MGMT250 10/30 - Ethics
We had a class discussion today about ethics. This topic has only recently begun to play a part in management education after the emergence of large corporate scandals that have shaken the public's faith in big business. Prior to the 1990s, ethics were largely unspoken guidelines that were generally accepted across all industries. While violations of this code did happen, as they always will, they only reached a breaking point in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, causing the government to step in. Correspondingly, more pressure was placed on institutions of higher education such as business schools to make a better effort to instill ethics in their students. Thus, we are taught such things in management class.
The ethical question presented to the class that was of most interest to me was this: "Would you follow your boss to another company if you were asked?" To me, this does not seem like it violates any ethical principles. I think my answer would likely be different if the position I held were more important than an internship position. I can say from personal experience that interns are not valued much by many companies since their tenures within the company are very limited.
Most companies do not invest in their interns nor do they expect much from them. There are two primary purposes of an intern position within a company: one, to provide semiskilled labor at a very reduced cost, and two, to give back to the community by allowing students to gain practical experience. The second purpose of offering an internship can often lead to a direct hire once the intern has graduated college. While it is often desirable for a company to hire an intern because he or she is automatically much more knowledgeable about the company than an outsider would be, it is certainly not required or even expected of the intern in many cases. The first purpose alone, cheap labor, makes an internship program worthwhile to the company.
In a different situation, where the company has made a significant investment into an employee's training, the answer to this question would be different. The company invests in the improvement of your skills; in return, it expects you to provide it with value-adding work. Should you not return the favor, it would be considered unethical; not giving back to the company could even be considered the theft of knowledge.
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