Month: September 2010

In Organizational Behaviour and COMM 101 this week, both classes were presented with a particular proposal in which we were forced to either take or leave – the proposal being whether or not to take a stable, well-paid job with excellent perks such as a month paid vacation and health care but no promotions for 10 years, or to refuse the offer and find work else where.

To many, the answer appeared painfully obvious. Of course! Take the job that pays 84,000 dollars a year! Yet, it was something many also chose to ponder further. If, indeed, you accepted a job that only gave you extrinsic motivation, would you be able to sit, stagnant until a promotion arose? And even if you were to only take the job momentarily, would you be able to leave it just as easily?

An unchallenging job would not only prove worthless to the employee, but it would also encourage a sense of complacency. There would be no room for personal growth, and the intrinsic factors that make professions so interesting would not exist. This sort of environment could only give way to a negative resentment towards the job.

http://www.adsneeze.com/media/2007/07/sisley-fashion-a1.jpg

Above is a picture illustrating a typical advertisement one might find in a generic magazine. A somewhat startling advertisement launched by Sisley, an upcoming fashion company, that begs the question: “How unethical are advertisements allowed to be?”

When we first read into the picture, we see two attractive models insinuating the action of essentially snorting cocaine. However instead of the illicit substance, the company has cleverly placed a dress there in its stead. Of course, we understand that Sisley is attempting to portray their line of fashion as addictive and somewhat naughty natured; yet they are also inadvertently promoting a controversial issue of drug abuse as well – an issue that is very much rampant in today’s fashion industry.

The aim of an advertisement is to make itself look cool and attractive therefore making the product seem cool and attractive. Although Sisley may employ a more negative connotation with its marketing strategy, it is humorous and eye-catching, but at the same time, it is not morally right.

This is the contradiction that in itself, gives the ad its “kick.” So rather than calling advertisements distasteful or unethical, we should focus on what makes an advertisement bold and unique. After all, we may very well be the next marketing team that will aim to produce ads such as this in the near future.

http://www.financialpost.com/executive/Young+women+earning+more+than+their+boyfriends/3496675/story.html

In our modern day society, we believe in the notions of equality; however, gender inequality is still ever-present in workplaces around the globe. In the Globe and Mail article, “Young Women are Earning More Than Their Boyfriends” by Heather Boushey, Boushey discusses how although young women are earning more than young men of the same age because they are more qualified, women continue to be paid less than men of the same capabilities, same education, and same posts.

Of the same age group, women are earning more than men, but only because they are better qualified.
(http://www.financialpost.com/executive/Young+women+earning+more+than+their+boyfriends/3496675/story.html)

The root? Here lies the ethical issue of sexism. The media has tactfully painted a picture that indeed, equality has arrived. Yet unfortunately, the ethical issue does not lie in age comparison, but in a comparison between equally qualified women and men working the same jobs yet receiving differing salaries. Equally skilled men in the workplace continue to be paid better than women as shown in a 12 percent pay gap ten years after graduating from the same college with the same degree.

In Milton Friedman’s article, he discusses how some believe a business does not just function to generate profit, but to be a socially conscience entity as well (1). To set an example.

Although the gap between genders has greatly improved in the last few years, businesses can be the forefront in continuing to narrow it.

(1) “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits”, Milton Friedman, The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970.

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