Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

What do you believe in?

Determining an absolute judgment on what is considered right and what is considered to be
wrong in life is never an easy task to perform. Such decisions are made based on an
individuals ethical standards and the fact that every individual has their own ethical
standards, principles, and values which they follow means that reaching a general consensus
on issues involving a level of ethical conflict is almost always impossible. Regardless of how
other people form their ethical standards and regardless of the extent to which they place a
level of importance on ethics, however, one must clearly establish and follow an ethical
perspective that he or she will base his or her life decisions around. Personally, I find that
holding myself and the people that I care about around me to a higher level of ethical
standards is beneficial in a number of ways; primarily, that I maintain a level of quality and
respect within my lifestyle that inspires me to make positive changes in my own life as well as
in the lives of those around me. When you act in a manner that is ethically sound, the
benefits that result are numerous ranging from simply feeling great about yourself to setting
an example for friends, colleagues, and family members. Over the course of ones life, they
learn to prioritize different goals for themselves: for some, their highest priority is to attain
money regardless of how they do it and for others, their highest priority is to take care of
their loved ones. I will explain why my highest priority has always been to maintain my
ethical perspective which is based around my set of core values that I value more than any
green sheet of paper that I will ever receive.
When I make a judgment regarding whether something is right or wrong to partake in, my
decision always involves examining the consequences of performing the action for all parties
involved. If one party benefits or gains more through the action than the other party in a way
that is unbalanced and if either party is unfairly harmed in any way through the action taking

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

place, then I will deem being involved with this activity to be ethically wrong and something I
cannot be a part of. For example, when I was in my freshman year of high school, there was a
friend of mine who was trying to sell a pair of his shoes that he had received as a gift from his
parents and did not want to hold on to. These shoes would be valued at no more than $70 to
any individual who was proficiently aware of evaluating the price of athletic sports gear.
However, it came to my attention that my friend was attempting to sell these shoes to
another student for $150 and this other student, being unaware of the real value of the shoes,
was willing to purchase them at that price. Since this other student would be paying an
excessively high amount for these shoes which were clearly not worth the price that he was
going to pay for them, I observed the clear ethical violation that was taking place in this
transaction: my friend would be unfairly gaining an extra $80 off of this poor bloke! In my
eyes, this was entirely unbalanced and unfair as the other student did not know the real value
of the item before entering into making a business decision about purchasing it. I dealt with
this situation by informing the other student of the real value of the shoes and explaining to
him that he need not be paying such a high price for them upon which as one might predict,
the other student immediately rescinded his offer to my friend. Fortunately, this other
student had not entered into a formal contract with my friend yet so he was able to do so,
however, it is frightening to think how many individuals unknowingly enter into contracts
nowadays where they are unaware that they are being ethically wronged. Regardless of the
situation, I very strongly believe that one is in the wrong is he or she is taking advantage of
someone else in an unfair way and this principle of maintaining a level of fairness is one key
principle that forms my ethical perspective when determining what is right and what is
wrong.
Individuals develop their ethical perspectives through a variety of different sources and at
times, it may be difficult to even identify what these sources are. However, in my case, I am

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

clearly aware that my ethical perspective has developed through the key authority figure in
my life: my mother. Growing up, there was never any question with my mother about how she
felt when I would act in a way that was ethically wrong. From constantly advising me to be
the better person to actively stopping me from acting in ways that were unjust, my mother
clearly set my ethical perspective in stone for me. The best example I have of this takes place
on a cold, winter day where my mother was arriving at my school to pick me up after a long
day grinding away in classes. When walking to the door of the car that she was driving, I
noticed a large, rectangular object on the ground. With the spark of curiosity and nave
interest that any young child would have, I walked over to the object and picked it up to
realize to my astonishment that it was a wallet filled with money! With thoughts racing
through my mind of how many different video games I would be able to purchase with this
newfound money, I bounded over to my mother and told her about this new development with
the utmost level of excitement. She looked at me briefly, then looked at the wallet, and to
my great surprise, immediately demanded that I return the wallet to its rightful owner that
was listed on an identification card within the wallet. What blasphemy! How could she ruin
this great opportunity for me to attain all the things that I had ever wanted?! At the time,
being a young boy and still not having formed a clear ethical perspective, I did not realize
how I would be acting in a terribly wrong manner by keeping the wallet. However, my
mothers explanation that this was not fair to the person who owned the wallet and that they
would be in dire straits due to losing this money entirely changed my perspective on the issue
and still serves as an example of how to act ethically at all times even to this day. This is, of
course, one example of many where my mother helped shape my ethical perspective as these
are developed over time and through numerous interactions but there is no question in my
mind as to the fact that my mother has been a major driving force behind the strong ethical
perspective that I have now.

