To what extent should companies go with business bluffing in order to Essay

To what extent should companies go with business bluffing in order to maximize profit - Essay Example In the present age, when the people have become very conscious regarding the environmental issues and the health and safety aspects of business, businessmen are exposed to a lot of challenges. The rise in level of social consciousness comes as a potential threat to the profitability of businesses because the two are on the two extremes of the seesaw. The profitability increases when the standards of ethics are not complied with and vice versa. Businessmen frequently make use of bluffing to maximize their profits. Bluffing in business is essentially a strategy of the like which is used in games like poker. The game strategy has no reflection in the bluffer’s morality. When a businessman respects truth, he/she essentially considers it â€Å"the basis of private morality† (Carr). A businessman deserves respect for respecting the truth. Bluffing has become an essential component of many kinds of businesses. For example, in court, when a lawyer fights a case for a client, his/her job is to prove that he/she is not guilty regardless of what the truth is, and this is fully understood by the judge and everyone who is involved in the jury down the line. It is commonly said that the court is blind, which means that a judge can not take a decision if he/she believes one of the parties is right unless that party provides the judge with sufficient evidence against the criminal party. This is perfectly consistent with Henry Taylor’s statement, â€Å"falsehood ceases to be falsehood when it is understood on all sides that the truth is not expected to be spoken† (Carr). This description of bluffing is as valid for business as it is for poker . Corporate executives can not make independent decisions. Their actions are guided by the instructions of the top management. However, in addition to being an employee, a corporate executive is just as human as his/her manager. The corporate executive thinks from his/her own mind and is fully capable of analyzing the quality of decision enforced by the manager. Quite often, a corporate executive may not approve of the decision of the top management, but there is nothing he/she can do about it because if he/she attempts to, he/she will risk the job. Therefore, most corporate executives tend to remain silent rather than giving voice to their conflicting views, and this, for many, is the strategy of survival in the workplace. In this way, business ethics resemble the game ethics both of which are totally different from the ethics of religion. Businessmen generally maintain self constructed standards of ethics and tend to comply with them. As long as they are doing good on certain scal es of ethics that they value the most, they are happy that they are conducting the business ethically and their conscience is fully satisfied. The Democrat, Omar Burleson from Texas expressed his views about his own business practice in these words: I can tell you that we pride ourselves on our ethics. In thirty years not one customer has ever questioned my word or asked to check our figures. We're loyal to our customers and fair to our suppliers. I regard my handshake on a deal as a contract. I've never entered into price-fixing schemes with my competitors. I've never allowed my salesmen to spread injurious rumors about other companies. Our union contract is the best in our industry. And, if I do say so myself, our ethical standards are of the highest! (Burleson cited in Carr). In fact, the difference arises from the disparity of perceptions about the ethical standards of the businessmen and those of the stakeholders. When a businessman says that his ways are ethical, it most often means that he/she complies with the ethics of