The MSLD 634 Leadership Ethics and Corporate
Social Responsibility has left me with many important lifelong lessons that
will come into play daily within my entire life. If I had to choose three key
lessons that will stay for me forever I would choose affirmative action, living
morally and perspectives on realism. Every article and all the readings
throughout The Practice of Ethics by LaFollette (2007) really supported these
three lessons. Affirmative action struck a nerve for me because it has become a
very recent topic in the news today, especially because I live in Florida with
the Travon Martin case. This confrontation happened only 30 minutes from where
I live and the key witness was someone I have known for at least 14 years so
it’s a very close issue for me. I do feel that race was a factor in why the
confrontation began. I feel that George Zimmerman did what a ‘typical’ person
would do and profiled him because he was a male in a hoody walking in the rain
at night. I do not disagree that had I seen this unknown person in a
neighborhood I knew quite well that I would also feel alarmed; however he did
not need to get out of his car and provoke matters the way he did. I believe it
is instances like these that reinforce affirmative action and prevent us from
becoming a nation of equality. Racism cannot die until older generations die
with it.
I am 28 years old and I am a part of the
“Millennials” (Deyoe, R. H., & Fox, T. L. (2012) so my generation has never
faced the challenges previous generations did with racism, slavery or
segregation as we are now protected with civil rights. Therefore one would
imagine a world of equality, which clearly doesn’t exist. Affirmative action
was developed for all the wrong reasons, it was a way to “correct past
discriminatory policies by ensuring groups are treated fairly” (Bell, 1995). As
I stated before I believe that Affirmative action does have good qualities in
that it provides minorities with a chance to go above and beyond with
additional opportunities not given to them in the hand of life they were dealt.
It also creates diversity among colleges and work environments, which is a
necessity today. Affirmative action does make it known that we are trying to
make up for past mistakes by making sure to prevent them from reoccurring again
in the future, but is this actually a negative? Affirmative action fails to
give equal opportunity to all deserving students. We as Americans need to
eliminate our narrow-minded views and habits of filtering out people based on
things they cannot control. We need to eliminate applications asking about
race, gender, national original, culture or anything else that is irrelevant
and begin empowering all human races to go above and beyond what is expected.
We are only different on the out surfaces we are all made up of the same
ingredients on the inside. Its time we start measuring someone by their
abilities and not their color.
Living Morally was discussed in our text
chapter 13. Here LaFollette describes our inability to relate to others due to
our tendency to make quick judgments. We fail to identify the context of the
situation and the morally relevant facts and consequences involved to make the
appropriate action. We lack the imagination to understand the situation
wholeheartedly and we also tend to pass judgments on others based of their
character, which we typically inaccurately can evaluate. Never have I felt
guilty of such an accusation because after reflecting on my life I was able to
identify two examples where I have been a victim of this as well as the
perpetrator. Being on both sides of this equation allowed me to truly
understand the detrimental effects of living a life without morals guided by
principles. Treating people this way only reinforces the idea that we are
people of quick irrational judgments that lack the depth to determine a
person’s character accurately. I have since dramatically adjusted my ways of
thinking and started to open up to more people to learn more about them before
I decide who I think they are.
Perspectives and relativism was an area I
struggled to understand the most. In the Velasquez (1992) article I was able to
grasp the concept with this sentence: “ethics is an inquiry into right and
wrong through a critical examination of the reasons underlying practices and
beliefs. As a theory for justifying moral practices and beliefs, ethical
relativism fails to recognize that some societies have better reasons for
holding their views than others.” Here I started to put everything into
perspective of how we as a society determine what is acceptable and what isn’t.
It is very clear that majority always rules so if the majority of the society
in which I live think it is unacceptable to grow weed in our backyards, then
guess what no one will be growing weed. I find it kind of funny that we are
blessed to have free will to choose; however we micromanage our lives with
rules and regulations. If we can become a nation with the same morals and
principles then I feel that socially we wouldn’t need these laws preventing us
from exercising our free will.
Upon reflecting on my perceived value of this
course I have discovered that prior to taking this class my ethics were guided
by habits that I learned growing up and my religion. Now after coming this far
I can see things from a wider scope meaning I can see the bigger picture.
Narrow thoughts have now broaden throughout the ideas of consequential and
deontologist. I really look at every decision as what will happen next not what
happens when I make this decision. I always picture how it will affect others
and how their decisions affect me. Some of the positive and negatives of this
class include being able to effectively reflect on myself and see that I lean
towards a more ethical decision maker. I have developed my own set of virtues
to live by that correlate with my morals and values I hold dear to my heart. I
will always be as honest as I can be, I will have integrity, and compassion,
accountability and the will to try to be a better person so I can make this
world a better place. A negative is that I still am struggling to be more open
minded when it comes to certain aspects of my life because I am so stuck in my
ways. I am taking baby steps so I know I am still taking the initial steps to
become better at this.
To be honest the only thing I could have done
to my learning experience would have been to taken this term off since my time
has been so divided between a sick child and being overwhelmed at work and with
my schoolwork. School is my passion and I feel when I cannot dive into my
assignments I cannot complete them as well as I would have liked too. Another
thing I also might have done was talked more about my thoughts out loud with
others because a lot of my new values developed, but I have yet to share them
with anyone but my papers.
The University or my instructors could provide
additional support for my learning if they would present Dr Knab or Dr Watkins in
an EagleVison course or even have them present in a conference. The inspiration
they give me through online learning would be heightened if I was able to see
them in person. After attending the Worldwide conference I was able to really
connect with my degree program and engage with them on a deeper level, which in
return truly made me feel inspired. They were able to talk one-on-one with me
and I was asked certain questions and the discussions we had were key into
getting my more aligned with what this program is teaching.
I positively feel that the topics covered seemed
particularly relevant to my experiences and to what I expect to come in future
courses. This course really brought all the courses thus far into full circle
because in the beginning we learned about different styles of leadership, then
we moved into becoming more self-aware, then into critical thinking and decision
making and management skills, and then when we were prepared we learned about
ethics. Having good morals and principles guiding our decisions allows us to
become more ethical individuals and I believe this is the key to leading
effectively. I want to be a leader leading with values and morals that benefit
all.
References
Deyoe, R. H., & Fox, T. L. (2012).
Identifying strategies to minimize workplace conflict due to generational
differences. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, 5, 1-17.
Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1035289108?accountid=27203
Bell, A. (1995, Feb 17). Lawmaker seeks to end affirmative
action programs. The Patriot. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/273208934?accountid=27203
Article from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at
Santa Clara University:
Ethical Relativism by
Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer (1992)
LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of
ethics. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell.
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