How Good People Make Tough Choices - Essay Example

How Good People Make Tough Choices Introduction The book “How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Revised Edition)” is written by Rushworth M. Kidder. This book is published by Harper Collins Publishers. The book’s previous edition was published in 1995 and the latest edition was made available in 2009. This book is mainly based on the concept of ethics and their involvement in routine life choices in which people face different types of ethical dilemmas while making economic, social, personal, cultural, traditional, financial or other types of decisions in which moral and ethical values are either considered or avoided. In the following parts of this paper, first book summary has been provided in which main theme and fundamental contents have been elaborated. In this part, only important dimensions provided in the book has been detailed. It is followed by the book critique section in which limitations of ethics have been included before the summary part. Book Summary This book is consisted of ten chapters and each chapter addresses different aspects of ethics and ethical dilemmas and choices as well. The book starts with two prefaces: preface 2009 and preface 1995. The purpose of including both prefaces was that the author wanted to highlight and establish link between these prefaces as this would make the author’s work a sequence of learning and exploring the dynamism around morality and ethics in today’s fast moving aspects of life. Subsequently, the author has included the chapters and they are: Overview: The Ethics of Right Versus Right (Chapter one), Right Versus Wrong: Why Ethics Matters (Chapter Two), Ethical Fitness (Chapter Three), Core Values (Chapter Four), Right Versus Right: The Nature of Dilemma Paradigm (Chapter Five), Three More Dilemma Paradigms (Chapter Six), Resolution Principles (Chapter Seven), “There’s Only ‘Ethics’…” (Chapter Eight), Epilogue (1995): Ethics in the Twenty-first Century (Chapter Nine), and Epilogue (2009): Ethics in a Time of Economic Crisis (Chapter Ten). Good people and tough choices are two central themes within this book. The author tries to identify good people by quoting their several daily life examples and their personal and social experiences and their traits as well. At the same time, the author endeavors to explain tough choices. In this regard, it is important to highlight that the author has separately explained “choices” and “tough choices” from the prism of ethics. For example, in defining the personality traits of good people, the author has identified them as visionary, having ethical values, courageous enough to face the repercussions of their choices (Kidder 1). Similarly, the author has particularly emphasized on “choices” as they have broad common sense and they are commonly made by common people. By defining these choices, the author is trying to relate them with the ethical values and leadership qualities as well. Through this association, the author has been successful in making and establishing relationship between ethical choices within the context of ethical values. Here, it is pertinent to highlight that the author has used several daily life examples for supporting the assertions mentioned in the book. For example, in the first chapter, the author has compared the interplay between the ethics of right versus right in which he has highlighted that two ethically correct positions collide and the related individuals have to make one choice and one compromise; this is a common daily routine situation normally faced by all us. The book quotes numerous corporate scandals and issues. The corporate debacles have become common and certain examples, such as Enron, have something to offer for explaining the role and involvement of ethics in today’s corporate world. The purpose behind quoting corporate scandals is to explore and highlight those areas of choices in which corporate officials are required to choose one option which either serves their personal interests or corporate objectives. Their choice determines their ethical values and moral standing. As these corporate choices are common in today’s business world and have immense magnitude and effect, the author has quoted the relevant examples and real life corporate stories for explaining the moral and ethical standing of such decisions and choices as well. The author has tried to extend the domain of ethics in new dimensions. Previously, the ethics and ethical values were not common and were not appropriately understood in common social and economic life. Thanks to the efforts made in this book, the role and contribution of ethics have gone beyond the traditional dimensions. Previously, little attention and importance was given to ethics and only laws were given higher priority. Consequently, due to the presence of vacuum created by the limits of the law, the author realized that some aspects of human life and human activities cannot be covered by the laws. As a result, the existed vacuum can only be filled out by ethics and ethical values as well. The book also highlights the relevance and efficacy of ethics in today’s corporate world. In the initial two chapters, two models (right versus right and right versus wrong decision-making model) explain the choices inside the paradigm of ethical values. Here, author is comparing the efficacy of these models in which an analysis has also been provided. In the right versus right model, the author quotes those real life examples which are highly common and the individuals face dilemmas. For example, in the first chapter, the author quotes the example of a librarian who is required to make a choice between protecting a community member’s privacy and confidentiality and abiding with the law of the land by providing that confidential information to a detective investigating a rape case. Both situations represent right versus right model and the librarian is required to make any single decision. Ethics can also be termed as dilemmas. Throughout this book, the author has quoted numerous stories and examples in which the individuals face ethical dilemmas and they are required to choose one option from the provided options. In such examples, sometimes the individuals are required to provide confidential information or to face legal consequences in case of non-compliance. If they provide confidential information to an unauthorized person, they would face departmental action against such act and if