Moore 603 Assignment Analyze Writing Samples

Moral Intelligence, as defined in Chapter 4 of Moral Intelligence 2.0, as a part of us that shapes our moral compass and ensures that our goals are consistent with our moral compass. While reading Moral Intelligence 2.0, I was able to gather that the content was meant for young leaders and even some experienced business executives who did not develop. The interesting part about this book was Part two, when discussing how we, as humans, develop moral skills. There are four keys to developing moral skills, as discussed in this section, integrity, responsibility, compassion and forgiveness, and emotions. These are some that are defined, but in the earlier chapters of this book, they discuss how there is another factor, that being spirituality. Throughout this critique, I will be discussing the integrity and responsibility aspects of moral development, the spirituality aspect of moral development, and how those flow in to moral decision making.

A topic, that stood out to me, was discussed in Moral Intelligence 2.0, regarding the moral development, was how an individual, who have a life based on religion, were able to have a basis for their own moral development, as taught by their respective religion. Some basis of moral development includes, commitment to something greater, self-respect with humility, and respect and care for others. The only thing that I was questioned when reading about this was, when it was mentioned that secular groups were also able to align with these ideas on a basis. This could completely be because I was raised around religion, but that was the only part of this section that I had a few questions, that were not answered. Overall, when these points and idea of people, from any culture, was a great theory to read about.

A Chinese Proverb, quoted in Chapter 5, says “To starve to death is a small thing, but to lose one’s integrity is a great one.” This spoke greatly, with an earlier example of the Goldman Sachs ABACUS. Goldman Sachs lost any type of integrity that they had, with the lies, and not standing up for what was right, when selling the ABACUS portfolio. This alone, broke multiple core competencies, and because they lacked this moral value, Goldman Sachs, was responsible for paying millions of dollars in fines, which would have been avoided, if their Executives would have acted morally, instead of greedy. This leads into the next point gathered from Moral Intelligence 2.0 when discussing the development of moral skills, responsibility. Goldman Sachs did not take responsibility when the ABACUS portfolio folded, when they were aware of the housing market falling drastically. When I was reading through these chapters, I was able to grasp onto what Lennick, Kiel, and Jordan, were conveying to the reader. They were able to dictate how, as a leader, there are many opportunities to make the small decisions, that may not be the best, in a business mindset, but can show the most moral decision making.

The final point, that was obvious to me, was how the authors were able to convey, the way that the points, I have discussed and others that have not been are able to tie together to create a way for moral decision making. While the four Rs, the four steps to making a moral decision. The four Rs are recognize, reflecting, reframe, and respond. The overall theme of this section proved an amount of knowledge and research shown by the authors, and their ability to convey their ideas.

In conclusion, there were multiple topics discussed throughout each chapter in this book. The topics discussed in this critique were the ones that were most prominent to me. The way that they were able to attach the topic of religion to the moral development as a child, was very interesting to read. The ability that the authors used to hit each of the four aspect of moral development, and able to tie them all in together at the end of part two, with the dictation of how moral development, leads to moral decision making. Overall, the topics that Lennick, Kiel, and Jordan were able to discuss and portray in this book could lead many Wall Street Executives, Top management, and others in the corporate world could use to check their Moral Compass index, and determine where their own Moral compass lies.