Overview
The movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, depicts an individual who grew from nothing to become one of New York and the United States' wealthiest people. The movie starts by taking the audience through the complicated life of Jordan Belfort, who owns a company that deals with the stock exchange. In a paleaceous home, Belfort is married to a beautiful woman who gives him everything he wants, especially sexual related activities. The main character uses cocaine and explains why it is essential for him to take the drug regularly, both at home and at work. Also, he describes his daily routine, including the meals that he takes, drinks, and activities that he must undertake on his way to the workplace and upon arrival in his office in Wall Street ( Scorsese, 2013) . Belfort states how money is good and can nearly buy an individual everything he desires, including happiness.
Belfort's journey to becoming among the wealthiest Wall Street broker is demonstrated in the movie through a flashback. He is twenty-two years old when he goes to the famous Wall Street looking for a job and later on secures one. Coming from a middle-class family, Belfort understood the importance of working hard and becoming rich. When he starts working in his first job at Wall Street, he is introduced to a new vulgar language and high-pressure working environment. At first, he gets confused, but later on, after being oriented by one of the management team members at a lunch break, he understands how things work in the new world ( Scorsese, 2013) . He joins the league and assimilates into becoming a typical Wall Street broker until the company runs into losses that were never incurred since inception.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Belfort starts looking for a new job, with his wife's help, and finds one in a small company that did not even have the resources half of his previous company. He is promised a 50% commission, something which excites him. This motivation pushes Belfort to crack one of the new company's biggest deals through sweet talk that sees an individual investing his money in stock. After working for months, Belfort made a move to establish his own facility and recruits individuals who had no moral standards ( Scorsese, 2013) . Most of them were involved in illegal businesses and selling of drugs such as weed. After months, his company grows to become one of the biggest brokerages on Wall Street. The culture in this company is different and extreme since drugs such as cocaine are allowed in the workplace and sexual activities.
Overview of Ethical and Decisions
There are various ethical issues and decisions in the movie. These issues are depicted in forms of leadership and cultures in the famous Wall Street. Ethics is an important business principle that needs to be upheld at every time for any firm to succeed in the long run. Despite recognizing that these issues must be adhered to, most companies have failed to engage in practices that could be termed as ethical. Consequently, there are many unethical issues such as harassment and discrimination, safety and health, privacy, transparency, and accountability that transpire in various companies in the United States and across the globe ( Petit & Saint-Michel, nd. ). These issues can be manifested in leadership and management and an organization's culture, just like in The Wolf of Wall Street's movie.
In the movie, various scenes depict unethical business practices or issues that raise ethical concerns. First, when Belfort arrives at his ever first stock company, he is overwhelmed with the leadership and culture in place. Workplace communication should not be abusive or encompass vulgar language, but this is not the case in Belfort's world ( Scorsese, 2013) . One of the management staff takes Belfort out for lunch to stipulate the 'rules' and unwritten policy in the brokerage world. The rule involves the regular use of drugs, especially cocaine, and frequent engagement in sexual activities. Also, Belfort is reminded that the business is not about the customer or client, but rather the profitability and commission that a broker can make.
Belfort upholds and executes these techniques throughout his career, including when he establishes his own company. As the leader, he shapes the behavior of his employees through the decisions that he makes. As such, the culture of using cocaine, among other drugs, is utilized in the workplace. It gets extreme as Belfort allows employees to engage in sexual activities in the workplace during breaks ( Scorsese, 2013) . Similarly, he organizes parties within the organization premises where male employees are 'entertained' by ladies. Such parties are only organized when the company does well, and it was the norm on that side of the world. Above all, Belfort ensures that investors are given lap dances and sexual favors. These measures are necessary for Belfort to attract as many investors as possible in the stock business.
Ethical Theories
The ethical theory involves establishing systematic measures to conceptualize activities and justify them based on principles and theories of morality. These theories look into ethical dilemmas or situations which seem to be morally problematic. Various ethical theories, such as individualism and utilitarianism theory, can be utilized to understand the movie's happening. According to Petit & Saint-Michel (nd. ), individualism theory dictates that the primary purpose of any business is profitability, and as such, the entity should satisfy the will of stakeholders and owners. The actions of Belfort did not, in any way, satisfy the desires of stakeholders or even lead to profitability. Belfort is reminded that stakeholders' desires and benefits are not as important as the commission to be earned as a broker. His unethical actions lead to the company's closure and incurrence of losses as they have to pay heavy fines.
Another that explains the ethical issues in the movie is utilitarianism, which advocates for actions that yield happiness instead of harm or sadness. In the short-term, employees and even Belfort were happy with the amount of money they were making. The pleasure that came with landing a huge deal was massive. However, the actions of Belfort and his partners do not yield the same fruits in the long-run, where the employees lose jobs and face criminal charges Petit & Saint-Michel, nd. ). Regarding other stakeholders such as investors and stockholders, Belfort's actions cause more harm than good as they are not properly advised on stocks to invest in.
