paper, the printer, the ink… they are not mine for my personal needs. These supplies are purchased from the money we have in our budget. Ultimately it is a form of stealing and that is not okay. I know I am not the only one at fault from this type of petty theft, but that does make it right for me when now I see the error of my ways. 

There have been times when it is questionable whether I was being ethical toward the company. ERAU allows employees a couple hours a week to pursue their own educational endeavors as part of our culture and policy. While there are plenty of my colleagues pursuing degrees I do not believe anyone is utilizing this time allowance because we are in the Department of Online Learning and are interested in doing Online programs due to the flexibility and also to understand the student life cycle better. Others who have used the time usually went to class on campus. I know some like to do assignments on their lunch breaks using their work computers. I have done this from time to time, too. I am not sure if using the company’s computer to do our academic work is bad for the company or not. After all we are using the company’s resource, the computer, but the company’s culture is to pursue education and wants to give that to the employees. I think this would be a good policy to clarify. If we start to believe that this action is okay, what else becomes okay…? I circle back to printing articles and then possibly other stuff like concert tickets. It really is a slippery slope.

That lapse of judgement aside, I have seen a lot of unethical behavior, especially when I worked as a paralegal. I have worked in several firms, but one stood out as more corrupt than the others. To be fair, I worked in a mid to large sized firm when I got start in the business that could wipe the floor with some of these other places in terms of standards and ethics, so there are good places out there. I won’t go into details because when you are defending people who have done bad things you feel you become part of their wrongdoing by being part of the defense team. I didn’t stay long in that position, but it is one of a few very defining moments in my life that shaped me and what I believe about the world.

Seeing the things I saw is why I am passionate for wanting to do better for myself and also wanting everyone to do better in general. Dr. Weinstein’s advice is that ethical intelligence and behavior can make us feel good. If egoism alone is not a reason then knowing that acting with ethical intelligence is beneficial for everyone should be a good enough reason. Let’s do better for ourselves and others without distorting what that means.

References:

Gallagher, C. (2013, January 7). Business Ethics Keynote Speaker - Chuck Gallagher - shares Straight Talk about Ethics! - YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE

Weinstein, B. (2012, August 24). Keynote Speech Excerpts from The Ethics Guy - YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLxbHBpilJQ

Weinstein, B. (2007, January 10). Five Easy Principles? - Businessweek. Businessweek - Business News, Stock market & Financial Advice. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-01-10/five-easy-principles-businessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

A634.6.3.RB- What Are Virtues?

When I hear the word virtue admittedly I think to what I learned in movies about protecting a woman’s virtue and that centers mostly around chastity, which is in fact a virtue according to Ben Franklin’s 13 virtues. Ben Franklin created a program that has been used as a guide for living through principles in order to be a person of good character. So what are virtues? Aristotle holds that a virtuous person must do the appropriate action, do so habitually, enjoy acting virtuously, know that it is virtuous, and know why it is virtuous (LaFollette, 2007). Ben Franklin lists them as: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. Of the thirteen three stand out to me, I would like to debate one, industry, whereas two of the virtues an immediate need in society, sincerity and justice.

Industry is defined by Franklin as “Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions” (n.d.). I could end the argument by citing moderation and attributing needing to observe industry in moderation and just be done with it. That would be a disservice to the point this virtue instills, which is to live with purpose. Anytime the word all, always, never are used it tends to paint you into a corner. This virtue would be better served by removing all, though regardless of that edit I suppose one could argue between what is necessary and unnecessary, which is why I wish to debate this virtue. I work very hard to have a full-time job as an academic advisor. I have 475 students and a very active student population. I find purpose in helping others. During my free time I am pursuing a Master’s degree. I am having a very hard time squeezing in regular exercise and have been cutting corners to fit everything into a day. There are times when industry is just something I am maxed out with and fully at capacity. For me not to get sloppy with my work or miss a detail sometimes I need mindless activities in order to feel renewed. If the renewal benefits becoming productive and pursuing industry is it necessary? Personally the answer is one hundred percent yes. All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy. If the Shining has taught us nothing else it shows us that industry is an important virtue, to a point.

Two virtues that would serve us well right now are sincerity and justice. These virtues are needed in the micro, meaning that we need this on an individual level so that it can impact us on a macro level by permeating into our society. Sincerity is defined as, “Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly” (n.d.). As a millennial I grew up watching Clueless and other wonderfully delicious 90’s movies and 90’s things such as girl power and empowerment in general. I believe in standing up for yourself and others. However, just because it is on your mind does not mean it needs to be shared. Facebook, I am looking at you. Furthermore, just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should, this includes what we say. Tact is a graceful skill that never goes out of style. There is a common perception about rabbit breeding and how quickly rabbits can populate. If you consider it thoughtfully, a lack of sincerity would be the virtue equivalent to that, it spreads and repeats quickly.  When we speak ill of or to others or our actions are ill to others it can have emotional implications on that person that shapes them which is shown through actions and choices. If we stir emotions with a negative spoon we perpetuate that same action in others. Innocents become tainted and a cycle begins. This cannot become our norm. We have to take care of ourselves and others by treating people better than with insincerity, falseness, hollowness, distrust, or trickery.

Justice is another ticking time bomb that we must do better at understanding and executing. “Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty” (n.d.). If this idea is abused it becomes a slippery slope. It depends on what another person’s definition is of what is considered wrong. Some would say that anything they disliked is doing wrong. That is not really what this means. The six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship and the golden rule can be pulled into this definition by making a generalization of treating others how you want to be treated. We are all in this world trying to make the best of it and do what we can. Inside each of us is a fragile being, a soul. Nothing in this world entitles us to turn away from our duty of caring for each of us as a human being. Some of us do a better job of this than others it doesn’t mean we should give up on needing justice as a virtue. It just means we have to keep going.

