After reading the article, Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices by Ron Carucci, I can see a major connection between the text and my own personal life experiences. One main part of the story that reminded me of myself is feeling caution or lack of urgency to speak on an ethical topic simply because it was not “worth” the discussion, or argument, that could possibly form from simply speaking on a specific topic. “The first is the natural feeling of futility — feeling like speaking up isn’t worth the effort or that on one wants to hear it. The second is the natural fear that speaking up will lead to retribution or harsh reactions.” A manager’s reactions to an employee’s concerns sets the tone for whether or not people will raise future issues. If a leader reacts with even the slightest bit of annoyance, they are signaling they don’t really want to hear concerns.” In my own personal experience, there have been times where I have felt the urge to speak on a situation because I did not ethically agree with what was happening. However, I found myself proceeding with caution as I was hesitant of the reactions I may get. A lot of time I doubt my ability to defend where I stand on certain ethical situations as I am nervous to mess up under the pressure of a differing opinion. With the worry of negative reactions, speaking up becomes less appealing. This goes hand in hand with the natural feeling of futility. The thought of even starting an argument because of differing opinions makes one question whether or not it is really a valuable enough opinion to cause issues-if it is worth it or not.
In comparison to the article and the real world, one main thing stuck out to me at the beginning of the article. “I was shocked to find ordinarily good people I could well have had coffee with that morning. And they were still good people who’d made terrible choices.” I feel as if this is a very common occurrence in the real world. Good people can make poor choices, which can oftentimes be very surprising to see someone make an awful decision. When someone makes an unethical decision, it is easy to categorize them as a horrible person who does no good. However, when you already knew that person and built a relationship with them, it can make you realize that even the good people of this world mess up. I feel like it is very common for people to not realize that. Another thing that stuck out to me in regards to connecting the text to the world was that “Ethical behavior is not part of routine conversation.” Unfortunately, I feel that because we live in such a corrupt and morally unjust world, ethics is not at the forefront of most people’s minds. “You actually have to teach people the relative value of principles relative to choices. Leaders have to infuse everyday activities with ethical considerations and design policies and norms that keep ethics top of mind.” This proves how far our world is away from everyone being ethically minded, as most people only think about themselves and their personal gain.

Finally, I saw a major connection between this article and our Hot Topic Headline, the Titan submersible. Because of lack of ethics and corrupt leadership, a toxic workplace environment and culture was created. If the company was an ethics priority minded company, maybe things could have gone differently to prevent the issues, and eventually prevent the death of the passengers. This is why ethical thinking is important in companies and team atmospheres.

Carucci, Ron. “Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices.” Harvard Business Review, 16 Dec. 2016, hbr.org/2016/12/why-ethical-people-make-unethical-choices. Accessed 27 Aug. 2025.