Thursday, June 21, 2007

Morality ? anyone ?

Saw Thank you for Smoking - intelligent & funny, that is a rare combination to have.

The protagonist believes that a properly constructed argument is more important for winning than the content of the argument. He demonstrates the tricks of the trade to his son over a debate on chocolate vs. vanilla ice cream -
Firstly you must push your opponent to make a claim - the more extreme the better for you.
Then you must offer evidence that brings this claim under question.
This makes the audience disbelieve your opponent,and so without proving your own stand to be correct you have proved the opponent to be incorrect.

Of course if your intention is to convince your opponent then maybe instead of an argument you should try a discussion.

All this just lead me to think about the moral ambiguities of day to day life. Some things believed to be a certain way are totally another thing in a different aspect, and therefor arguable.

Like drinking - in Europe & surely in France having a glass of wine or pint of beer with lunch is absolutely fine. In India though a drink in the afternoon especially a work week is totally reprehensible - drinking on the job is morally, professionally & socially wrong.
Similarly when an American friend of mine started working in India she was perplexed. Now the way she worked in the US was to never commit anything that she could not deliver & when she committed something it was sacrosanct.
Indians on the other hand will readily commit to sending you to the moon, tomorrow!
Here saying no to a client or a person in authority is just not done.

Last week over a chat with the INSEAD career services - a strange fact came up. Apparently the low figures for placements in Japan were because in the past the few who did manage to work there, quit in less than a year citing cultural difference or rather culture shock.
My husband told me of a trip his colleagues took to Japan. They went there to meet a client & were shocked to see that people actually kept their pets in office & most in fact lived in their offices - sleeping under the desk, showering & working again.
The Indian team felt v guilty to walk out of office at 11:00 pm as the office was still buzzing with activity.

So some amount of moral flexibility (another phrase from the movie) might just be a good thing. Maybe soon it'll be fashionable to take a centrist position on the moral crossroads....who knows but suddenly I'm buying into this whole diversity aspect of the b school.
My position on it was ambiguous, I mean it helped my own application but I wasn't sure how it was supposed to translate into an asset on the work field.If its such an asset then how come the big b schools from America aren't embracing it so whole heartedly but lately i think it would be really important to have a varied exposure in your work life - just makes you more well rounded & maybe even a bit 'irreplaceable'
Also given that the world keeps changing so fast, adaptability might be the new personality trait recruiters look for?

3 comments:

Res I(p)sa said...

The big US schools have less need to embrace and teach diversity, as their students are less likely to work abroad, I think. But it is a huge asset, and my guess is the most challenging/fascinating thing we'll learn at INSEAD!

(btw, as a lawyer, I so recognize the "how to win an argument" method! where does that put me on the morality scale?!)

Anonymous said...

In my opinion US schools are making a mistake by not teaching diversity. Maybe you can get without it if you are working in a small local company, but most MBA graduates are aiming at big corporations where they will become exposed to the effects of globalization. Colleagues at work, business partners, suppliers, clients, a big part of them will be from other countries.

By not teaching diversity these schools fail to prepare real leaders of business in globalized world.

Anonymous said...

OK, I had a huge reply typed out, but then I realized that I should just turn it in to a post.

Thanks for the idea.

Argument: We're not as diverse as we think, and the working world doesn't really reflect the "diversity" represented at INSEAD.