M9 (Avise)

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What, if any, has been your experience with the Hawthorne effect on a job?

My experience the Hawthorne effect is mostly positive. I have a job that allows me to work from home and I do go into our call center once a month. During that time, there is multiple supervisors in the call center observing agents. I find that when I know I’m being watched I tend to be more distracted with what the supervisor is thinking about me. I may feel this way because I’m used to be secluded in my office with no distractions. I think I work better in an environment where I’m not being observed.

Describe a supervisor who inspired and motivated you — what were their characteristics or actions that made such a positive impact?

A supervisor that has inspired me is the supervisor I currently have. This supervisor is someone who genuinely cares about her team. She consistently shows empathy and compassion when tough situations arise. She asks questions about her teams’ personal life like what vacations they have planned or if they’ve done anything fun recently. She makes it a point that every month she has a meeting with each employee on her team to do a progress check and see if they have any questions. The way she coaches her team isn’t in a condescending tone like previous supervisors have been. She gives constructive criticism in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you’re in trouble. Overall, I think these are some characteristics that make up a good supervisor.

M7 (Avise)

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Research and find an alternative/opposing point of view to Climate Change as proposed in the Introduction.

The source that I found shows that most claims made by Al Gore, the leader of the “Climate Change/Global Warming’ prediction are inaccurate. It was originally said as “Global Warming’ until most every prediction was shown as false. Now we have changed the label on the same movement, moving us to “Clean Energy’ with electric cars and different ways of harnessing power. We have yet to see the full effects of these electric cars but have already started to see what the use of rare metals and the extra production of electricity is doing to the planet. An article that I found stated “In fact, manufacturing an electric vehicle generates more carbon emissions than building a conventional car, mostly because of its battery, the Union of Concerned Scientists has found(So Wade).’ Although we do not know with 100% certainty that these new electric cars pose the same or more of a threat to our environment as their fossil fueled counterparts, is being shown early into their existence that it may not be as “green’ as they are made out to be.

Under Learning Objectives on page 248, find #6 and choose two (2) questions to answer. Be sure to list your questions in your post.

  1. What environmental responsibilities do we have to the rest of the world?

I think we have the responsibility to clean up after ourselves. For those of you who have not seen the movie Deep Water Horizon I recommend watching it. This is a prime example of the United States company BP making a huge mistake and not properly taking care the mess of this explosion. The book stated, “in the four months it took to cap the well, 4.9 million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico about forty miles off the coast of Louisiana’ (Shaw246). In the incident involving this oil rig, the problem should have ben handled much quicker rather than it is taking 4 months to get taken care of. The company who caused the pollution should be responsible for cleaning up our environment as well as other countries company’s and/or governments being responsible for cleaning up their environment.

  1. What obligations do we have to future generations?

I think that the biggest obligation we have to future generations is cleaning up after ourselves. I also that that we are using to many pesticides when yielding crops. Theses residues are getting left on the food we eat. A hundred years ago people didn’t know what cancer was, today cancer is well known and lots of people are diagnosed every day. It makes me wonder if these chemicals that we are ingesting through our food are play a role in our heath. I do believe that the use of pesticides needs to be minimized to hopefully create a healthier future generation. As that is something being proven more and more every day. It’s not natural to add in unnecessary hormones and pesticides to make sure we can yield the best crops. It is the farmers duty to refrain from doing these things that are hindering not only the environment but those that are living in it. These effects can be found more and more as time goes on.

 

Lastly, as you read through Chapter 7, answer this question: Who should pay the cost for protecting the environment — those responsible for causing the pollution or those who stand to benefit from protection and restoration. Explain your position.

I am less concerned about the environmental impact of things going on in the world. I find a vast majority of climate change concerns to be purely based on theories with most of it not being proved with hard evidence that stands true years later. I think that who should pay the cost of protecting the environment should be those companies that pose an immediate issue to our environment. If BP has an oil spill, then naturally it is their responsibility to clean it up a pay the cost of it. But opinions on what could possibly be bad for the environment is not something that needs to be paid for and or implemented before we know for sure it’s actually an issue to our future. I also believe that under no circumstance should this be the duty of the American taxpayer to be responsible for. I don’t need a third of my fuel cost to be taxes because of an inability to fund everything that could possibly be “bad’ for the environment.

Works cited

Beauregard, Elmer. “Top Ten Reasons Climate Change Is a Hoax.’ Exposing The Truth About Global Warming Hysteria, 23 Jan. 2015, www.globalclimatescam.com/opinion/top-ten-reasons-climate-change-is-a-hoax/.

