In Response to Chris Kurylo . . .

As an owner of Mac I was interested in Chris's blog post. He wrote about an article on CNN wrote about an Apple employee that tells about his experiences working for Apple. You too can find the article at http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/18/an-apple-store-employee-tells-all/. After reading the article I have a very different look then my peer. Chris asked, "Do you think employees should change who they are just to do well at there place of work?" 

I found the article to be more about how one works hard at a job he enjoys. The anonymous worker said, "I wanna work my way up, get promoted and eventually get to the Genius Bar—which is where you want to be. Who doesn't want to be a genius?" The worker did say that he changed his personality when we was working to "sell, sell, sell." Apple pushing their employees to sell is nothing new, they are in the retail industry. If you don't think that every company trying to sell products do not push a particular item or promotion on the customer, then you are naive. 

Do you think that pushing products on customers is an effective way of selling a product?

Ethics and WikiLeaks

This week in our marketing class we have been talking about ethics. The textbook definition of ethical issue is "An identifiable problem, situation, or opportunity requiring a choice among several actions that must be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical." One of the ethical issues that I am passionate about is WikiLeaks and the impact they are having on the United States' security. 

One of the largest government leaks in history was on November 28 posting more than 250,000 diplomatic documents on WikiLeaks. These documents strained relations with some countries, influencing international relations. Dallas news posted that "Most of them [documents] are from the past three years, provide an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats." Some documents named diplomats and their sources. This put the United States government in a panic. 

In a poll done by NPR, 55% of Americans agreed that the public has a right to the knowledge leaked, while 45% thought that what was posted was wrong and put lives at risk. I think that the government needs to be able to keep secrets. They are what is keeping us safe. What did the knowledge leaked gain us? After 9/11, the showdown of terrorism still dominates the US as seen through Obama's struggle with Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran.

Do you think that having government secrets is worth the risk of putting people in danger?