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

When dealing with others in a personal setting, I hold myself to the highest level of ethical
standards because of the crucial reason that I understand that my actions will set an example
for those that are around me. Whether it be close friends that I am dealing with, close
acquaintances, or merely someone I am meeting for the first time, I understand that the way
I act will reflect upon myself as well as my relationship with them. If people you deal with
personally observe that you are acting in ways which are ethically unsound, they will be more
likely to do the same in their own lives if they do not have their own sound ethical standards
to follow. When my friends ask me for advice on how they should act in various situations, I
will never advise them to act in a way that would cause unjust harm or an advantage for
anyone, regardless of the profitability involved in doing so. For example, when a close friend
of mine recently asked me whether he should lie to his manager at work to get out of
attending work for a day, I told him that he should absolutely not do so because this was a
fraudulent statement and was ethically harming the interests of someone else who would
have to end up working extra hours to cover my friends shift. When dealing with others in a
personal setting, I expect myself to not only maintain my ethical standards but to try and pass
on my high ethical standards as much as I can to them so as to help them form a high set of
ethical standards for themselves. I believe that the only way for society to move forward in
acting more ethically as a whole is for individuals to convey and pass on ethically sound
principles to others as much as possible and this is what I expect of myself when dealing with
others in a personal setting.
If the situation changes from a personal to a professional one, there is not much difference in
what I expect of myself. I still try and convey my ethical perspective as much as possible to
those around me to influence my workplace in a positive way. I do understand that
professional settings are harder to influence with ethics as the people around you may not be
as personally close to you or may be more driven towards solely attaining money, but I find

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

that at the very least, I expect myself to take little steps where possible to place a spotlight
on my ethical standards. For example, when I was working as a paid intern at Congressman
Patrick Meehans office, there were entire days where the hours of employees within the
office were not properly monitored. This gave employees the chance to fill out their time
sheets as they pleased and the possibility to unfairly get paid by the office for more hours
than they were actually working. When asked by my fellow co-workers about my opinion on
this situation, I made it a point to fill out my time sheets to the exact minute that I worked
on a daily basis and made it explicitly clear to them that these were the ethical standards I
held myself to. Surprisingly enough, the level of respect that my co-workers held for me due
to my acting in this way was so much that they started doing the same instead of attempting
to cheat the office of extra payments. This instance really proved to me that one can
influence those around them to act more ethically through little examples shown through
their own actions. Regardless of whether the situation is a personal or a professional one, I
always expect myself to pass on ethically sound principles to others as much as possible
through examples that I set by my own actions.
When I deal with others, whether it be in a personal or a professional setting, I expect them
to uphold and maintain the same set of values that I believe in. To me, ethics has no ties with
religion, so I would never expect anyone else to believe in the same religious values as I do,
however, I would definitely expect them to always act in ways which are ethically sound and
which match up with my ethical standards. More than anything, I expect the people I deal
with to treat me in the same way that they would treat anyone else; essentially, to maintain
a level of equality in the way that they treat everyone. Regardless of whether I am making
the decision for them or not, I would expect those that I deal with to act in the same way
that I would: that is, to consider the consequences of their actions on all parties involved and
to act in a way that is unjust to no one in any way. If I notice that an individual acts

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

unethically regularly, even after I explain how I feel about them acting in this way to them, I
will not maintain any further relationship with them. The following example is a good
example of this as it connects to me in both a personal and professional sense. While working
at Abercrombie and Fitch numerous years ago, I noticed that my close friend and co-worker
was stealing extra money from the cashiers till on daily basis for his personal usage. I
immediately explained to her why this was unethical in numerous ways and why she should
stop doing so at once. She agreed that her actions were wrong and claimed that she would
change her ways, however, I came upon her stealing more money again in the future. Upon
discovering this for the second time, I also discovered that her manager was assisting her with
this task so as to unethically make her share of money off of the companys mistakes as well. I
explained how I felt about this to my manager, handed in my employee resignation papers,
and have not spoken again to that friend to this day. Although this might seem a little
extreme, it is a clear example of what I expect from others around me that I deal with on a
personal and on a professional level. My friend and my manager were violating central
principles directly tied to two core values that I place an enormous level of importance on:
honesty and equality. This was unacceptable to me and I could therefore, no longer continue
to maintain a relationship with either of them.
Core values are the fundamental beliefs of a person that serve as guiding principles to dictate
their behavior. My core values are extremely important to me and constantly serve as a
guiding force when making decisions throughout my life. The two essential core values that
form the center of my ethical perspective are those of honesty and equality. If either of these
two values are violated when I make a decision, I will not carry through with that decision.
These two values serve as constant screens for my decision-making processes and play a
heavy role in determining how I act at all times. During my freshman year of college, upon
turning in an assignment, my professor informed me that I had left an entire section of the