Maybe industry and justice would be a good pairing. Lose no time and employ yourself fervently in justice, in not wronging others, in not hurting another, in being steadfast in our duties to others as we are all human beings and when you do these things do them with sincerity. It  may not be a flawless recipe but it is a good start to working toward harmony.

References:

Ben's 13 Virtues. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/pop_virtues_list.html

LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Malden, MA; Blackwell Publishing

A634.5.4.RB- Is Marketing Evil?

Watching commercials during the Super Bowl has become a pastime in itself. Marketing can be really fun and splashy with the use of humor as we laugh and recall our favorite ads. I have the Geico pothole still marked as my favorites in my YouTube account, as well as the CarMax ad about shipping cars to any location that parodies the company with turn of the century ships and ends with the punchline… are you shipping me? Ads can be really eye-catching and beautiful with the use of patterns and colors in print campaigns especially for women’s fashion and products.

 It can also be frankly quite annoying. One small, tiny, insignificant click to check out a pair of Kate Spade multi-colored glitter earrings and suddenly those earrings will follow you all over the worldwide web, even when they are out of stock and will probably never be restocked. Sometimes it seems like marketing can be downright deceptive with the ploys of saying that if you do this then you can get to that and somewhere between this and that I stopped listening, sometimes it is just nonsense. I don’t want to play a game that the consumer cannot actually win. It plays on sensuality and our desires and sometimes deludes us to believe we are selecting good products through misinformation. So, is marketing evil?

Some forms of marketing border on unethical. Even with ethical guidelines in place, I am not entirely sure it makes a difference. What makes those who market special is that they understand consumer psychology and they are as clever as they come. There is no loophole that has not been explored. Take ambush marketing, for example. If a company is too small to enter into a partnership with an event, such as sports games, they can purchase premium seats and put people in specific company shirts so that every time the camera is angled toward the coach there is instant exposure. Kodak actually launched an aggressive ad campaign during the 1984 Olympics and it was easily believed they were the sponsor, when in fact Fuji was the official sponsor. There are now laws in place against Kodak’s marketing move, but the point is, if there is a loophole it will be found (Ambush marketing, n.d.). There are plenty of workarounds that still keep companies within the current legal confines. Is it ethical? To answer that question, it would depend what it is, I suppose. Is it legal… probably legal enough and sometimes that is the only thing that counts to companies. El Sayed & El Ghazaly (n.d.) make a similar argument in terms of the Egyptian channel Melody. The channel takes a provocative angel to get noticed and those in that culture do not believe such a stance is an appropriate way to reach others.

So how can companies balance the need to win with being ethical? I can give merely my opinion. There are talented, well-studied groups of people that go to work to try to answer this question every day. In corporate America it is no secret that the power of the dollar is alive and well and companies want to maximizing profitability, after all that is what most (not all) companies are tasked to do. From a personal perspective, this is even seeping into higher education. If companies make ethical products or services that are truly beneficial to the consumers they seek to serve, this can counterbalance some of the need for borderline behavior. When winning and profit becomes more important than honesty and providing beneficial services, there is a major problem and these issues typically fall within ethics. The only way companies will stop seeking to push boundaries to the brink is for one company to trounce the competition and do it completely above board. I believe only then will there be a chance to see an overall change.

Until then, we will flashback to 1984, where big brother knows what websites we visit and what products we have been courting. Ad retargeting and real-time marketing track our habits for marketing purposes. Out of sight, out of mind? No worries! You will be haunted from page to page. This is another questionable practice in terms of ethics. When we are on the internet do we have the expectation that we are afforded privacy? Is it okay to tempt consumers into making purchases? What if the person that sees the advertisement has a shopping addiction and is simply trying to look up a recipe or a news article? This seems like a good idea, generally, for companies to utilize. For example, if someone decides to go back to school and does some casual searches to try to figure out a degree, a school, tuition pricing and is less familiar with the school and then that person suddenly starts noticing that school’s ads and perhaps does not realize they are being retargeted, the school becomes more reputable seeming because there is more recognition. Oh! This school is everywhere. It must be a good school. Oh! I have heard of this school a lot lately. Sometimes it is the path of least resistance. This one is right in front of me so I will choose it. Is marketing trying to take away our free will and choice? I think so.

As a leader, there is a lot to consider in terms of managing the ethical aspects of a company’s marketing efforts. For me personally, I tend to gravitate toward more traditional methods. Spreading the word and having a presence is different than some of the tricks and ploys used. They make me uncomfortable and that is not the impression I want to imprint upon others. Unless the goal is to be sleazy, there is no need to mislead, deceive, or take advantage of others to make money. That will never be what I am about and I could not be part of a company that was about that, either. It sickens me that certain foods even try to deceive in order to move a unit. I find it unethical when a drink or food makes claims they are infused with pomegranate or blueberry… but there is no trace of either fruit, but are flavored with sugar and artificial flavorings. It creates an implication that you will reap the health benefits touted of those antioxidant rich foods, but unless you are a super consumer that constantly fact checks and simply trust the marketing you will be taken for a ride and your health may pay the price for it. If I have one mission it will be good products/services, good practices. If that means more hard work instead of letting unethical marketing does the work for me, then so be it. Good practices must start somewhere and I volunteer as tribute.

References:

Ambush Marketing | What is Ambush Marketing? (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/ambush-marketing.html

El Sayed, H., & El Ghazaly, I. (n.d.). Ethics-Based Marketing : Ethical Articles. Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.ethicsbasedmarketing.net/2.html