It Has Been Said That Sales Ethics Is an Oxymoron. Do You Agree? Discuss This Statement

First of all, to discuss this statement, we have to understand the statement above. What do we know about sales? According to Hair et al. (2009, 3) sales is "the planning, direction, and control of the personal selling activities of a business activities of a business unit, including recruiting, selecting, training, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying and motivating as these tasks apply to the personal sales force." As for ethics, there is more than one definition as there are different perspectives and argument from different people. "The classical view of ethics" is defined by Plato's Crito in the book of Ethics Theory And Practice. Plato's Crito settle moral question by the use of rational methods. "Plato describes in his "dialogues," argued that before acting, a person ought to consider the arguments for and against various alternatives and, disregarding "the opinions of the many," he should be "guided by the reason"." (Velasquez and Cynthia 1985, 3). However, there is another contemporary view of ethics by Edward Westermarck's "Ethical Relativity" which do not agree on Plato's definition. According to Edward Westermarck, "The classical view that ethics can be a rational enterprise is frequently criticized. One of the main arguments against it is the objection that moral right and wrong depend not on reason, but on one's culture." (Velasquez and Cynthia 1985, 4) For example, some country finds that cannibalism is right and acceptable. However, in some country, cannibalism is unethical and illegal. As for oxymoron, it is the two terms in the word have the self-contradictory effect, for example, the living death. How can a person be living and death at the same time? This is the self-contradictory effect which is call oxymoron. (Dictionary.com n.d.)

There are many people saying that sales ethics is an oxymoron, which means that sales and ethics cannot put it together as sales is actually unethical. However, I do not agree about it. It is true that there are some salespeople who make sales in an unethical way. However, we cannot make the conclusion saying that all salespeople are unethical base on some of the previous unethical sales. This is because we have to see what is the limit that we consider sales as unethical? As for me, sales can be considered as unethical when the salesperson make a sale that can harm a person, family or even to a country. For example, Toyota Company is practicing unethical behavior. Toyota admits that they knew that the car's break has some problem but they refuse to do anything and continue selling them to the customer. This ends up putting the customer's life in risk. Many people complained and Toyota still trying to delay the recall and avoid taking the responsibility to save their money. (Mack 2010). This example of sales is very unethical and should not be practices by other