The Relevance of Plato's and St. Augustin Statements to the Contemporary Society - Essay Example

Psychology College: Psychology The society today is faced by many ethical dilemmas that exist within their social-political spheres. An ethical dilemma refers to a complex situation that often demands for critical thinking as each of the possible choices has its own consequences. In the past, many philosophers pointed out to the role of the society in creating justice in the political spheres and the pain that they go through if they fail to contribute to political decision making. St Augustine 2 stated that charity is not substitution for justice to note the way citizens are denied their justice and provided with cover ups to suppress their assertion for their own personal rights. On the other hand, Plato noted that indeed the public suffer because they fail to contribute to the fight for social rights in the government. As such, Plato stated that the price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. These two statements have become a subject of analysis in the contemporary society both in the political and the business domain. St Augustine statement that Charity is not a substitution for justice withheld has become a subject of discussion in the public domain. One of the possible meanings of St Augustine was that charity cannot be substituted with justice as the two are not distinct. In the public sphere, it is often that people are denied their rights and these rights are then provided in disguised fashion as charity work. For instance, kit would be illegal for the government to provide healthcare as a form of charity while every person in a country has a country to modest healthcare. Commonly, autocratic governments deny their citizens their human rights and use charity work as a leverage to appease for their wrong doings (Martinson, 2008). While this may have been common in the past, it is still evident today as government continue to suppress the human rights. In addition, this statement applies equally in the business field as well as pertains to the rights of the employees. In the business sector, the pressure for the management to maximize profits has pushed them to suppress the employees’ rights. Notably, many employees have to work for long hours, endure poor working conditions and work for low salaries. Coupled with the shortage of employment opportunities, the management has taken advantage by offering sub-standard salaries as they feel that the economic pressures are pushing people to work even in the worst working conditions. On the other hand, some employees will deny their employees their due rights and instead offer them small favours that cannot compensate the loss they experience when they are denied the rights to good salaries and healthy working conditions. Some employees are denied the right to holidays and instead awarded small favours that are much less worth their losses (David, 2013). From this angle, it is clear that denial of the rights of the workers cannot be substituted for small worthless favours in the workplace. Plato is another philosopher who has contributed to the development of the idea of the public welfare and the contribution of the nationalists in policy building. Plato stated that the price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is being served by evil men. The idea of this philosopher is that the problems of the people emanate from their reluctance to exercise their rights of contributing to public affairs. The people in any nation are given the right to contribute to policy building by making wise political choices and contributing to the establishment of a decent constitution (Martinson, 2008). In the history of the world, the society has failed to participate actively in policy building and this has resulted to bad policies that subject the people to suffering. There has been a long struggle to develop create assertiveness in the public domain to encourage the society to exercise their political rights by voting for the leaders of their taste. When citizens fail to participate in the voting process, they are ruled by evil leaders who subject them to autocratic power. This as well, is an idea that has become relevant in today’s business environment. In business, the employees’ rights are depended on their assertiveness and contribution to organizational policy building. While the management is involved in the development of business policies and strategies, the employees have the right to complain against any form of imperfection and to condemn oppressive business leaders. Another way to look at this is to evaluate the impact of ineffective leaders in a business environment. When the management makes a wrong choice of leaders, they are likely to experience business loss in the long run. Ineffective business leaders can have far reaching effects in any business environment. First, ineffective leaders cause worker disorientation and destroy the power of teamwork within the organization (Palmer, 2010). Secondly, corrupt business leaders steal from the organization and hence are likely to cause financial loss to the business organization. Cumulatively, failure of the management to select effective business leaders has a great loss for the business organizations. The words of Plato and St Augustine have a lot of relevance in the business environment today. The question that arises today in business today is whether it is the leaders or the employees that have contributed to the harsh conditions in the business environment. While St. Augustine exposes the evil actions of the leaders, Plato provides an explanation that it is the people who have