Ethics are an individual’s moral principles. Companies incorporate ethics into their corporate profile through mission statements and/or code of values. However the meaning of ethics is hard to pin down. When someone asks you what are ethics you may replay, “Ethics are what my gut tell me is right or wrong." or “Ethics are what the law requires” or “Ethics are what society views as appropriate behavior”. There are many views of what ethics are and this was reflected in subjects of the Inside Job. As a class we were angry after watching the movie but the “economic experts” that contributed to the US economic crisis felt they did nothing wrong. Their moral principles, we view as flawed, told them they were profiting so what was the problem. The economic crisis destroyed the credibility of corporations along with our trust in ethics. After watching the movie I feel that companies disregard their code of values. So why are ethics important if companies simply disregard them? Ethics are important because they might be a step to help us out of the economic crisis. Ethics help us organize our activities, create a sense of community, remind people what is important, create positive role models for others to follow, and keep people in line. If companies can follow their code of values then public trust can be regained. People like those who are strong and committed to their values.
In life we find ourselves in many different situations that require us to make difficult moral choices. The one that most people find themselves in is “having a life” versus “making a living”. How do you choose? You use your moral code as a guide. No choice is easy. The choices the subjects of the Inside Job made upset us and changed our lives but no matter our feelings the choice was not easy. They gave up apart of themselves when they made their choices. Our belief system, our ethics, are different from theirs and allows us to come up with a better decision. But as we discussed in class, we were not in their shoes so how do we really know what choice we would have made. It is easy to say you would stick to your ethics when you are not faced with a decision. In the book there was a survey of MBA that demonstrates how easy ethics can change. “MBA students enter B-school with relatively idealistic ambitions, such as to create quality products and be of service to consumers. By they time they graduate, though, these goals have taken a back seat to such priorities as boosting their company’s share price”. How do we prevent this, how do we keep our ethics intact?
We also discussed in class who is the blame, who do we hold accountable. As an individualistic society we like to blame individuals but by doing this sometimes we miss the larger forces at work. Sometimes there is no individual to blame. Especially when powerful organizations can control who we blame. Organizations like to acquire power and scatter accountability thus making it difficult to assign blame and hold people accountable because we can’t find who really did it. Organizations say, “it was done in the name of__(inset political ploy here)___”. We should stop trying to find someone to blame because as the movie showed the “economic experts” are not going to jail, they are getting better jobs. The public needs to start talking about the importance of ethics. Organizations need to recognize how important they are and encourage their employees to follow their own morals and the company’s code. Really commit to their ethics and stop pretending they are committed. But how do you talk about ethics when they are hard to spell out? A few questions I believe are important to ask are: How do you justify or excuse your own actions? Do you blame or take responsibility? Are ethics only important when someone is watching or holding you accountable?
Amanda Bjorklund
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