GMAT Sample Essays 10 - Ethical Regulations Essay Prompt
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The following is an excerpt from a memo written by the head of a governmental department:
"Neither stronger ethics regulations nor stronger enforcement mechanisms are necessary to ensure ethical behavior by companies doing business with this department. We already have a code of ethics that companies doing business with this department are urged to abide by, and virtually all of these companies have agreed to follow it. We also know that the code is relevant to the current business environment because it was approved within the last year, and in direct response to specific violations committed by companies with which we were then working?not in abstract anticipation of potential violations, as so many such codes are."
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
No copyright infringement is intended.
How to Plan before writing the essay
Conclusion
Neither stronger ethics regulations nor stronger enforcement mechanisms are necessary to ensure ethical behavior by companies doing business with this department.
Argument
Neither stronger ethics regulations nor stronger enforcement mechanisms are necessary to ensure ethical behavior by companies doing business with this department. We already have a code of ethics that companies doing business with this department are urged to abide by, and virtually all of these companies have agreed to follow it. We also know that the code is relevant to the current business environment because it was approved within the last year, and in direct response to specific violations committed by companies with which we were then working–not in abstract anticipation of potential violations, as so many such codes are.
Sample Essay #1
The author, a head of a government department, concludes that the department doesn't need stronger ethics regulations and stronger enforcement mechanisms by stating that it has already had a code of ethics and that it is new and reliable. The argument, however, contains at least two major flaws.
First, the author insists that the ethnic code is relevant to the current business environment because of its newness, since it was approved within last year, but this is unconvincing in today's fast-changing business world. Any organization, especially governmental organizations, should keep its codes or procedures updated, since new types of violation come next to next not only with unintentional affairs but also with intentional malice. For instance, in my country, Japan, recently an affair was closed up. The incident was that government agents had been regularly bribed by taxi drivers that they use. Beer or snacks were served in the taxi they rode by using taxes. Surprising. Therefore, any organization needs to keep a close eye on any new violations possibly affecting the organization.
Second, the author says that the code was created in the form of responding to specific violations committed by companies and then the code is reliable in comparison with to other codes which are abstract. This is the same as the code is only for incidents that happened actually in the past and cannot respond to the others. That is, although being specific and realistic is a good thing, finite past experience has by nature a limitation. Therefore, the code should be created not only specifically but also comprehensively by taking examples from the past and by enforcing it from theories and lessons learned from other organizations.
To sum up, although the author tries to convince the readers that the origination the author belongs to, which is a government organization, already has an effective code for any violations, the argument fails to make it convincing owing to the flaws I mentioned above.
Sample Essay #2
The author's argument that no stronger regulation and no enforcement are needed to keep companies legal has some critical flaws caused by omitting several important factors. As following, the argument should include how effective the current code was since last year, what the specific violation that the current regulation referred to is, and what kind of illegal activity is frequently committed.
To begin with, there is no explanation about how illegal cases are decreased since the current regulation. According to the author, the current code, which the argument declares effectiveness since its relevance to specific case, was approved within last year to fit modern business environment. If the code is effective enough to prevent companies from committing violations, there should be some comparison of data showing how environment has been changed before and after the current code.
Additionally, the author failed to define what case the current code was referred to when it was set force. The argument mentions that the code was responded to specific violations committed by companies in the past. However, without knowing what cases or activities were referred to, it is difficult for everyone to determine whether the code is strong enough not to add other ones as the author states.
Furthermore, those violations frequently committed should be discussed when the code was taken effect even if it was relevant to some specific recent cases because the reference cases cannot be always a benchmark that companies usually or commonly violate. For example, if the reference cases were complex structure of fraud deals in stock exchange market among security companies and investment banks, no one can be sure that the current code can keep companies away from illegal actions because the reference is very specific and occurred in a specific industry.
As mentioned above, the argument still omits showing some significant factors to consider such as comparison of business environment before and after the current code, specific cases that the code referred to, and frequent and common cases that companies have committed. Being convincing requires to address all possible aspects that the argument could reach to.
