Business and ethics essay
Business and ethics often turn out to be antagonistic concepts. Even though business ethics is one of the milestone concepts of the contemporary business but it is rather the formal, illusionary concept which has little to do with the real world. In this regard, the film Glengarry Glen Ross and the book Good Faith attempt to reveal the true nature of business and business relations to uncover their immoral ground. At the same time, the film and the book show that one of the main problems of the business and contemporary society are immoral agents that drove others to immoral acts and act immorally themselves. In such a way, James Foley, the director of Glengarry Glen Ross, and Jane Smiley, the author of Good Faith, show the destructive impact of egoism as the milestone of one’s personal philosophy on individuals, including not only moral agents driven by egoism but also their social environment because they influence other people and make them egoistic too. In such a way, both the film and the book warn the audience against the immoral nature of business grounded on norms and principles of egoism, when individuals cares only about their personal well-being and neglect interests and needs of others.
Glengarry Glen Ross attempts to justify the immoral in its essence actions of some of the main characters. In this regard, Levene seems to be the most deceitful and immoral person, who always tries to find his way out of any situation even at cost of his partners, colleagues and other persons, whom he is ready to deceive, betray or ruin as long as he knows that he can gain some benefits from it. He is trying to pursue his own benefits in the situation, when his colleagues face the risk of losing their job. In such a situation, the means he chooses to reach his goal, to stay in the company, are disgusting from the moral standpoint since he tries everything from flattery to bribery.
On the other hand, the chronically ill daughter is the main driver that actually forces him to commit all his immoral acts, starting from his attempt to bribe Blake to make him stay Levene in the company to his decision to break into the office to still the leads. In this regard, the illness of his daughter turns out to be a strong motivator for Levene’s illegal actions. In a way, the illness of his daughter justifies in a way his actions and changes the attitude of the audience to the character.
Therefore, Levene turns out to be not absolutely immoral person as it may seem to be. At any rate, he has a strong motive, the urgent need for money to treat his daughter, while others act out of sheer greed and desire of retaining their position in the company. In this regard, Moss is probably the most immoral person, who acts out of sheer egoism, as he plans to steal the leads and at first tries to persuade Aaronow to steal the leads and later involves Levene, who has no choice but to agree upon the crime.
In this regard, the behavior of Aaronow is also unethical because he was aware of the plan of Moss but he has never informed neither Blake about the preparing crime nor the police after the crime have been committed. Instead, he preferred just to stay aside of the ‘business’ because he was afraid of being involved somehow in the crime. The indifference is probably even more dangerous than the proactive position that Levene has eventually taken. Aaronow is the person, who knew about the plan elaborated by Moss and he apparently understood, who was behind the crime, as soon as he learned about the crime. However, he has never tried to prevent the crime or help to investigate the crime. Such people are probably the most dangerous and morally degraded since they stay silent and indifferent, when they witness the most terrible crimes occurring right in front of them.
Such behavior of Aaronow is another manifestation of egoism as the major ethical framework within the main characters of Glengarry Glen Ross operate. Just like Ross, who is concerned with his personal interests and position, Aaronow is also concerned with his position in the company and his future. This is why he prefers not to assist the investigation rather than prevent the crime or help to uncover the criminal.
In such a situation, Roma seems to be quite different from his subordinates since almost all the time he stays behind the desperate struggle for survival. At any rate, he has never been involved in any crime. However, egoism is also the attribute of Roma just as it is the attribute of Aaronow and Moss. Roma is a pragmatic person and, when he realizes that he has uncertain future in the company, he decides to start up his own business and offers partnership to Levene, being unaware of his crime.
However, his offer is not a manifestation of his friendship or desire to help Levene to tackle his problems and earn some money to treat his chronically ill daughter. On the contrary, this act is the act of sheer egoism again, like was the case of other characters pursuing their own interests and well-being. Roma is just aware of Levene’s prospects as a good partner, whom he can use effectively in his new business. This is why he makes the offer.
In this regard, Levene is probably the only character that is driven not by his egoism or, to put it more precisely, not only by his egoism but also and mainly by his concerns about the health and well-being of his daughter. He is probably a good person, in essence since he never tries to act absolutely immorally and illegally from the start. For instance, at first, he just wants to talk and persuade Blake that he is worth staying in the company but, when it never works, he tries to bribe Blake. When his bribe attempt does not work either, he finally slips to the crime as the only way to gain some benefits from the deal being aware of the high risk of losing his position in the company.
At the same time, the characters of the film may be roughly divided into two groups. On the one hand, there are puppeteers, like Moss or Roma, while, on the other hand, there are puppets, like Levene and Aaronow. In this regard, Moss is probably the most immoral character. The milestone of his personal philosophy and ethics is egoism. He is just pursuing wealth and wants to rip off maximum benefits for himself. He schemes the crime, even though he is not in such a desperate position as Levene is and the loss of job is not related to the end of life issues as is the case of Levene. Nevertheless, it is Moss, who inspires the crime and, first, tries to force Aaronow to commit the crime, but, eventually, talks in Levene to become his puppet, who breaks into the office and steals the leads.
In this regard, the book Good Faith’s characters are, to a significant extent similar to characters of the film and so are their actions. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish Marcus as the evil genius, who plans and schemes to meet his egoistic goals as is the case of the main characters of the film.
Business and ethics essay part 2
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