Dirty hands

To ‘dirty your hands’ literally means to be involved in unethical/bad activities that may tarnish or ruin your name among other people. Initially, the concept of “dirty hands" was normally common with politicians. Currently the idea has gained popularity in other aspects of life in business organizations. Managers get involved in immoral activities in order to save the interest of the business.

Managers are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that a business is successful. Once the top management has defined the goals and objectives of the organization, it is upon the managers to ensure that they have done all they can to realize those objectives. Sometimes they are forced to involve themselves in bad and unethical activities in order to satisfy their employers. This makes them to end up having “dirty hands”.

However, I do not agree that it is normal for managers to dirty their hands in order to meet the goals and objectives of the organization. On the contrary they are supposed to balance their desire to achieve the goals of their organization and the virtues. It is realistic that managers can work without dirty hands and be successful. Although they may sometime fail to achieve all the goals of the organization depending on the situation, they will have upheld the virtues of life and ethical demands.

As for me, the issue of “dirty hands” is not new. Let me admit that I have encountered it several times. A good example is whereby a manager ordered that all the products from the upcoming competitors be bought out of the market to ensure that there was no supply. This was meant to frustrate the customers so that they can consider buying from the company’s products since they were steadily available in the market. This was an act of “dirty hands “by the manager to ensure that there was a ready market for the goods of his organization.