Is Business Bluffing Ethical Analysis

The art of Business Bluffing, as Carr would describe it is “simply as game strategy—much like bluffing in poker.”(A. Carr) However, it could more aptly be described as lying, cheating, and bribing all in the name of achieving business objectives. An article published in 1968 entitled, “Is Business Bluffing Ethical?” Albert Carr maintained that Business Bluffing is ethical. While on the other hand, Norman Bowie, a professor of philosophy at the University of Delaware argued against Carr’s Position, how the poker analogy is unsuitable as a model for collective bargaining negotiations. This reply addresses some of the problems associated with Carr’s position, as well as raises questions pertinent to the real ethical challenges facing Business

Without trust, building a stable work environment between differing parties is difficult if not impossible. However, it could be said that it does not address other glaring issues with Carr’s position that personal morality does not apply to business. First, that cultural acceptance for such behaviour, the implication that business operates in a morality-free zone, is a glaring fallacy. Secondly, Carr’s position relies on the fact that when one enters a business they put on their ‘poker face’ and leaves behind their human identity. Not only is such a thing impossible, it attributes to business autonomy that it is lacking. So, while the reply from Bowie was sufficient enough to show the problems that arise in hostile environments and how they negatively impact success. It fails to assert a firm stance against other issues in Carr’s

Carr believed that business was like a game, where everyone put on their game face and hostility to receive the most monetary gain from established laws. Furthermore, Bowie refuted this stance by providing the negative consequences of this adversarial environment. Showing how firms, are utilising trust to succeed at their goals, to greater effect than any hostilities. While Bowie clearly established his stance against Carr, Bowie missed opportunities to nail Carr on other weaker points in his argument for Business Bluffing. In conclusion, the act of lies cheating and deception, skirting the edges of the law just to make a profit, much like poker, should stay as a game and out of