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Andrea Holmes MGNT 5990 Week 2

Albert Carr argues that businesses prioritize profits over ethics. While businesses market themselves as ethical, Carr believes unethical practices like lobbying, bribery, and exploiting legal loopholes still occur behind the scenes. Carr draws an analogy between business and poker, where players must use skill, strategy, and psychology to win within the rules of the game. While bluffing may be permitted in poker, Carr questions if it passes ethical standards for business behavior. The document discusses whether bluffing is acceptable in business according to Hooker's generalization test.

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46 views

Andrea Holmes MGNT 5990 Week 2

Albert Carr argues that businesses prioritize profits over ethics. While businesses market themselves as ethical, Carr believes unethical practices like lobbying, bribery, and exploiting legal loopholes still occur behind the scenes. Carr draws an analogy between business and poker, where players must use skill, strategy, and psychology to win within the rules of the game. While bluffing may be permitted in poker, Carr questions if it passes ethical standards for business behavior. The document discusses whether bluffing is acceptable in business according to Hooker's generalization test.

Uploaded by

Andrea Holmes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Andrea Holmes

MGNT 5990
Week 2

Summarize Carr’s argument. Do you agree with him? Does bluffing pass Hooker’s

generalization test in poker? Does it pass the generalization test in business?

Albert Carr argues that the central motive of businesses is to make profit. Carr believes

that managers who are marketing their business as ethical are not always as ethical as

they should be beyond the shadows. Behind the scenes there lies lobbying, bribery, and

other unethical practices that are not moral. Businesses are able to get away with such

actions because of loopholes in laws. Loopholes in laws allow businesses to do what they

what in the business game in which “people play by the rules.” Carr discusses the

pressures to deceive in business, the poker analogy, discarding the golden rule, and

businesses not making the laws. Carr suggests that business is similar to poker; they both

have “a large element of chance.” Both are offered a choice between certain losses or

bluffing with within the legal rules of the game. (Carr) If a person is resigned to winning

then he must have skill, a profound awareness of the rules, and acumen into the

psychology of the other “players.” Bluffing is permissible according to the rules of both

poker and business. (Carr) Bluffing is not exactly telling the whole truth. One challenge

that I found in Carr’s argument was his idea that deception is inherent in the art of

negotiation. However, when negotiation is understood, the idea of bluffing is not so

relevant to business behavior. Most execs feel pressured to practice some form of

deception when negotiating with customers. I believe that bluffing in the sense of poker

does pass the generalization test. The generalization test relies on the idea that the reasons

for a person’s actions are consistent wit the assumption that others will have the same
Andrea Holmes
MGNT 5990
Week 2

reasons for their actions. In poker everyone is playing the game to win. Even if winning

means that you have to bluff your friend, you will do it. However in the sense of

business, bluffing does not pass the generalization test. Businesses, on an individual basis

seek to find an opportunity to profit and try and be the best competitively by outwitting

the competition. Businesses try to abide by the law but also take advantages of loopholes

in the laws at the same time.


Andrea Holmes
MGNT 5990
Week 2

Sources

Carr, Albert Z., “Is Business Bluffing Ethical,” Harvard Business Review, 2000.

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