Business Ethics

Introduction

Narration

Frank works in a team that qualifies the sales opportunities in a tech company based in the Silicon Valley. In his adjustment to his new position, he has been facing challenges in balancing his own sense of moralityagainst the pressure toachievingmonthlytargets.

Proposition: Quality or Quantity-When Incentives do not Match Values

In performing his duty, an individual must be able to weigh between compromising their values in order to get a hefty paycheck against the decision to uphold their values and principles while risking failure to meet targets. In such cases, the employee may face the big dilemma of whether to prioritize quality at the expense of quantity, or place quantity ahead of quality. Evidently, even though though it erodes moral obligation, the quantity mayprovide more rewards in the form of financial gain, or even recognition from superiors and in the long run one may get promoted. On the other hand, quality work may not result in the production of the enormous numbers that a worker like Frank may require to meet targets and earn hefty commissions and in order for an individual in his position to overcome this dilemma, they must weigh their need for monetary gain against their moral values. Frank, must therefore follow the moral compass and place quality before quantity (Paul 487).

Besides the fact that quality will help Frank to do the correct thing,  it will enable him earn recognition and respect in future because his clients will learn to trust him. This will help him to retain the little market segment that he commands, and he will thus be able to work based on referrals for a long time. Nevertheless, an individual who chooses to prioritize quantity at the expense of quality can easily lose the confidence of his current clients because they will provide low quality services in a bid to sell more. With time, clients of such an individual realize this and by and large they cease from using their services. Therefore, Frank, who opts to placequality first before quantity will eventually reap the benefits of his morality (Smock 459).

Human’s Value and Work

Economy is defined as the activities of human beings that are aimed at managing the resources that are provided for them by nature such as natural resources, human resources and manufactured resources. This can be further expounded by the definition of an economic system which is the pattern of processes, relationships, regulations and institutions that facilitate the economic activities such as production, distribution and consumption within diverse cultures and societies. Value lies in the heart of the above activities. Within a society, economic activity is very important because the allocations of resources in the community affect and define the characteristics of thesociety. The economic choices made by the particular community can easily define its society and ultimately affect their future and what its people become (Oxford Declaration 2; Lutheran Church 1).

Any economic system, must essentially consider the political and moral fibers that govern its existence and operations. To this effect, the system must question several things in order to come up with unique operational and directional guidelines that can rule the system. Such questions include: what way works? What should we produce? Who should we sell to? Who determines the “fairness” of prices, profits, wages,benefits and strikes? In addition, factors that affectenvironmental protection, sexism, child exploitation, racism, anti-Semitism and ageism must also be brought into the picture (Lutheran Church 2).

All these factors that must be taken into consideration make the society morally obliged to choose the direction to follow, regardless of the continual changes in technological and social cultural changes that continue to face the economic system currently. In the current society where change is constant, such considerations occur in the midst of graphic evidence of exploitation and progress.The Holy Spirit heeds to the church to bear witness to the sovereignty of God among the people and as a sovereign entity, God’s role is to pass judgement, while at the same time fulfilling the daily efforts of all persons in their economic theory and practice. This calls for all workers to embrace moral values when delivering their duties in order to attain God’s blessings(Smock 454).

Further to the support of the essence of quality as opposed to quantity, it is also necessary to discuss work and leisure. Work is about all the activities that are conducted with the object of satisfying human needs, and is composed of the very purpose for which God created human beings. Therefore, with their toil and work, human beings glorify God each day. When God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he instructed him to till it and maintain it well. Yet this does not place work as superior to every other aspect of life. In fact the ultimate  source of meaning and identity is not found in work, but in becoming children of God by one Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ. Work enables Christians to utilize the gifts and talents that God has given them, and they should thus work with the sole aim of serving God and humanity(Paul 487).

The most vital purpose of work is to use it in perpetuating God’s work on earth, and all the human beings rely on God so much so that they are referred to as co-laborers in the kingdom of God. Their duties include preservation of creation and also undertaking eschatological transformation of the world which can be mainly done by shaping personalities of the citizens of the kingdom of God. From this perspective, the quality of work is deemed to be more important as compared to the quantity because the main purpose of human beings is about serving, since they are created in the image of God. Despite this, their source of meaning and identity does not lie in work, and hence work is not exclusive as compared to the goal of becoming children of God by one Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ. No matter how much work an individual does, the most important thing is whether or not they perform the tasks within the teachings and requirements of God (Smock 458).

As mentioned before, if Frank and his colleague follow their the moral compasses and prioritize quality before quantity, they will ultimately gain so much in future. Their gains will be in the form of retaining their clients and the market segment they control, acquiring an additional market segment, hence generating higher sales that can help them meet their target, hence enabling them to improve their work and receive hefty bonuses for their exemplary work. Additionally, they can easily get recognized and be promoted by their companies hence building their careers in future. Nurturing trust and cultivating reliability within their client base, these employees will certainly beat their competition who may be focusing on quantity as opposed to quality. Above all else, by prioritizing the quality of work as opposed to quantity, they will also enjoy job satisfaction because their conscience will be clear, and be happy with the direction they take (Paul 489).

On the other hand, if Frank and his colleague decide to choose quantity at the expense of quality, they will cause their company to suffer in future and one of the main causes for this will be encouraging the sale of  more low quality units in order to gain more money.  Using quantity as a selling point will not give room for quality because these employees will prioritize securing customers in order to sell their goods and services hence their driving force will solely be increasing sales. This approach will yield negative results because with time clients will begin noticing that the products they are buying are of sub-standard quality.

This will cause them to inevitably look for other companies that can sell them better quality products and also simultaneously seek compensation from Silicon Valley for the substandard quality products. they change to buying products with better quality, and while doing this, they may ask for compensation from Silicon Valley. Such a situation would result in the Silicon Valley company because they will lose clients as well as funds through the compensations that they have. a client and more funds in compensating for damages. This may even create litigation problems for Silicon Valley and earn the company a bad reputation. Clients usually  share information regarding poor quality products and services with their colleagues in the industry and this would lead Silicon Valley to lose most of its potential customers. As for Frank and his colleagues, the decrease in sales as well as revenue that their company encounters will cost them their jobs in the future because nobody will be guaranteed of job security due to the damaged reputation(Oxford Declaration 4).

Conclusion

Conclusively, it is better to , “Follow the moral compass, put quality first”. Since all human beings are expected to follow God’s teachings , they should choose quality because it is the Godly and moral option. This is why all economic activities ought to be geared towards the most important purpose and cause which is lifting up God’s name and meeting his purpose. Ethics is concerned with the morals, principles and values that are people, groups and organizations apply in their day to day activities. Ethics can guide a person and help them to choose between right and wrong within a business setting, regardless of the effects. Within the tobacco manufacturing sector, the issue of ethics always arises with many companies debating on whether they have a right in making excessive profits in selling products that endanger human life.

Overall, as the report explains, placing quality before quantity will uphold integrity and reliability of an organization, leading to their prosperity in future. The key to survive in an economic system is definitely upholding ethics.