Decision-making methods selected
There are several ways of making decisions in any organization. The decision-making method is often influenced by the vision of the founders and their leadership styles. The decision-making methods include command- where there is only one person who makes the decisions affecting the entire organization. Consult- this is where the person who is tasked with making the decisions seeks counsel widely before deciding concerning the organization. Vote- this is where the organization as a whole or a group of people with specific titles vote to implement a decision and consensus- where negotiations occur until people agree on a particular position ( Kumar, 2018) .
The command method is the most common way of decision making in privately owned businesses. The commonality is that the founder most often believes they are the only ones who have the company's best interest at heart. This decision-making method is sometimes successful, but it can also fail due to numerous factors surrounding a particular business.
Belfort uses the command method of decision making in his company to ensure that operations run smoothly. As he had seen in his previous job at the brokerage firm, Jordan Belfort believes that he is the only one who can make the best decisions for his company from its onset. Belfort makes all the decisions concerning the company's operations, and his employees do not question him. Belfort understands the details of running his company, and somehow his chosen method of decision making seems to work ( Kumar, 2018). Even when he makes controversial decisions, none of his employees question him because the company does not have such a culture in its operations.
Belfort ensures that he puts his employees in a position where they are his followers, who cannot question whatever he does. Jordan gives his employees things that he feels are appealing and useful for them but does not consult them before doing so. He does this because it is the same thing he saw as he was in the mentorship program at the brokerage firm.
Reasons for decisions
Many reasons are available as to why someone would make certain decisions. The most obvious is that the person feels that the decision is best for them, and if in business, then the decision is best for their business. In the case of Jordan Belfort, he made certain decisions that were considered unethical and controversial. However, it can be argued that he felt that the decisions would be beneficial for his company.
An increase in productivity is vital when a business decision is made. In Belfort's case, decisions such as 'legalizing' the use of cocaine in the workplace were meant to increase his employees' productivity. Belfort believed that cocaine use in the workplace would help reduce the stress associated with the stock brokerage ( Kumar, 2018) . The use of sex as a form of stress relief was also meant to increase employees' productivity. Belfort did not consider that his past employer's decisions might have been wrong to some extent.
Employee and employer relationship is beneficial for the growth of the company. When there is a good working relationship between the employees and employers, it will translate to the company's growth because all parties feel appreciated and needed. However, if the connection is lacking, then the performance of the company is not guaranteed. Belfort made sure that he did things that would benefit his employees and improve his relationship with them.
Results/consequences
Belfort managed to increase the productivity of his employees as well as have a good relationship with them. However, the decisions were not without consequences. Belfort started having issues with law enforcement because cocaine was illegal, and thus he was illegally procuring the drugs. Prostitution was also unlawful, and the fact that he organized sex parties for his employees meant that he encouraged prostitution.
An increase in productivity translates to a rise in profits ( Kumar, 2018) . However, most of the time, with employees who were high on cocaine, the culture would not survive for long. Most of Belfort's employees became drug and sex addicts, which affected their performance in the company.
Some of Belfort's behaviors did not sit well with the customers, and when word got out of their operations, they lost most of their customers. On top of that, even new customers were not willing to work with his company.
Critique and Recommendation
The behaviors of Belfort showed total disregard for the ethical standards of business practice. Belfort showed that all he did was for his gain, and he did not care about the customer. He made it clear to his employee that his main goal was to make profits and not please employees. Belfort would lie to customers without feeling any regret ( Kumar, 2018) .
Jordan showed that he had total disregard for women. He did not respect women enough to hire them as his employees at his firm's top positions. However, he was okay with bringing in women during his sex and drug parties. The behavior showed how inequality was well manifested in the company, yet Belfort did not feel like an issue.
As much as the command style of decision making worked for Belfort to some extent, he might have none better and saved his company if he had used the participation style. This style would have ensured that there were people who would discourage some of his bad decisions. Participation would have cultivated a better and healthier culture that would have been more sustainable than the culture developed by Belfort.
When one is in a position of learning, they need to be independent thinkers. One needs to assess what is right from wrong to ensure that when they get to a place of power, they can make sound decisions that are beneficial to everyone. Following things blindly was the greatest undoing of Jordan Belfort.
References
Kumar, N. (2018). Jordan Belfort: the real Wolf of Wall Street.
Petit, V., & Saint-Michel, S. E. Leadership and business ethics. The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics , 430.
Scorsese, M. (2013). The Wolf of Wall Street [Film]. Hollywood; Red Granite Pictures.
