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It has been said that sales ethics is an oxymoron. Do you agree? Discuss this statement. Do you agree that sales ethics is an oxymoron? Repeatedly, this statement has been a dispute amongst business enthusiast for decades. For this essay, oxymoron is a figure of speech described as a conjoined pair of two obvious contradictory such as pretty ugly, living dead, pretty ugly, Jumbo shrimp etc. To kick off with, sales ethics is the application of ethical values to sales behavior (Clive 2011).
Ethical values are things that make up a person’s moral. In addition to that, the cost basic foundation of ethical values are “treat others as you would like to be treated yourself”. In the ethical practice of day-to-day businesses, the management should set a specific standard when it comes to sales even though it is often argued that individual factors play a fundamental role (Everyday Ethics 2013). The term sales ethics was originated in the United States and became widespread back in the sass (De George 2013).
By contrast, it would be incompatible if the term; ‘sales’ and ‘ethics’ were to be separated into two absolute words. Sales can be defined as an act of ailing where as ethics can be defined as values of moral a person have (Your Dictionary 2013). However, the main connection between the company and the customer is always the salesperson. In order to maintain an ethical foundation between the customer and company all narrows down to the relationship their salesperson have with their customer. Here I am going to talk more about sales ethics and how it applies to any business behavior.
As stated above, it stated that sales ethics are ethical values to any business behavior whilst applying its strategies of aspects on how organizations treat their stakeholders such as suppliers and customers. Ethics usually go beyond a company’s legal requirements therefore it is discretionary. This is why ethical concerns a person’s moral Judgments about being right or wrong because it reflects the culture of the company whether it is made up of individuals or groups within an organization itself (Clive 2011). In the business world today, the organization’s culture is what separates the good and bad decisions making and behavior.
Ethical behaviors are a plus for the organization and it helps benefiting themselves when incorporated with corporate social responsibility (Everyday Ethics 2013). However, for one to be completely ethical would be almost impossible to achieve. As we can see, people nowadays are more into going green. So being an organization and of course being a profitable one they must give back to the society which eventually generate more customers which meaner more sales and undoubtedly more profit regardless of their product or services.
In fact nevertheless, it would benefit the organization whereas their employee would stay with the business and at the human resource management of the organization reduce the time and cost for recruitment in the ear future (Clive 2011). That being said, investors around the world would be eager to invest in the company and at the same time keeping the company’s share price high and stable. Furthermore, one of the stages in the business cycle is growth. Growth is what keeps the business running (The Australian 2013).
This stage occur when tenure Is a rise In ten mean In ten products or services Tanat ten company provide. After that the company must then increase their production output in order to be at least on par with the rising sales hence simultaneously establishing a bigger name for themselves in the market (Manor 2013). In spite of the fact whether sales ethics is an oxymoron, D. Schmidt (2008) states that sales ethics is not an oxymoron rather it is more than an opportunity in disguise.
Presumably, many have kept bringing up this click?? when it clearly define that sales ethics is not a contradiction term wise? Whether or not it is in the business world or in general, it is not mere to be ethical but still there will still be people repeating this click?? over and over again. It is said in life, things are not always going to be your way. Some more, while making sections in life is not always a simple task as we do not know what the right thing to do is. Other times, when it is so obvious to what the decision is to be made yet we may still blunder upon unseen obstacles.
Moving on, it is said that moral philosophy influences a salesperson’s ethical perceptions beliefs. According to Brooke Noel Moore and Kenneth Breeder, moral philosophy is simply a study of an individual’s value Judgments that is placed of top of the decisions either right or wrong (Lewis 2013). What is the drive behind all these beliefs? It is still virtually unknown. There is study showing that the impact of a salesperson’s moral philosophy is based on their personal Judgment of any situations that arises which are ethically troublesome.
As a result of the study, it found out that moral philosophy positively have an effect on a salesperson’s ethical beliefs (Dubbing’s, Raja, Went-ye 2004, 38). However, it is not easy to apply moral philosophies globally in the market because what seems right or wrong may be different in different culture’s perspectives (Lewis 2013). In any organization’s culture, the notions of being right or wrong date back to the primitive. In other words, moral philosophy can be applied to form a culture of honesty and ethical practices in a company to shaping its employees as well as their leaders (Lewis 2013).
Topping that off, discipline is important for the company as how they manage their employees on a more practical level who may have misbehaved out of the accepted norms of the company’s culture as it will reflect on how their employees should act upon various ethical and unethical matters (Trucker 1958). In contrast with what is mentioned above, moral Judgment are an individual’s valuation of a particular situation from an ethical point of view (Shaw and Barry 998).
Moral Judgments are based on 3 criteria which should be logical, based on facts and acceptable moral principles whereas any of this criteria which is weak are more open to criticism. Firstly, why moral Judgment must be logical? The purpose of this is to ensure that any specific moral Judgment of an individual is on par with other moral and normal beliefs to avoid inconsistency which most philosophers agree if any moral Judgment is made. Likewise, moral Judgment must be based on facts because relevant information must be collected before making a decision.
In reticular, the facts that is collected should be relevant and relate to the Judgment including all data to be precise. Lastly the third criteria is that moral Judgment should be based on acceptable moral principles. This meaner that at the peak of moral reasoning, standards express a general principle which are more reliable that can withstand rational criticism (Sweeper and Ingram 1996, 1151). In the business world today, it is worth stressing that there are factors that influence a salesperson’s tentacle or unethical calicles making.
Nine Uninominal Doctors Includes Jon, age, gender, education as well as individual ethical values. Study shows that individual’s gender does not influence their ethical decisions as well as their perceptions (Hegiras and Sims 1978). As for age, study shows older salesperson are more ethical in decision making compared to the younger salesperson. The study on an individual’s ethical values does not affects their personal ethical decisions and the only difference is the customer he or she interacts with (Dubbing’s et al. 992). By analyzing the factors, the salesperson’s ethical decision-making includes their personal Judgment, recognition exulted in their own individual behavior. Both individual and organizational factors truly influence a salesperson’s ethical behavior in decision making. To bring it altogether, calling sales ethics an oxymoron is a misguided belief that ethical measures and conduct have to be a hundred percent to be prove its validity. An individual cannot be ethical unless he or she is a saint.
For example, going for a driving license test, it is ethically thought to be all or nothing: it is either pass or fail. Then again, it is really a good motivation for an individual to strive for an ethical refection but then again sometimes people may give up due to mindset of trying to be ethically perfect. It is also said that continuous improvement in business practices can improve upon any mishaps. To think about it, continuous improvement shows that no one is perfect because if there one is perfect then there would not be any room for improvement.
The only thing that will make an individual strive forward is not giving up in trying. All in all, every business should examine their own practices and from there, it can improve itself because it is never too late to learn there are always room for improvements. This is because achieving perfection is mere impossible to achieve which concludes that sales ethics is not an oxymoron but literally an opportunity.