Not sure the point of this particular blog. This story is just the first thing that came to mind when the topic of ethics came up. My cousin was a finance manager at a large Chevrolet dealership. Last I talked to him, he had a new job. The following is a paraphrase of his story:
"My normal job would be to take a 70-yr old lady, persuade her that she needs the car, and convince her that she can afford a brand new minivan on her meager social security income. Then I'd go call the loan financiers and lie to them, stating that she had a steady 4k a month income. Whatever it took to get that car out the door and commissions in my pocket. One day a lady came back to me in tears and it made me take a look at myself in the mirror. I told myself I'd try to do the right thing... it wasn't easy. Not impressed by my new approach, my dealership laid me off two months later."
I'm not saying car dealers are bad people, but this is a prime case of an environment where monetary gain reigns supreme over ethics. As my cousin depicted, questionable or downright unethical acts were the norm. For example, mechanics would break parts on purpose to split commissions with parts sales people. It's a mystery to me how such a large company can have such overt examples of unethical behavior without suffering repercussions...
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2 comments:
This story is a good example of how being ethical and doing the right thing could ruin your career. I think this is why so many people in business choose to behave unethically. It seems like your cousin should have been rewarded in some way but instead the outcome was negative. So why should he ever choose to do the right thing again? In business everything is about money and you are rewarded only for how you impact the bottom line not for how good of a person you are. Companies like care dealerships know that they are doing the wrong thing but why would they ever stop? Their responsibility is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders, so we can't expect them to always behave ethically either. It's sad but I don't think the world will ever change in this regard.
Among all concepts discussed on Week 2, ethics indeed captured my attention. “In a globalized world, ethical is a challenge.” People are striving to survive, and the consequences of being acting with ethics implies be prepared for the “consequences” – unfortunately, most of the time, negative ones. If your cousin had not being honest afterwards, probably he would still have his job, but he would not be feeling as proud of him as he might be feeling right now.
Watching CNN the night before the last, I saw a lady who was caught by FBI for selling fancy & fake purses on E-Bay. People could buy all brands – from Louis Vuitton to Gucci – but none of them, authentic ones. She pledged guilty, but all the time reinforcing that the buyers knew that the products were not authentic. Would she stop being dishonest if the FBI had not suspect of her illegal business?
Chapter 14 highlights that ethics is important for the sake of coordinating, for the community, and for social control. If people who were not doing the “right thing” decided to “change the game” – like your cousin did at the end, ethics would not be only theory, but a daily practice in our society.
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