Is Business Bluffing EthicsIs Business Bluffing EthicsIs Business Bluffing Ethical? Is an essay that is written by Albert Carr in the Harvard Business Review in 1968. He contends in this article that business is a game like Poker that requires some type of bluffing. As he explains it, this bluffing is an ethical behavior and it shouldn’t be compared to personal ethics. He contends that all the players of the game know the rules of the game and this is the way it is played. Like a customer who asks a salesperson about the quote of a car, he/she already knows that the quote that is given by the salesperson is not the real price of the car but the starting point of negotiation. Another bluffing involves withholding part of the truth about something to strengthen someone’s position. Bluffing then, is a game strategy that is played by one or more individuals who want to have the upper hand in the game. In short, bluffing is a tactic to gain advantage on others and is justified bin the business field as all business persons are playing the same game, according to Carr. He, however, condemns the unethical use of bluffing.
This approach/theory has been a controversial issue for decades as some of its opponents claim that this approach splits the personality of a business person into two parts. One is business personality with different ethics and the other is social personality with personal ethics. Others claim that bluffing is similar to lying and that a business person should have high integrity and trustworthy. Others argue that what about the health care business, what if physicians and patients started bluffing to each other, what would happen to the patient health, let alone physicians and MCOs have warranted truth-telling and that quality of medical care depends on it. Moreover, what about business students who apply this approach? They probably will view people as numbers and objects because their moral sensitivities were attuned.
The authors of the paper believe that as well as a good health care business person, he/she should be able to control impulses in the brain and have positive control over the other parts of his/her personality. They state in their definition of business personality that this is a position of trust. It would help a business person improve his/her social behavior and social relationships. They recommend that businesses with high competence in persuasion should be more willing to teach business to people they care about.
The authors conclude that, as business personality, bluffing can be better than lying and some business students are more interested in learning the secret of a human being. They think that it is in business people’s interest to be able to control, share, and improve their thoughts and feelings. Such people would be more comfortable with a business person and more committed to his/her good character. They say that this position of trust is based on what is described in the humanistic and non-rational view of human good.