chosen leaders who cannot deliver services that are to the expectation of the people. While St. Augustine seems to blame the leaders for the suppression of human rights, Plato blames the society for failing to choose the right leaders who are conscious of the human rights. The question that arises here is whether in reality it is the citizens of a country or their leaders who are supposed to be blamed for the poor conditions of the community today (Palmer, 2010). In business, it remains a dilemma to establish whether it is the leaders of the employees who should be blamed for the poor working conditions that evident today. In the business arena, the management are often faced with ethical dilemma as they make specific strategic decisions. An ethical dilemma in the business context refers to situations that are double-edged and either way they are resolved there is either a positive or negative impact on the success of the organization. One major ethical dilemma that always emerges within workplace is the choice between employee welfare or profit maximization. In workplace, the employees have a right to fare wages, business organizations is to minimize their expenditures and maximize their profits. In the contemporary tough market conditions, the top level managers have found themselves in a dilemma in making a decision whether to give employee fair at the expense of the organizational profit or optimize the profit at the expense of the employee’s wages. This situation poses a dilemma to the strategic managers as both decisions have consequences on the organizations. If the management opts to pay the employees fair wages, they will add an expense to their operations and this will reduce their profits. However, they will benefit from having satisfied employees and more labour output from cooperative workers (Henderson, 1996). On the other hand, if they decide to minimize the employees’ wages, they will maximize their profits but suffer from the losses associated with unsatisfied employees. Apple is one of the organizations that have been overwhelmed by the dilemma of having to choose between the employees welfare and profit maximization. Segal (2012), a New York Times news columnist noted that Apple is one of the organizations that have optimized its profits by oppressing its workers. One of the workers of Apple states that “when you look at the amount the company is making and then you look at your pay check, it’s kind of tough.” For instance, one of Apple’s employees, Mr Golson sold electronic gadgets worth $750,000 while he was only paid only $11.25 per hour. Mr Golson feels that this is a high achievement for the company that would have seen him celebrate for his achievement. However, his salary does not allow him to celebrate such an achievement as he cannot afford to buy a bottle of Champagne. While the organization has successfully implemented expense reduction strategies, it is bound to suffer from the consequences of maintaining unsatisfied employees. Complaining employees are unmotivated and are likely to produce less work output leading to huge business losses. In this light, the choice of Apple to oppress its employees for the sake of their business profit is a choice that has its ethical consequences. The idea of Apple to optimize its profits can be interpreted as denial of employee rights. The employee compensation should be proportional to the amount of profit that the employee is generating within the organization. The national labour laws have emphasized that any organization should pay fare wages to their employees. As Augustine states, charity is not substitute for denied justice, it is clear that the management of Apple have played key perpetrating injustice to those under their supervision. St Augustine’s idea was to discourage their leaders from their greed that pushes them to deny those under their feet the right to social justice (Segal, 2012). In this regard, Apple’s management team can be termed as one of the organizations that have encouraged social injustice in the community. In the contemporary business environment, it is common that employees are denied their rights as business leaders opt to maximize their profits through crude methods. Looking from Plato’s concept of the contribution of the public in their won suffering it is possible to term Apple’s employee as part of the public that has failed in contributing to policy design. In a business environment, the employees have the right to air their views as long as they use the right channels to contribute to the management decisions. By failing to contribute, the employees pave way for evil leadership that oppresses them. From the report provided by the New York Times, Apple’s employee, Mr Golson complains about low salaries as he perceives this as an oppressive scheme from the management team (Segal, 2012). He works for long hour to achieve the business target yet at the end receives a little pay for the work done. Looking at it from Plato’s philosophical idea, it is clear that the Apples employees are the good men who suffer for remaining indifferent to their own affairs. Mr Golson complains about the evil of the Apple management team rather than taking advantage of the opportunities provided to communicate his own feelings about the wages. In this view, the employees of Apple should utilize the available communication channels to fight for their rights of fare wages. Another of business theories have been brought forward to explain the decision path that should be followed while making strategic decision. The utilitarianism is one of ethical theories that have garnered a lot of attention from most ethical advisors. This