The Responsibility Project

The Responsibility Project

Bob Ulysse

ETH/316

10/13/2012

Troy Braswell

The Responsibility Project

External pressure would be defined as any outside influence such as publicity from news and media and lawsuits that somehow influence the action or practice of an organization in regards to ethical behavior; this can also be held true for individuals as well. In the office environment, external pressures can also be found as well in the form of entities not directly associated with the primary subject matters; example: in a dispute between two co-workers, the supervisor, manager, or director would be considered as an external pressure. In this essay, I have reviewed a short film that greatly demonstrates a common struggle in organizations and a common tendency of human beings - Passing the buck. This short film uses non-verbal communication to illustrate how passing the buck can affect us all in the work environment and bring out one's organizational ethics.

The short film titled Hot Seat was created in August of 2008 and tells the tale of a damaged office chair that torments the desk spaces of several employees. The unwanted office chair is spread around the office enough that everyone starts to recognize one another's intention when hauling this chair throughout the office. No one wants to get stuck with this broken office chair, and at first, it seemed that no one wanted to take the initiative to fix it nor report the problem neither, until one brave employee takes is upon him/herself to make some innovative repairs to the office chair to alleviate the situation. This issue is important because it is one that is seen too often; the problem could have been easily solved, instead, one passes the problem off in hopes that the next individual will solve the issue.

With the small case of the office chair, this scenario does not directly express any legal concerns that may appear with "passing the buck." One potential legal issue that could have possibly arisen is if an employee was hurt in the midst of the chair swapping. Not only would this employee be injured, this could possibly leave the employer or supplier of the office equipment at-fault and expose the company or organization to external pressure, such as a lawsuit or media outlets, for scrutiny. Failing to report the damaged material is one thing, but exposing a fellow employee to danger is another. There was no laws neither broken nor violated in the failure to report the defective office chair, this is just a display of a very poor sense of taking initiative, judgment, and completely unethical behavior.

The common thinking behind the human tendency to pass the

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