Sample Essay #3
In this passage, the head of a governmental department recommends that neither stronger ethics regulations nor stronger enforcement mechanisms are necessary to ensure ethical behavior by companies doing business with the department. To support the recommendation, the evidence is there is a code of ethics available for the companies and the companies have agreed to follow it. And the code is believed by the author to be relevant to the current business environment because it was approved within the last year and in direct response to specific violations committed by companies the department were doing business with. The argument is not convincing as it suffers from several flaws in several respects.
Firstly, the author assumes that no stronger enforcement is needed because the companies involved have agreed to follow the code of ethics. This assumption is not reliable. We can depend on the oral agreement only on the condition that there are no possibilities for the companies lie to the department. The assumption can not be depended on without information given on that.
Secondly, the author claims that the code is relevant to the current business as it was approved within the last year and in response to the specific violations. At first glance, the claim seems right, however,the author fails to understand the nature of a code. A code not only needs to be relevant with the current business but also needs to foresee the possible change in the future. As a code needs to be complied with in the coming years, if a code can not include the respects of possible violations in the future, the code is outdated and ineffective.
In conclusion, the argument is fallacious due to the above mentioned flaws. To strengthen this argument, the author should rule out the possibility of the dishonesty of the concerned companies. Moreover, the author should make sure that current code includes the regulation aiming for the potential violations.
Sample Essay #4
In this argument, the author concludes that neither stronger ethics regulations nor stronger enforcement mechanisms are necessary to ensure ethical behavior by companies doing business with this department. To buttress his argument, the author points out that there is a code of ethics that companies doing business in this department are urged to abide by and virtually all of these companies have agreed to follow it. In addition, the author assumes that the code does work because it is relevant to the current business environment and was approved within the last year and in direct response to specific violations committed by companies with which we were then working. At first glance, the evidence is persuasive, but a close examination will reveal that the argument is groundless in reasoning in the following aspects.
First, the arguer commits a fallacy of hasty generalization. They arguer contends that we already have a code of ethics that companies doing business with the department are urged to abide by, therefore all of these companies have agreed to follow it. However, it's not necessarily the case. The argument is groundless unless the arguer can provide evidence that the companies doing business with this department is representative of all the companies. For example, if companies with this department are some new established companies with few codes of ethics, the codes for them will not be applicable to those companies with long-term operation.
Second, the arguer assumes that all things are equal. The arguer says that the code is relevant to the current business environment because it was approved within the last year. Yet, the evidence is insufficient is reasoning because the business environment will change quickly and the code approve within last year will not be totally applicable in this year or in the future.
In summary, the argument will be more reasonable if the arguer can provide strong evidence that the characteristic of companies doing business are representative cases of all the companies and that the business environment keeps unchanged.
Sample Essay #5
The recommendations endorsed in the conclusion are that for companies doing business with the governmental department, a code of ethics instead of stronger ethics regulations or stronger enforcement mechanisms is suitable for these companies to keep ethical behavior. The conclusion is based on the assumptions that these companies have agreed to follow it and that the code is associated with the current business environment. However, the assumptions are of gross oversimplification, and the conclusion is unconvincing.
To begin with, the code is set up on the basis of the time period when the code was created and its response to specific violations happened in the past. The base is not so strongly enough that the conclusion cannot be derived that the code is consistent with the current business environment which can change fast over time. The code matched to the past business environment, but it cannot guarantee that the code can predicate what is happening now and what would happen in the future. Therefore, it is necessary for the code to be designed for the present and future business environment in order to these companies to have ethical behavior consistent with the department.
Moreover, although all of these companies have agreed to follow the code, they may not abide by the code during the time of doing the business with the department because there are no strong regulations or enforcements to restrict their behavior. For instance, if a company realizes that there is no punishment during the process of doing business, it would get some chance of not abiding by ethnical behaviors because of no punishment of not doing ethnical behaviors. Therefore, the assumption is gratuitous because it is supposed that all of the companies would abide by the code during the whole process of doing business if they have agreed to follow the code.
In conclusion, the argument is unpersuasive and unwarranted. The evidence in support of the conclusion does little to prove the conclusion since it does not address the arguments I have already raised. In order to substantiate the argument, the author needs to prove that the code is consistent with the current and future business environment and to make sure that all of the companies would do what they promise to do during the whole time of doing business with the department.
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