The Responsibility Project - Why Are the Issues in the Film Important?

The Responsibility Project

Ethical principles can be used to address any organizations issues. This paper will discuss how to use these ethical principles. This paper will review the film "Good Vibrations" from the website "The Responsibility Project". In this review the paper will show how ethical principles are important to an organization, and how the organization can shape and change them.

Why are the issues in the film important?

Good Vibrations is an animated tale all about an organization that showed poor moral and ethical behavior. The film is about a construction project on the street in front of an office building. The construction caused bricks in the sidewalk to vibrate loose. An employee sees a person fall because of the loose bricks and he laughs. Later other workers and a manager are all looking out the office windows and laughing as unknowing pedestrians fall in the street. The film then shows a wide panoramic view of the office building. The entire building of employees is shown at the windows watching people fall. No one is working and no one seems concerned for the health and welfare of the pedestrians. When an elderly man with a cane approaches the construction site an employee finally does the right thing and opens his window to warn the old man. The old man then places a caution sign near the loose bricks to prevent other people from getting hurt.

The main issue in this film is the entire organizations lack of caring and compassion for the people of the community. The employees were more concerned with the pleasure they received from watching pedestrians fall then with the safety of others. Another issue was the poor work ethic displayed by management and workers. The film highlighted how the poor morals and ethical principles of one employee can spread and affect the entire organization if it is not addressed.

What role do external social pressures have in influencing organizational ethics?

External social pressures play a very important role in influencing organizational ethics. An organization has many different stakeholders and each have an agenda, some agendas are open while some may be hidden. These stakeholders will include the consumers, employees, shareholders as well as the organization's community. The pressure to fulfill each agenda may influence the organizations behavior. The pressure to maintain a certain image in society can cause an organization to either show good character or sometimes these pressures cause an organization to behave unethically. Enron is an excellent example of a company that made poor ethical decisions based on the hidden agenda of some managers and the desire to deceive the public. Enron created several off the books partnerships. "These partnerships were used to hide the massive debts of Enron, which in turn artificially inflated there stock prices" (Trevino and Nelson, 2006). This was an unethical maneuver to keep current stockholders happy and to deceive the public in an attempt to attract more investors. If people outside