Steffi Loren A.

Chua November 8, 2019

ADSALES K31 Mr. Liongson
Video Quiz: Ethics in Sales

The business industry is one of the biggest industries in the world. It is indeed
one of the fastest ways to earn money and has a social responsibility towards the
society. With that, specific principles and standards are important within a business;
however, it is inevitable to experience ethical issues especially because not all
businesses or companies want to follow the rules. In the film Boiler Room, various
ethical dilemmas were found when the main protagonist, Seth Davis, joined a brokerage
firm called J.T Marlin.

The first ethical issue was portrayed during the first interview of Seth with the
other prospective job applicants. It was seen how Jim Young, the firm’s head recruiter,
introduced the firm’s working culture by stating facts about how they would earn a lot of
money at a young age. He even stated that they do not hire brokers, but train brokers.
This means that they hire inexperienced employees, which is very unusual, so as to
make sure that they don’t realize the dirty deeds in the company. This just shows the
corporate culture and values that the firm has, it is to make money regardless of the
cost and doesn’t care whether unfairness and unethical behaviors is tolerated in the
business. The second ethical issue was the gender discrimination to female clients. In
the film, Seth was advised not to sell stocks to females because it was stated that they
take time to make decisions and they ask too many questions. Also, all of the brokers in
the firm were males and only the secretaries are females. This is an issue of fairness
and equality and it shows how greedy and manipulative they are. The third ethical
issue was the illegal activities that the company does. The firm is selling stocks for
companies that either don’t really exist or in name only. The capital they raise comes
from outside investors and the owner only gets money when these companies make
their IPO and the stockbrokers push the stock on the open market. It was described as
artificial demand and chop shop by his father because of its fakeness. They lie to
customers about new developments since this will bring them tons of money in the
future. The fourth ethical issue was the false advertisement and exploitative selling
tactics that they were taught and expected to use when selling stocks through phone. It
was seen in the film how they lie about their identity in order to gain the customer’s
trust. By doing this, the customer feel like they know how they feel and should get the
deal since they can relate with each other which is not even true. This issue was
focused when Seth successfully persuaded Harry Reynard, a family man who wishes to
buy a house, invested a huge amount of life savings to the firm. When the stocks went
down and he got broke, Seth felt guilty and started realizing the unethical nature of his
work especially because Harry is not like those other customers whose well-off and rich.
The fifth ethical issue was the whistleblowing activity at the end of the film. When Seth
figures out the illegal activities, he did not act immediately since his decision was to get
back at the company by taking a lot of money and then get out of the company for a
comfortable life with the help of his father who is a federal judge. However, what he was
not aware of was the fact that the FBI were already one step ahead of his plan. As a
result, he decided to help the authorities in gaining evidence on the company’s illegal
activities. Through this, they were able to raid and prosecute the whole J.T Marlin
company successfully.

These ethical issues are really inevitable to happen especially in a brokerage

company. However, it is no excuse since these people behind the illegal scheme are all
educated people whose fully aware of how a decent firm should operate. It is just their
decision to do the wrongful act for personal gain without thinking of the consequences
and effects to other people. Throughout the film, Seth, on the other hand, was seen as
someone who just wants to prove to his father and himself that he will get far and be
successful in his own skills. He is really not a bad person deep inside and in the end, he
still chose to do the right thing by returning the money they stole from the customer. If I
was Seth, I would do the same thing but with a little difference. From the time that I
discovered the illegal activities of the company, I would’ve left the company immediately.
Even though it’s hard to admit that I become involved with this kind of company, it would
be easier to accept and move forward with life. I believe that the truth shall come out no
matter so it is better to act in advance. Just like Seth, I would try to seek help from my
father who is more knowledgeable in this matter. Another remedy that can be done by
the main protagonist is to prevent everything from happening. This is similar to what he
narrates throughout the film like the “what if” situations-- What if Greg had not come
over to his casino that night, what if he had not forgotten his bag, what if he did not see
the owner of the firm walk into that building that day or what if he had skipped over
Harry’s card. For me, ‘prevention is always better than cure’, this happening, even
though has a lot of lessons to learn from, can be prevented if he would’ve tried knowing
the background and culture of the company first. Nevertheless, what’s important is that
he pursued in doing the right thing in the end. The last scene shown was him getting
inside his car and thinking of where to find a new job and start fresh again. The most
important thing is that he learned his lessons and he will be able to use this experience
to become more ethically responsible not only as an employee but also as a citizen.

As a conclusion, this movie clearly defines the distinctiveness of ethics and

morals from each other. Both ethics and morals are dealing with the issues pertaining to
right and wrong. Ethics is a set of rules to be followed by people in the society. These
are created by certain groups in order to make sure that there will be order and bad
behaviors will be corrected. It came from such external factors which is the social
system; thus, the society is the one saying which is the right thing to do or not. While,
morals are those principles that an individual has regarding the right and wrong. It
usually serves as a guide in the ethical system or codes. It came from internal factors
which is the individual self; thus, it is only ourselves who decides which one is right or
wrong. Lastly, ethics aren’t always moral and vice versa, moral actions aren’t always
ethical.