Week 4_Kathryn Garcia_A02

Week 4 Blog Entry

Reading:

“Ethic and ‘Breaking Bad’: Developing and practicing ethical skills”

Visual Addition”:

https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/hbr/9907/99410_A.gif

Reference:

Sull, D. (1999, July/August). The Dynamic of Failure [Digital image]. Retrieved January 25, 2019,               from https://hbr.org/1999/07/why-good-companies-go-bad

Question:

What do you think that large institutions or corporations should do when taking action about ethical, 

racial, financial issues without hindering their image or their own morals?

Entry:

            The reading I chose discussed the concept of ethical skill. The author used the character Walter from “Breaking Bad” to explain the issue of doing ‘what’s right’ vs. knowing the right thing to do. While Walter had good morals in trying to provide for his family, his way of doing it was very questionable. This example is a common structure to one of the topics discussed in this week’s lecture: cultural appropriation. What is cultural appropriation vs cultural appreciation? I know there have been times where I have culturally appropriated unconsciously whether it be through fashion, music, etc. Just like Walter, I had good intentions. I did appreciate another culture’s art or music or fashion, but I disregard the meaning and the value of it. I failed to notice the hundreds and thousands of years of tradition and history behind it and just blatantly treated it like it was nothing special. I knew what was right, but I failed to do what was right. I’m sure other people have also done this: knowing what is right but failing to do what is right. The same thing can be said about big corporations. I believe that every company or system has good intentions, but those morals get lost in translation when bad decisions are made. For example, the pepper spray incident at UCD. We all know that UCD never wanted to be known as school that hikes tuition and then pepper sprays their students. The university was trying to break apart a protest, but the decisions made on that day were questionable just like Walter’s. The image added shows that when companies reach a certain amount of success, wrong decisions start to be made to maintain it. Just like UCD or Walter, they both knew what the right thing to do was, but they utterly failed at doing what was right.  The author of the reading writes that in order to fix this way of thinking to engage in more dialogue about ethics, so that people can become more aware and confident when put in situations where ethics are questioned.