So Wade, Lizzie. “Tesla’s Electric Cars Aren’t as Green as You Might Think.’ Wired, Conde Nast, 10 Jan. 2018, www.wired.com/2016/03/teslas-electric-cars-might-not-green-think/.urces:

Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017

M6(Avise)

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During my research today I learned that there are so many companies that have had to recall products due to safety reasons. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Johnson and Johnson Tylenol, Takata airbag recall. However, the one recall that stuck out most to me was Merck’s Vioxx recall. Vioxx entered the market in 1999 and it was a medication for arthritis pain. This medication was later confirmed to cause fatal heart attacks and strokes. Dr. David Graham, that estimated Vioxx had been associated with more than 27,000 heart attacks or deaths linked to cardiac problems. The article had stated that Merck’s dismissed the idea that the drug could result in cardiovascular problems including heart attacks and strokes. The company knew that this drug could cause those risks, yet they decided to look the other way on the issue. In September of 2004 they recalled the drug. I think that this behavior was very unethical because people died from this company’s drug. Due to this unethical behavior, Merck’s company has not strived like it use too, the stock went down, and they have thousands of lawsuits against them for the deaths of so many citizens. There was an article written in spring of 2018, in that article it stated that Merck’s Vioxx recall was the third biggest product recalls of all time.

 

 

Below is the article that states this product is the third biggest recall in historyhttps://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/T052-S000-10-biggest-product-recalls-of-all-time/index.html

M2 (Avise)

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About three years ago, I was at work and noticed something moving in the parking lot. I went outside to take a closer look and it was a dog. This dog looked awful, it had one dread lock of hair and fleas all over its skin. The dog also was very skinny and 90% of her hair was missing. The poor dog looked like it had been on the streets for a few days. I brought the dog inside my office and started feeding her cheese, she acted like she hadn’t been fed in a long time. After giving her some food, I took her to the vet across the street and asked them if one of their dogs had gotten loose. The vet said that wasn’t their dog, but that dog didn’t look good and had been abused. They said she was very malnourished but they would treat the dog and take care of her. I donated 40 dollars and left. Later that day I went back to the vet to check on the dog and they had said a husband and wife came into the vet asking if they had seen a little tan shih zu dog. The vet had said no to this couple even though they knew the dog they were talking about was the one I brought in earlier that day. The vet didn’t do this to be mean, they did this because this dog was a puppy mill dog and it was being treated very poorly at the house of its old owner based on the condition this dog was in. The vet asked me if I would be willing to give the dog a better home and I said I would think about it. After thinking it over that night, I came to the conclusion that she needed a good home and I was going to give her it. I think this is an example of utilitarianism because I chose to save the dog rather then have it go to a shelter, where it most likely would not have been adopted because it was an older dog. In chapter two the book stated ” act utilitarianism, states that we must ask ourselves what the consequences of a particular act in particular situation will be for all those affected. If its consequences bring more net good than those of any alternative course of action, then this action is the right one and the one we should preform (Shaw 51).” I think adopting the dog caused the most amount of net happiness. The vet was happy this dog had a home, the dog was grateful to be loved and cared for, and I was happy I was able to save her life. The original owners may not have been happy that they were unable to find their dog, but it was to the benefit of everyone else that I took ownership of the dog.

Below is a picture of my dog who I named Tibby. The first picture is her about a month after adopting her. The other photo is one that i took of her this evening.

M4(Avise)

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How do we develop our ethics? What are the primary sources for us to develop our ethical position?

To answer the questions above, I believe from the time we were children we have been developing concepts of right and wrong which shaped our ethics. Our ethics are developed based on our family and teachers or whomever we were spending most time with during childhood. Other things like personal experiences, religion, and culture can influence the way we develop our ethics. In the text William H. Shaw states “many things influence what moral principles we accept: our early upbringing, the behavior of those around us, the explicit and implicit standards of our culture, our own experiences and our critical reflections on those experiences.’ During my youth, following the rules were very important to me. I have a memory as a child that I still remember do this day involving a personal and cultural experience. I was in the car with my mom and my sibling driving home. My sister refused to put her seat belt on, after a couple of minutes of my sister arguing with my mother about how she must wear a seat belt, my sister still refused. My mom then decided that if she wouldn’t listen to her then she would listen to the police. She started driving to the police station and I began to cry. I couldn’t understand why someone wouldn’t wear a seat belt when that’s what all of society does. We arrived at the police station and my mom told my sister to get out of the car and explain to the police why she wouldn’t wear her seat belt. Instead of my sister getting out of the car she began to realized the importance of a seat belt. She has worn it every day since. In this situation the term ethical relativism is relevant. Ethical relativism is the theory that what is right is determined by what culture or society says is right. Society and our culture say we must wear seat belts, or we will be punished with a costly ticket. However, in countries such as Afghanistan there is no law on wearing your seat belt at all. This example shows how different cultures and society shape us as citizens.

 

Here is a link of where i found out which countries do/don’t require a seat belt. I found it to be quite interesting!

https://chartsbin.com/view/2028

Citation:

Shaw, William H.  Business Ethics. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017

ChartsBin statistics collector team 2011,  Seat Belt Legislation, ChartsBin.com, viewed 24th May, 2019, <https://chartsbin.com/view/2028>.