http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2009/db20090212_920784.htm
With all of the immigration laws that are being put into place all around our country there are still people who get their hands on illegal documents that allows them to get visas to stay in the U.S. Thirteen people in six different states were arrested because there was an investigation with visa fraud. Not only did the federal government arrest certain people, they also went after a group call Vision Systems Group. Vision Systems Group is based out of Iowa and was indicted on 10 federal counts that include conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Based on the definition our book gives for ethics which is, "The word ethics has its roots in the Greek word ethos, which translates to customs, conduct, or character. Ethics is concerned with the kinds of values and morals an individual or society finds desirable or appropriate". Based on the books definition this company was being run in a very unethical way. The company is based out of Iowa so they know all about our immigration problem, yet they still went on with doing illegal business. Vision Systems was most likely conducting this illegal because of the profits they were gaining. With all of the greed in the world today and how bad our economy is, it is hard for a company not to do something that will make them profitable. Even if something is illegal or unethical people's greed will usually win and they will make unethical decisions. Vision Systems thought that this was the best way to run their company but it has back fired. The government now is trying to collect $7.4 million from them because they think that is how much they made by doing all of this illegal business. The owner of this company was not running this company from a teleological perspective but rather was a ethical egoism approach. If the company was run in a teleological perspective then none of this would have happened because they would have answered the question "What is right?". Instead they didn't answer the question and worked in a ethical egoism way because they were looking out only for themselves and acting for the greatest good for the company. This company is a very unethical company and was operated with the wrong approach. They are now reaping the consequences from their illegal actions and it could very well hurt them so bad that they have to go out of business.
Do you guys feel that I was right with the analysis about the company being ethically egoism rather than running it in a teleological perspective?
What do you think about this company how their illegal business?
If you had no idea if you were going to get caught or not would you have have ran the company the same way if you knew you were going to be able to make millions in profits.
What approach would you take to ran this company?
Daniel Itami
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ReplyDeleteThe basic question of why an organization chooses to conduct their business unethically is always present. Every organization has different professionals that choose to be unethical for their different reasons, but I agree that the one things I think it ultimately comes down to a lot oft he time is greed. Our country is filled with the notion that success is tied directly to money and money is not always easy to make. In order to make a lot of money, many people will resort to unethical business practices. The heads of Vision systems were operating under ethical egoism instead of a more teleological perspective. They were only concerned about maximizing their own profits, even if it was illegal or unethical. I think that this company got what was coming to them and I think it's only a matter of time for any company to get caught who's conducting their business illegally or unethically. I, myself, would never had run this company in an illegal manner because I do believe it's inevitable that you're going to get caught. If I were running my own company, I would adhere to the five key principles of ethical leadership; respect, service, justice, honesty, and community. I thinkt hat the truely successful businesses are those that are able to follow these principles and make a good reputation for themselves in the community and world.
ReplyDelete-Faith Gephart Elmore
I absolutely agree that this company is unethical. There is a reason why this country has made the process of getting a visa the way that it is. I would never run a company this way. Even if it is making a company money, fraud always gets caught. So, yes, the company will make money for the time being, but then what happens when they get caught? All of the money has to be paid back, on top of potential jail time. This risk of doing anything unethical, especially illegal practices, are much greater to me than making more profit. Like it states in the book, altruism is the way to go to keep a company moral. The concern for the interest of others is much higher than the concern for yourself. Unethical behavior is always selfish, so I believe honesty is the best policy.
ReplyDelete-Danielle Huff
I agree with both Faith and Danielle about what they had to comment on. I really like how Faith talked about running her company with the five key principles of ethical leadership; respect, service, justice, honesty, and community. I believe that those five principles will make a company successful in the short run as well as the long run. Like Danielle stated, "fraud always gets caught," which I believe is very true. The people who are running the frauds are too greedy to know when to stop so eventually the fraud gets noticed by officials and then the leaders get punished.
ReplyDelete-Daniel Itami
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you all about how fraud in an organization is unethical, gives a company a bad reputation, usually to deal with greed or knowing the fact that they can get away with it. But what comes to mind is that the types of people that try to portray themselves in a good way and that are doing best for the organization. Whether its one person or many (like Enron), I almost feel that there maybe need to be tougher regulations in order for fraud not to happen because it only hurts the honest people in the long run. Or maybe the key is to analyze unethical behavior by people who have conducted fraud in order to maybe "predict" who an unethical leader might turn out to be. It sounds good, but apparently people are good at lying till they get caught.
ReplyDelete-Dave Harbeck