Paper Example on Good Ethics Leads to Good Business: Leaders Set the Tone

According to Doughetry, performing the ‘right thing’ always competes with the tightening budgets. Individuals do not mind shortcuts when the pressure to satisfy their financial goals in intense pressure. It is important to understand that good ethics leads to good business and vice versa. At least half of the biggest corporate bankruptcies have occurred because of unethical business practices. Arguably, leaders establish the tone for their organizations. It is crucial that the leaders model the highest standards of moral decision-making and behavior, even amid the most difficult situations. The Potter Box is a tool that can attain the above statement (Doughetry).

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Ralph Potter Jr. is the founder of the Potter Box. It is a model for settling ethical choices. Potter Box a tool that aims at offering guidelines in assisting individuals with moral decision making. Currently, Potter Jr. is a professor of social ethics at Harvard Divinity School. Potter Box concentrates on the dimensions of ethical reasoning, including values, facts, principles, and loyalties (Dougherty). Also, it offers less complicated steps to reason through ethical dilemmas and reaching a justified decision.

To make a decision, it is crucial for the individual to adhere to the four steps. The first step is reviewing the facts whereby it is attained by gathering information about the situation. The second step is to assess the values by exploring the values that matter most to be able to evaluate the likely actions. The third step involves examining the principles that suit an individual. Some of the principles entail Mill’s Principle of Utility and Kant’s Categorical Imperative. The fourth and final step entails determining loyalties. The individual is required to assess who and what one is loyal to in this circumstance (Dougherty). When a decision has been reached, the individual is required to determine the best way to perform it in a way that is effective and respectful.

Good ethics reflect better performance among the leaders. Workers who believe that their leader is ethical are happier, more devoted, perform better, are more probable to be offer assistance to others, and less likely to behave immorally. Indeed, each person wins when leaders are ethical (Dougherty).

The Washington Redskins: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

In the episode, John Oliver criticized Daniel Snyder for refusing to change the name of the Washington Redskins. Oliver articulated that the emotionally powerful advertising campaign that ran in major media markets during the Game 3 of the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals last week, to justify a point, it is becoming challenging to make a good argument for keeping the Washington Redskins name after President Barack Obama became the only third sitting American president in eighty years to visit a Native American reservation. During his visit, the Department of Housing and Urban Development declared plans to make $70 million present to enhance tribal housing conditions, with a portion designated for mold removal (Last Week Tonight).

The segment was finalized with a re-worked version of the advertisement, juxtaposing the Redskins obvious position with things than can be argued even though it appears odd to try to defend cauliflower being the ‘king of vegetables and camping being fun. The advertisement concluded with the subsequent line and an image of a Redskins helmet: “But the one position that can’t be defended, is this” (Last Week Tonight).

Questions about the Readings

• What are the steps of the Potter box?
• What should an individual do to stay ethical when encountered with a moral decision?
• What is the controversy behind the name of Washington Redskins?

Works Cited

Dougherty, Megan. "The Potter Box: Staying on the Right Path." Thin Difference, 9 Oct. 2015, www.thindifference.com/2015/10/the-potter-box-staying-on-the-right-path/. Accessed 1 July 2020.

Last Week Tonight. YouTube, 15 June 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJKfs4ZnbNE. Accessed 1 July 2020.