Slide 1: ›How does a successful business help or hurt a community?

›By David Wellman

›INTS 3900

›Fall 2013

›My name is David Wellman and my two emphasis areas of study are Criminal Justice and Business. Trying to tie business, criminal justice and community together is an easy task but I want to explore how successful businesses effect a community. Specifically, a private sector security business and its effects on a community.

Slide 2: Defining Success and Business

›Success: the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame

›Business: the activity of making, buying, or selling goods or providing services in exchange for money

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*First definition provided for each word from Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Starting simple by defining a business and the term success is the first step. Both terms have many meaning but for this study I chose the first definition provided by Webster’s dictionary. It should be noted that the word money can be eliminated from the definition for business and simply end the statement with the word exchange. Another note is that success is relative. Based on the definition provided, the word respect can be given and received in many forms. Also, everyone has their own idea of how much wealth constitutes success as well as how much fame.›

Slide 3: Successful?

›Bill Gates, Bethany Hamilton, Richard Branson, Jay-Z, Vincent Van Gogh, Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, Timothy McVeigh.

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›People have different versions of what success really is.

Bill Gates (first business failed), Bethany Hamilton (lost an arm to shark bite but still top surfer), Richard Branson (Virgin Records has dyslexia), Jay-Z (no one signed him), Vincent Van Gogh (sold one painting), Al Capone (Chicago alcohol bootlegger), Pablo Escobar (Columbian drug lord), Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City bombing). These people are successful in one way or another. They may or may not see themselves as successful and other people may or may not see them as successful. Their success all depends on the viewers perception. Perception is huge. Sampson explains perception in his book and its relevance to disorganization and disorder. Perception is the most important part of a person’s rate of success.

Slide 4: ›Are Laws Working?

›“The two areas where law is arguably the largest presence in ordinary life driving cars and paying taxes-are probably the two areas where there is the largest amount of self-conscious cheating” (Michael, 2006). 

›Rules or laws are generated from past wrong doings.

›Laws are limited to the known and when a business acts unethical it commonly falls within the scope of laws.

Alcohol study…prior to 1987 it was legal to purchase alcohol on campus but now it is not. Drinking on campus has increased since the law was passed. There are many studies with examples of laws being passed and the very crime they were in place to reduce or prevent actually increased. So the question here is whether or not laws are working. As the slide states, laws get put into place as a result from someone’s wrong doing. Criminals are criminals and they will just continue to find ways to break laws. So there are really just two options. One is to eliminate the word crime, if there were no crime then there would be no criminals but that does not mean that people will still be committing acts that are considered wrong or immoral. Two is create accountability for everyone, by creating accountability for everyone at a very young age and continuing it into adulthood people would (generally) act moral.

Slide 5: ›Ethical Success

›Management: Must treat employees respectfully

›Service: Must treat customers with respect

›Public Relations: Previous unethical behavior can destroy a person’s reputation

›Quality: High quality products/services keep people coming back

›Motivation: People like to do what is right

Study proves the more to gain then the more chance to act unethically. (college students test taking) In the world of business the objective is (most commonly) to make as much money as possible. This creates an environment where it is more appealing to act unethical. This is difficult to fix because profit is the key to a successful business but what if giving back to the community, providing an enjoyable workplace, or making customers/clients happy was the actual key to success? People would have to see that business leaders are acting unethically and stop using their service or buying their products to generate accountability for business leaders and that might stop unethical actions.

Slide 6: ›Community

›Businesses with money commonly contribute a lot (financially) to their community

›Business leaders often have close relations with community leaders (or are one in the same)

›Jerry Jones donated $10 million to Little Rock Catholic High. Businesses generally donate a lot of money, time, service, or products to their community. This is a great ethical action that all businesses should do. What about those businesses that don’t make any donations? Are these businesses less profitable? The answer is no, society has not generated accountability for everyone. Instead society expects big corporations to donate like Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, etc. but people don’t think about smaller businesses that still make a lot of money, like local attorneys, bondsman, gas stations, etc. Why are the “big” corporations expected to fork over their profits but not the smaller businesses even though profit per employee could be comparable? (or even more profit per employee for the smaller businesses in some cases.

Slide 7: ›What if?

›Crime lords completely funded community?

›Children educated from drug money?

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›Businesses did not donate any money?

Studies are not widely done in the exact topic area I am looking for so the research is altered and tailored a little to attempt to explain what my question is asking. This slide asks the questions that are extremely difficult to answer. Crime lords are generally not the ones that are willing to be studied and/or interviewed unless they are on death row behind bars. Then when criminals are interviewed it is hard to know if the truth is actually what is being told. So there is not a lot of study on the topic of crime lords being business leaders and their involvement with their community. Child education is proven in the studies to have no effect on future ethical decision making so what does that mean for the education system? How do we “teach” ethics? Can you teach ethical actions? There should be some further study on this topic because I feel that the ethical decision making area should be the focus to a more peaceful society. To eliminate criminals it has been proven that the jails have an overall lower educational attainment but does that mean that if everyone was educated better they would not commit crime? The answer is no. There will always be crime unless we look at the ethical aspect and again, create accountability.

Slide 8: ›Solutions

›Education not a factor

›Environment not a factor

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›Create/generate accountability for EVERYONE

›Eliminate excessive gains or losses from actions*

Eliminating gains and losses is impossible or (at least) extremely difficult. The theme that I came upon while doing my research is generating accountability for everyone. That is the only way to eliminate unethical actions and in turn make all businesses have a positive effect on their community. Currently it does not matter if a business leaders actions are ethical or unethical when it comes to their impact on the community. What matters currently is how much money they donate to their community. 

Slide 9: ›References

Ala M. Keys to success in today's business environment. Business Forum [serial online]. Winter97 1997;22(1):24. Available from: MasterFILE Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 20, 2013.

Bernardi, R., Lecca, C., Murphy, J., & Sturgis, E. (2011). Does Education Influence Ethical Decisions? An International Study. Journal Of Academic Ethics, 9(3). 235-256.

Citation [Def. 1]. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online,  Retrieved September 24, 2011, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/business

Citation [Def. 1]. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online,  Retrieved September 24, 2011, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/success

Jacques, Renee. (2013, September). 15 Wildly Successful People Who Overcame Huge Obstacles to Get There. The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2013, fromhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com

Kaler, John. Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 27, No. 1/2, Business Challenging Business Ethics: New Instruments for Coping with Diversity in International Business: The 12th Annual EBEN Conference (Sep., 2000), pp. 161-173

Kashyap, A. K. (2010). Lessons From the Financial Crisis for Risk Management. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Available fromhttp://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/anil.kashyap/research/papers/lesson_for_fcic.pdf. Accessed November 4, 2013.

Lohr, David. (2013, September). 10 Most Notorious Criminals in American History. TheHuffington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2013, fromhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com

Michael, Michael L. Business Ethics Quarterly , Vol. 16, No. 4 (Oct., 2006), pp. 475-504

Porter, Gayle. Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 17, No. 15, Promoting Business Ethics: The Third Annual International Vincentian Conference (Nov., 1998), pp. 1669-1678

Wasieleski, D.M., & Weber, J. (2009). Does Job Function Influence Ethical Reasoning? An Adapted Wason Task Application. Journal Of Business Ethics, 85(1). 187-199.

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