they do not share the confidential information, a legal action would be taken against them. Book Critique Fundamentally, it is difficult to disagree with the main theme of this book. However, there are a number of significant issues that must be taken into account. For example, ethics are not laws that must be understood and followed by everyone. Consequently, they cannot be imposed on others. In that case, everyone is free whether to accept or reject them. If someone accepts them, it is their wish and others cannot use their wish if a person is reluctant to follow ethics and ethical values. Ethics are not recommended by the bible or any other strong religious authority. Individuals and organizations consider them important and attach substantial amount of preference whenever any ethical situation arises. However, despite this fact, it cannot be ignored that ethics are highly subjective which means it is a person’s thinking or understanding that he or she considers a particular matter is related to ethics or moral values. For example, in certain cultures, it is highly ethical to shake hand before meeting someone. On the other hand, in other cultures, it is not ethical instead bowing is preferred. In this situation, if two persons belong to these two separate cultures and they happen to meet each other; both will term each other’ action ‘unethical’ as both have separate method for meeting. In that case, both cannot be satisfied with the ethical values in each other’s individual cultures. More importantly, it would not be incorrect to say that neither bowing nor handshaking is unethical as both separately represent different cultures. In addition, ethics has been defined as something that is morally wrong or right (Howard and Korver 8). This definition clearly highlights that any action can be either morally wrong or right. However, the important question is that who will decide that the action taken was morally correct or morally incorrect. In this situation, if the law of land is applied to that action, the law would not apply ethical codes or moral values instead it would put moral codes aside and only apply legal rules and regulations for identifying and establishing the fate of that action. In this regard, it is also important to highlight that the action can only be heard in court if it has violated any law otherwise the action would not be entertained in the court. And if that action has any legal implication, then it would be correct to say that the action cannot be evaluated through the prism of moral or ethical codes. This is the main dilemma with the ethics or moral codes that are applied to certain actions for ascertaining their moral standing. Ethics are not compatible with laws. In the librarian example (quoted above), the situation required that the detective should be given access to the information in order to apprehend the rapist. In this case, the librarian, from the ethical perspective, was in some sort of dilemma in which she was required either to protect member confidentiality or to provide access to the sensitive information. In other words, the ethical values discouraged her to become a law-abiding citizen instead she was forced to protect an alleged rapist by not providing information to the detective. At the same time, if law is replaced with ethics and ethical codes, it would be nearly impossible to enumerate ethics and ethical values and make them part of any personal or organizational activity. For example, if a new employee is hired within the ethical framework, organization would find it difficult to provide personal, inter-personal, inter-departmental ethics as a long list of ethical codes would be required for maintaining compliance with the ethics. In this example, the employee would not be in a position to retain and remember these ethics and she would find it hard to comply with them. Similarly, the employer would also find it challenging to observe the compliance with ethical codes because so many ethical codes would be there for the employees. Additionally, it would not be incorrect to say that ethics or ethical values have been driven from different religions because moral values, goodness, badness are those values that are mainly discussed in different religions, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism as well. In that situation, many people consider them as the modern form of religious sayings. As a result, they cannot be applied throughout the world. Similarly, it is reasonable to put forward that laws cannot be replaced by the ethical values as it would be very challenging for organizations, governments, agencies, entities and other parts of society to follow or implement them. On the other hand, laws have been a part of society for many years and they have become a well established and solid part of individual and collective affairs. At the same time, the laws have been appropriately codified globally and regionally as well and this codification has enabled jurists to evaluate actions and determine them as good or bad by keeping in view the guidelines provided by the related rules and regulations. Summary Ethics have received a considerable significance particularly after the financial scandals and their impact on the economic and financial world. The author has highlighted ethics, ethical values, ethical fitness and certain examples representing the practical examples of such situations. The book compares various ethical issues including their usefulness as well. However, there are certain limitations which make it hard to agree with the application of ethical values. First, ethics have no legal backing and no one can sue if anyone violates ethics or ethical codes. At the same time, ethics are highly subjective in their nature. For one, certain actions are highly ethical whereas the same actions can be highly unethical for others. Consequently, there exists a considerable disparity about various actions. At the same time, ethics are highly incompatible with the laws and this situation is clearly demonstrated by the librarian example whereas laws are more compatible with today’s society in which individual and collective actions are assessed through the prism of legal mechanism. Works Cited Howard, Ronald A., Korver, Clinton D. Ethics for the Real World: Creating a personal code to guide decisions in work and life. Boston: Harvard Business Press. 2008. Print. Kidder, Rushworth M. How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. Print. Read More