This assignment made me really
examine some of my values and what they mean to me. While examining the protected values I chose,
I had to scrutinize why these values meant so much to me; or even consider
whether or not I really supported my values as much as much as I thought I
did. In relation to the Dan Gilbert
video, “Why We Make Bad Decisions” as they relate to my identified values,
there is an in-depth question of how far am I willing to go to support those
value? Do these values provide me some
type of gain and what are the odds of me gaining anything by taking a stance in
support of them? In The Brain activity,
I was able to map out three of the more important protected values. No, I do not think these are the most important
values in my life, but they were ones that related to the course work. For
this list I chose, freedom to protect private property against imminent domain,
employee discrimination and corporate outsourcing. In the textbook, Hoch made some interesting
points, concerning understanding what values we protect against any degree of
tradeoff.
Firstly, I have a high regard for the
right freedom to own and protect your private property. However I did discover
some pros and cons to the process of imminent domain. This made me re-examine why this value is so
protected to me. On one side I hate the fact that individuals
are forced to see sell their property against their will. What personal value does this hold to a
family...land that has been in family for a long time? It’s like the small person having to give in
to the large corporate machine or Goliath beating David. On the other hand, imminent domain has proven
to be a good thing for some societies. It
is hard to argue against utilitarianism.
I live in Dallas, Texas and can remember when the city of Arlington invoked
imminent domain to build Cowboy Stadium. Although I was against it initially, there
is no doubt about the monetary value it has brought to the city. The economy grew on a large scale, creating new
jobs and helping business’ that once struggled to become very profitable…and
there is no downfall in sight for the near future. Looking at the situation now, I must admit my
protected values here were no substantiated.
Secondly, I have an extreme
devotion to eliminate the practice of employee discrimination; practice of using an individual's race, color,
national origin, sex, or religion to make employment decisions related to
hiring, firing, compensation, evaluations, promotions, and training. Without a doubt this is a bad practice or is
it? It is general knowledge on the understanding
of the impact employee discrimination, but few have ever found the positive
side of it. A perfect example is
affirmative action. Here the means
justify the end. I still stand by the
practice, because when used correctly, I feel it assists in leveling the
playing field in the business world.
The final topic is outsourcing for
profit purposes alone; the practice of sending certain job functions outside the
United States instead of looking at options to handle them in-house. I am not as rock solid as I once was when it
comes to this value. I have learned that
many factors influence outsourcing. This
includes everything from union demands, the price of raw materials and
corporate taxes and even shareholder influence.
It is hard to say do not outsource when you know if you own stock in the
company, the value you own in that stock will dramatically increase. That being said if there is no outsourcing,
the business as a whole will suffer even though people will keep their jobs;
with the understanding that the sooner than later the business will go under
and all stakeholders will lose.
I can’t sit here and say that these
protected values will weigh constantly on my mind in the future. However because of this assignment, I will
give more considerations to the impact the decisions I make will have on me and
those around me.
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