GMAT Essays (AWA)

Topic - "Adopting an official code of ethics regarding business practices may in the long run do our company more harm than good in the public eye. When one of our competitors received unfavorable publicity for violating its own code of ethics, it got more attention from the media than it would have if it had had no such code. Rather than adopt an official code of ethics, therefore, we should instead conduct a publicity campaign that stresses the importance of protecting the environment and assisting charitable organizations."

The representative of the organization, teh author of this argument, claims that adopting an official code of ethics might do more harm than good to the company's reputation. He emphasis this by giving example of their competitors who have been under media's negative attention for violating their own code of ethics. He further concludes that instead of adopting an offical code of ethic they should conduct a publicity campaign.Though his claim may well have merits, the aurthor presents a poorly reasoned argument based on several questionable premises and assumptions, and based solely on the evidence the author offers, we cannot accept the argument as valid.

The primary issue with the author's reasoning lies in his unsubstantiated premises. The argument lacks any valid evidence that can prove that if there are no rules, there are no violations. However, it cannot be assumed from the argument that only if a company has officially adopted code of ethics, then only it is obliged to follow them. The company mights still eb expected to follow them. Moreover,the company can receive unfavorable publicity even if it breaks any of the general code of ethics. The author even fails to provide any other disadvantages of adopting an official code as it is difficult to judge the merits and de-merits of a process based on just one evidence. Hence, the author's premises, the basis for his argument, lack any legitimate evidentary support and render this conclusion unacceptable.

In addition, the author makes several assumptions that remain unproven . For example, he assumes that adopting an official code has no merits other than the publicity it provides. He even suggests an alternative way to gain publicity in the conclusion. The author also assumes that the competitors might not have received unfavorable publicity if they would have not adopted the official code. It is also assumed that if a company violate any business ethic but since it has not adopted it, media will not bring that organization under attention; the media might still have many other reasons for its negative publicity. The author pressumes that there can be no reasons for unfavorable publicity if they conduct a publicity campaign and no rules or ethics are observed during that. In summary. the author has weaken his argument by making assumptions and failing to provide the link between adopting code of ethics and publicity, that he assumes exists.

While the author does have several key points in his argument's premise and assumptions, that is not to say that the entire argument is without base, he fails to prvide answers to certain questions like what are the other advantages and disadvantages of adopting a code of ethic or what are the criterion under which the ethic is considered violated. The author has also not mentioned the advantages and disadvantgaes of conducting a publicity campaign. Though there are several issues with the author's reasoning at present, with research and clarification he could improve his argument significantly.

In sum, the author's illogical argument is based on unsupported premises and unsubstantiated assumptions that render his conclusion invalid, It could be considerably strengthed if author clearly mentioned all the relevant facts concerning merits/de-merits of code of ethics and publicity campaign. Furthermore, in order to assess the merits of certain situation it is essential to have full knowledge all the contributing features. In this particular case it would be good to know the real purpose why company wanted to adopt the code of ethics. If author truly hopes to change his reader's minds on the issue, he would have to largely restructure his argument, fix the flaws in his logic, clearly explicate his assumptions and provide evidentary support, without these things, his poorly reasoned argument will likely convince few people.