Replies to Carr by Timothy B Blodgett Carr
Replies to Carr by Timothy B. Blodgett
Carr “tells it like it is. ” • About one-third of the letters to the editor supported Carr. – Getting the job done is the only thing that counts in business. – Good ethics do not excuse poor job performance.
Carr is wrong – Part 1. • About two-thirds of the letters criticized Carr. – Deception never succeeds as a long-term business strategy. – Carr is wrong that businessmen do not expect the truth to be spoken. – Businesses may not owe people the whole truth, but there other ways to keep information private besides lying.
Carr is wrong – Part 2 • More criticisms…. – Business cannot be separated this easily from the rest of society and its norms and expectations. – Business is more complex than poker, and in fact consists of several “games” taking place simultaneously. – Carr’s notions are nothing more than selfjustifying hogwash.
Does It Pay to Bluff in Business? Norman E. Bowie
Bowie argues that bluffing during collective bargaining causes economic inefficiency. • Collective bargaining is adversarial, which carries over into the workplace and reduces productivity. • Bluffing and deception undermine trust, which may be needed in the future to solve a problem. • Business success rests on cooperation, which is eroded by adversarial interactions. • In the long term, the business stability that comes from “ethical practice” pays off. (The Utilitarian principle. )
Is It Ever Right to Lie? By Robert C. Solomon
Is Solomon’s position paradoxical? • He says that it is never right to lie. • He also says that telling a lie is often prudent and preferable. • Which is it?
Solomon in non-paradoxical terms. • Telling the truth is an important value. • However, other values are more important and sometimes outweigh the truth. – Saving someone’s life – yes. – Protecting someone’s feelings – maybe. – Making things more convenient for ourselves – no.
Why does telling the truth normally take precedence in business? • Reality is complex and interconnected, and it is very difficult to sustain even simple lies. • Getting caught in lies can wreck a business or career. • If the general principle, “Lie whenever you feel like it, ” was widely followed in business, then business would be impossible.
Concluding points. • Advertising may not tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but lies span a continuum from “telling less than the whole truth” to “vicious falsehoods, ” and the differences between these can be understood. • Against Carr’s position, Solomon states that lying is against the rules of poker, and definitely is not in the rules of business.
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