Analytical Pape for magin call - Movie Review Example

Full Info Word Count 595 Analytical Paper for Margin Call This paper analyses the movie Margin Call in terms of the philosophical trajectories and their relation to core decision making within the firms executive circle. The focus will more specifically be on the various concepts of moral philosophy. The movie starts with the firm downsizing the work force because of a performance review (“Margin Call” Web). Coincidentally, the head of risk management division is working on a critical analysis of the firm’s financial position.

Relative to ethical fundamentalism, the human resource department acts on the firms top executives’ advice as a source of its ethical guidelines. As he leaves the firm, Dale, the head of risk management decision, leaves behind in a flash disk an unfinished project he has been working on. He instructs Peter to be careful with it as he works on it. Peter finishes the project and realizes that the firm is at a risk of crumbling down in terms of market capitalization if its assets decrease by 25%.

It is Peter’s moral obligation to attempt to save the company. This is ethical relativism, which states that individuals must make decisions about what is ethical based on their personal feelings and understanding of what is right and what is wrong (Mann and Roberts 18). Peter informs Emerson about his findings. Emerson calls up the head of trading, Sam Rodgers. The firm holds a series of meetings with top executives. The C.E.O considers selling off all toxic assets before the news reaches the market and exposes their instability, which would harm business.

Rodgers knows that if this happens, the firms with whom they trade will withdraw their trust in them. Upon his initiative, they collectively source out Dale, whom they cannot originally find, his company phone having been switched off. It is revealed that some employees, among them the C.E.O, knew the company’s financial position. He wants to counteract the situation with Robertson’s resignation. Before the next trading session commences, Rodgers informs his traders about his plans to issue up to 1.

4 million dollars in bonus should they achieve a 93% reduction in mortgage based securities. Teleology means human behavior is explained by perceived outcomes. Tuld retorts that the crisis the company is going through is similar to any other and is just part of the game. He wants Rodgers to stay at the firm for another two years and even considers promoting him. His ultimate aim is egoistic. Egoism states that it is necessary for ones action to be morally upright to maximize their own self-interest (Dolgoff et al 44).

Utilitarianism states that people should consider the benefit that everyone will derive from their actions. Emerson successfully disposes off his assets, raising suspicion amongst his counterparties. The perceived outcome in this instance is that the firm would retain its favorable positioning in profit margins putting forward the view that the company is supposed to grow in profitability. What choices are moral, by assessment of what our choices, are in relation to whom we are or who we ought to be is termed as deontology.

This, contextually, points out at what the company hopes to achieve. The way Tuld handles the crisis at hand is a serious point in consideration. As is stated by Rawl, each person is presumed to be in a contractual relationship with society to follow socially accepted norms. The movie ends with Rodgers digging a hole to bury his dog whose death was caused by cancer. Tuld, earlier in the movie mentions that Rodgers could have been preparing himself to counter his own misdoings. Works Cited “Margin Call”, 2011.

Web 27 September 2012. < http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/63849596-2401606103.html> Dolgoff, Ralph., Loewenberg, Frank and Harrington, Donna. Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice.Belmont.Thompson Higher Education. 2009. Print. Mann, Roberts and Roberts, Barry. Business Law and the Regulation of Business. Ohio: Rob Dewey, 2008. Print.