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

assignment missing. He then asked me whether I did not feel like I had enough time to
complete the assignment and that if this were the case, that I could get an extension to
complete the assignment. Even though this would have clearly been beneficial for me to say, I
knew that I would be compromising my core value of honesty as I did believe that I had had
enough time to finish the assignment. Therefore, I told the professor the truth that it had
simply slipped my mind to finish that portion of the assignment. My core values play a central
role in my life at all times and I will never make a decision that breaches my being honest and
equal to those around me.
It is not surprising that I am constantly put in situations where those around me ask me to
compromise my ethical foundation. Individuals are always looking for others to participate
with them in ways that are unethical because as one might say: birds of a feather flock
together. However, when someone does ask me to do so, it is not a question of whether I will
accept their offer or not but rather of whether I wish to continue to interact with this person
in my life. When someone is asking me to compromise my ethical foundation, it is a clear
representation to me of the type of weak character they possess and moreover, a clear
representation of how little they value and respect something which I hold to such a high
level of importance. It shows me that they care very little about me as a person because if
they did, they would respect something which they know plays such an important role in my
life. It is likely that if someone were trying to influence me in a negative way to compromise
my ethical foundation, I would try my best to cut all ties with them and maintain as limited of
a relationship with them as possible moving forward due to my viewing them as a negative
influence on my life.
Todays business environment is a highly complicated one with many different players and
many different schemes that go unnoticed to the common eye. This is a reason, in part, that
there is such a high level of unethical practices which are developed and used in these
7

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

environments. However, it is unfair to say that everyone who works in these environments
practices unethical measures of action because by no stretch of the truth is that the case.
There are always individuals with strong ethical backbones who disagree with acting in ways
that are ethically not sound and stand up for their beliefs in their core values. Unfortunately,
for a large majority of unethical business decisions that are made, there are individuals who
sign on to being a part of these decisions without even being aware of it. The lower-level
employees who usually do not know the higher workings or details of the practices of the
companies they work for simply do as their bosses tell them to do and sometimes, this may
involve them acting unethically without realizing it. For example, let us look at one of the
largest ethical scandals to take place which rocked this nation: the Enron scandal. The
company, Enron, actively stole millions of dollars from investors and shareholders. While the
companys intricate fraudulent schemes may have been constructed by a few higher-up
officials within the company, the hundreds of fraudulent financial statements, accounting
mark-ups or downs, and fraudulent special purpose entities that were created by the
company were done by individual employees who had no idea that they were part of such an
elaborate, unethical scheme. Had these employees known that their actions would lead to
such a large ethical scandal, they might have spoken out against it and disagreed to do so,
however, the job of the managers within this company was to keep their employees eyes
sealed as to the consequences of their actions and what they would lead up to. One cannot
consider these employees to have acted unethically if they did not realize what the
consequences of their actions would be and were simply acting via order of command. These
were good people making bad decisions that were not entirely theirs to be made as they
might not have had a choice in the matter: it was either do as you are told or remain
unemployed. This is a hard predicament to place anyone in, regardless of how strong their
ethical standards are, and might make any good person make a bad decision.

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

A great example of a company with highly unethical business practices is Monsanto. In the
attached article, it speaks of Monsantos efforts to profit unethically by finding loopholes in
European law by which to patent multiple common vegetables and fruits. By doing so,
Monsanto would maintain a monopolistic control over the sale of these products and would
shut out other producers of these goods, which would in turn lead to them being able to
charge unfair prices for these products and being able to tamper with these products in
privacy as they pleased. Clearly, it is highly unethical for Monsanto to even think that they are
allowed to patent the sale of common vegetables and fruits which consumers should have
ready access to and a variety of options from which to choose from; as should be the case in
any functioning democracy which upholds and represents the principle of equality. Monsanto
is attempting to do so to unethically profit at higher levels off of these ventures and to
possibly even extend their frightening linkage with genetically modified products as far as
possible. There is no question that Monsanto is acting in an unethically unsound way and that
it would be unacceptable for them to be allowed to do so. However, this is a great example of
how something that slips through the eyes of the law may not necessarily be ethical.
Monsanto is trying to maintain this patent on such sales of fruits and vegetables because a
loophole in the laws of Europe are allowing them to do so. Clearly, the laws do not consider
how unethical this practice would be in actuality and one can understand a significant
difference between something that is deemed as being legal and something that is deemed
as being ethical.
In conclusion, it is apparent that I hold myself and those around me to very high ethical
standards based on my ethical perspective. This perspective has been molded and shaped by
numerous interactions I have had over the course of my life and numerous people I have met
over the course of my life, but the most important guiding figure in all of those people was
most definitely my mother. The major core values that form this perspective are those of

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

honesty and equality; if either of those values are ever breached, that is unacceptable for
me. As disheartening as this is to say, our world is one where many people place ethics as a
back burner to sit behind other priorities such as obtaining money, resources, fame, and
power. However, societies are beginning to recognize this and take minor steps towards
changing this so there is definitely hope on the horizon. As individuals, we can do our best to
assist this movement towards a more ethical world by always acting ethically and remaining
the largest proponents of ethics that we can be by constantly conveying our ethical
perspectives to others that we see going wrong. It is not a task or a chore for us to do; it is
our responsibility and if we do not fulfill it, we may live to see a world where there is no
recognition of ethics as a whole anymore.

References:
1) Monsanto Article:
http://www.naturalnews.com/041485_Monsanto_patents_GMOs.html

10

Personal Ethics Statement BUSN-102-027, Professor Joe Zagerman

Narasimhan Raghunathan

11