If I was a MBA applicant who stumbled across an opportunity to learn result of my admission or rejection early, I would face a difficult choice. Nevertheless, I am sure that the only right decision to make is not to attempt any illegal actions, no matter how easy or harmless it might seem. Hacking into the system of the MBA program would be not just unethical or illegal, but it would be an action for the sake of self-interest, or egoism (Shaw), and in hope for promotion of my best long-term interests. Reviewing the possibility of me hacking the system or getting access to it in any other restricted way from the utilitarian point of view might seem justifiable, as knowing my results in advance might bring me pleasure and happiness, if I was admitted to the program.
Learning personal results of MBA admission would be beneficial, but as it would be considered as breaking norms, rules, and regulations, it might get the most serious consequences. It might not only be the reason to rejection of my MBA application, but could cause legal responsibility and severe reputational loss in business. MBA is all about responsibility and making well-balanced and thoroughly thought-through decisions, and thus, an individual ready to break the law and engage into unlawful behavior out of pure interest would hardly seem credible and worthy of admitting to the MBA program or managing positions in future.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Hacking Into Harvard".
For the sake of preservation of my reputation and image, being a law-abiding person, and in order to demonstrate my respect to the educational facility, I would behave ethically, when making this moral decision. I would consider such opportunity as a moral decision, as making it would require moral principles, reasoning of moral action, and evaluation of relevancy of moral principles to the reasoning (Hoffman 4). I would regard breaking into the MBA program as a theft and violation of rights of the respective educational facility, as my suggestive illegal behavior might affect operation of the whole system, even without me knowing about it. As I am an individual with respect to “virtue ethics” (Weiss 105), which are guided by virtues of person’s character, I am used to emphasizing my “highest standards of integrity, sound judgement and a strong moral compass” (Shaw 83). Being untruthful to self or others would not only break the law, but neglect morality of my actions. Consequently, though temptation to know positive or negative decision in advance would be great, I would stick to my moral ethics-based decision and wait for the official announcement of the results in order to demonstrate my respect not only to my personal values, but to the most important principles of all MBA programs – honesty, integrity, ethical behavior and actions, and fair distribution of opportunities.
To conclude, any illegal action or decision would definitely bring legal and moral consequences. In terms of breaking into the admission system of MBA program in order to find out the results I would regard as inappropriate and irrelevant. Following the primary desire to learn my result fast and relatively easy would not be able to overweight and overpower my logic and ethical judgement. Making emphasis of personal gain and beneficial self-interest could not be considered as reasonable enough causes for overstepping personal ethical beliefs and individual virtues of honesty, integrity, and truthfulness. Making moral decisions has always been difficult as there is no single ‘right’ answer, and from some point of view decision made or action taken might be considered both moral (by the actor) and immoral (by the society), as comprehension of actions and decisions is purely subjective and could not be declared right or wrong. As MBA applicant my process of decision-making would be business-oriented, so any of my actions would be required to be reasonable. Even if some action might seem to bring obvious, fast, and easy benefits, it should not be taken without proper and thorough consideration and ethical evaluation.
- Hoffman, Michael W., et al. Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality. 5th ed., Wiley Blackwell, 2014.
- Shaw, William H., and Vincent Barry. Moral Issues in Business. 13th ed., Wadsworth Publishing, 2016.
- Weiss, Joseph W. Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach. 5th ed., South-Western Cengage Learning, 2009, https://zodml.org
