Ethics

            Ethics in this world is something that is very important, rather it have to be ethics involving a family, a team or even a business; ethics are an essential key to success for these groups. Anytime there is a group which is brought together to complete a task there needs to be a certain code in order for there to be success. This code which is needed would be viewed as ethics, there are three basic components to ethics which firms must use if they are to survive in todays’ very competitive market.

            Trust, this is the general expectation among members that their fellows will behave ethically (Denning). Without trust people would not be able to form partnerships or team members would not be able to get the job done if they cannot depend on the person which they are working with. Trust in my company might just be the most important component of ethics, working for the railroad is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. When working for the railroad if you cannot trust the person you are working with your life will be at risk. Every year people die on the railroad because someone in their team made the wrong decision or they were careless.

            Loyalty, the acceptance of the obligation to refrain from breaching one another’s trust and to fulfill the duties entailed by accepting that trust (Denning). Loyalty to my company is important but then again I think this can be improved, I have seen a growing trend of nepotism at work. I feel that even though people are favoring their family members for promotions I see this as a lack of loyalty to those that have put in the hard work for you. I recently noticed that there is a twenty-eight year old recently promoted high position supervisor with only three years of railroad experience and a father which is in a very high position. This position usually goes to someone with about fifteen to twenty years of experience, I see this as a slap in the face to those that have poured their blood, sweat and tears into a company. I think that this good old boy system is very damaging to a company and I have seen many good talent walk out the door because of this system.

            Solidarity, caring for other people’s interest and being ready to take action on behalf of others, even if it conflicts with personal interests. This is very important because a company has to care for its employees, I have always felt that when employee morale is high then a company has a better chance to succeed. I think that this should be taken into account at BNSF railroad also. This year was a record breaking year for BNSF, we had more business than we knew what to do with it. Because business was so abundant train velocity slowed down due to all of the rail traffic, slower train velocity affected operations year-end bonuses tremendously. This last year BNSF handed out the biggest bonuses ever to top company officials, and also the smallest bonuses to the people who did all of the hard work. I understand that a lot of the money stays at the top but I do feel that the operations officer should have changed this bonus system on behalf of all of the hard work which operations department put in.

            I see that BNSF was built on good values and it is a very successful company but I do think that BNSF needs to take a deeper look into the ethics which Denning showcases in this chapter.

 

References:

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.