Identify one case of improper leadership ethics in the media and critique.
In recent weeks, the leaders of AIG has given some of their employees a bonus. The part that is improper is the money was from the relief that the government gave them. In my opinion, giving some members of your working community more money is unethical. Adding up all the money that people got as a bonus could give many other people jobs. This action goes back to the discussion that we had with Dr. Lucas. One of the questions that was raised was why do people do unethical things? Thinking about this question there are so many possibilities that come to mind and none of them excuse the behavior of the AIG leaders.
No only was the AIG leaders looked at in a negative light but other leaders was also viewed in a negative way. Some people viewed the people that gave AIG the money in a negative light because they are responsible for the bonuses. Some may think that if the money was not given to AIG could have it been used in a better way? One thing that this example shows is that one decision that one company makes can affects others.
1 comment:
There is no doubt that the bonuses for AIG come at a horrible time for their company. The issue is that their contracts shouldn't have obligated them to recieve bonuses in times where the company is not making money. This is a problem not only at AIG, but many other institutions that seemed to feel confident enough in themselves to deliver such bonuses regardless of situation.
The whole idea of a bonus is to share in the profits of the company and to award those that have done well for the sake of an institution. The argument falls down to the issue with awards. We seem to live in a time where we are awarding people for bad behavior. Why?! Isn't that one of the basics of ethics: you do unethical things so you reap the consiquences?
But no. We, the taxpayers, pull these people back on their feet and pat them on the back and say, "Better luck next time around."
The issue is that unethical behavior does not just hurt those involved. Typically it will cause a chain of events that react to the unethical behavior and create worse scenarios. I am not sure that the money that these executives were reciving for bonuses would ever filter down to more jobs. I am also not sure of the intentions of many of the executives once they were to recieve their bonuses. Perhaps some of them were ethical enough to understand that there was no right to the money and were expecting to donate it back into the company or other charitable organizations.
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