theory works under the “greatest happiness principle” that stipulates that what makes something good or bad, right or wrong is that it produces the greatest amount of pleasure for the largest group of people. The proponents of this theory suggest that the best course of action is one that hurts the least number of people and makes happy majority of them (Mann, 2013). This ethical theory recognizes the fact that in situation of dilemma, it is practically impossible to avoid causing harm no matter the decision that one decides to take. As such, while a decision in a situation ethical dilemma, it is crucial to weigh all the benefits and harm and the number of people who are likely to be affected. In a business environment, this is the kind of reasoning that the strategic leaders should employ in making management decisions. The utilitarianism theory of ethics, an action that oppresses the majority of the people and pleases the minority is an unjust act. In management, the choice to reduce employee wages can be evaluated from this angle (Schneider, 2006: Young & Allen, 2011). If the management decides to maximise profits at the expense of the employee wages, this action can be judged as unjust and as wrong course of action. This is so because such an action would hurt the employees, who are the majority in the workplace, and please the management team, who are the minority in the work environment. The actions of leaders that deny justice to the society, just like St Augustine states, are wrong and unjustified. Judging from the utilitarianism theory of ethical dilemma, it is possible to regard St Augustine’s statement on how leaders deny justice to the society as good front to push for the rights of the weakness. In denying justice, the leaders make unethical decision as they disadvantage the majority in the society. Exploitation of those with lower power is a subject that has garnered a lot of attention from many human rights activists. Kendzior (2013) reflected to the word of St Augustine that charity cannot be substituted for justice denied to reflect to the food crisis in America. This author blamed the US government for having failed to provide the poor with their basic rights. In America, every worker has the right to a decent employment that suffices their basic needs in the money driven society. However, the government in this country has opted to provide charity contributions of food and other basic necessities. This human right activist states that the powerless in the America require well-paying jobs and not charities in form of food incentives. This is a situation that is evident in most countries in the world and this is the kind of behaviour that St Augustine was condemning. In developing countries, it is the failure of the people to exercise their constitutional rights that underpins the poor living conditions in these countries. In Africa, over 15% of the people fail to attend the national election process and a good number of those who register for the voting process do not end up voting (Seglin, 2000). Unfortunately, developing countries have been ruled by autocratic leaders who continue to vandalize the rights of their citizens for many years. The failure of the citizens to vote for the leaders of their choice is what Plato terms as remaining indifferent in the public affairs. Consequently, citizens in these countries, who Plato would term as the good men, continue to be served by evil leaders. In essence, the exploitation of the poor by bad leaders can be blamed on the citizen’s failure to exercise their basic rights towards alignment of the public affairs. In conclusion, the words of St Augustine that “Charity is no substitute for justice withheld” and Plato’s statement that “the price good men pay for indifference in public affairs is to be ruled by evil men” are still relevant in the contemporary society. In the business sphere, majority of leaders have made wrong decisions in situations of ethical dilemmas, hence subjecting their workers to oppression. Political leaders have preferred to offer charities to their citizens as a way of disguising their unjust practices. However, the powerless in these society structures have failed to play their role and have played the role of the good people who are indifferent to public affairs. While they have the right to speak against evil leadership, they have remained reluctant becoming victims of their own mistakes. The only way for the oppressed in the society to kick out social injustice is to stand strong to fight against evil leadership both in the business and political arena. References Schneider, M. A. (2006). The theory primer: A sociological guide. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. David, E. J. R. (2013). Internalized oppression: The psychology of marginalized groups. New York: Springer. Henderson, G. (1996). Human relations issues in management. Westport, Conn: Quorum. kendzior, S., (2013). Charity is not a Substitute for Justice; Poor Americans need Higher Salaries, not food drives. Retrieved from :< ttp://www.aljazeera.com/ indepth/opinion/2013/12/ charity-not-substitute-justice-201312173423540217.html> Mann, T., (2013). What Causes an Ethical Dilemma in Conducting Business. retrieved from: < http://smallbusiness.chron.com/causes-ethical-dilemma-conducting-business-23439.html> Martinson, L. (2008). A heavenly college education: On an earthly budget : double your financial aid, double your degrees value. Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing. Palmer, D. E. (2010). Ethical issues in e-business: Models and frameworks. Hershey, PA: Segal, D., (2012). 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