When you're just a Holon

Lest we forget, everywhere and always, we're all Holons.  All the way up, and all the way down.  Simultaneously a Part, and a Whole.  I can dig that.  It's an important, important, maybe even taken for granted concept.  But sure helps one break free from the ego from time to time.  You don't always get to make the decisions, because you don't always get to be the "Whole...." sometimes you're just the "Part."  Especially when it comes to organizations.  I've gotten into much trouble in my business career already, while trying to lead with my version of "What is Ethical," when the fact of the matter is, I'm not generally the Decider to begin with.

As a Banker, I volunteered to teach a class on Business Ethics to high school students in November.  Typical examples in the curriculum include such starting phrases such as:  "When the ship wrecks, you are directed to a small raft with room for only 12 people......"  or "Should I report the item I just broke at the store....?"  or, "you catch a co-worker stealing money...."  Probably important basics.  But what about the more common cases of how to deal with dissonance when your ethics don't fall in line with the decisions that are being dictated to you to carry out.  There are many business decisions that are often legal, but not always ethical....and you have very limited input on the matter.  Ethical Disonnance, therefore, is often a leading source of disatisfaction and lack of meaning with our work.  So how does one change that, or otherwise deal with it? 

Just a quick example of legal, but unethical.  Take the banking industry, and the millions of dollars in fees being charged on paying overdrafts on checking accounts.  With the average fee at $34 PER CHECK, is this ethical?  This is a fee generally charged to those who are least able to pay it (thus causing more and more overdrafts), all the while "good customers" (who are more apt to be able to afford it in the first place) are getting their fees waived.  And oftentimes there are better products out there for the customer (overdraft protection lines of credit, sweeps from your own savings account, or even a reduction in that very high per check amount), and yet you're ordered not to sell those products.  You're told to sell what makes the most money, because it is legal, and your employer is in the business of making money, and every other competitor is doing it, and there is no law against it, and the customer's can control this on their own "simply" by not writing overdrafts. 

What's a Holon to do, when you're just one simple Holon?  A Holon swims back and forth between all the ways that he/she/ is a Part, with consciousness, and all the ways that he/she is a Whole, with consciousness.  One begins to dance between what is best for me as a part of this business, what is best for the business in the competitive environment that they are a part of, what is best from a governmental standpoint (legislation) that a business is a part of, what is the best standpoint from the global picture of which our government is part of?  And maybe one comes back to saying....well perhaps education could help to solve this problem.  Perhaps educating people about these products, their options, and the endless cycle of some forms of "legal, but not necessarily ethical" business practices, may help consumers to make better choices

I think, in the end, that by looking at all of the perspectives of I, We, and several different Its/Systems (Organizations, Governments, Globalization), that maybe if your dissonance comes from feeling like too small of a "Part" within a bigger "Whole" that is causing you grief....then maybe a good way to ease that dissonance is to remind yourself that you are a Holon, and go out and find ways in which you can become a "Whole" in many other ways.  In this example, go teach a class.  Be the lecturer, and talk to be people about their better options (not as an employee representing the Bank, but perhaps as a volunteer educator in a High School, or in a Night School/Trade School), etc.  Or try to support legislation that would change the environment.  In short, if you're feeling too small as a "Part" then look for other ways to be a "Whole."  And the second point is, that once you've considered all the other Holons in the mix, all the way up, and all the way down....there could always be some cases where you realize that things aren't as unethically bad as you thought they were.  Sometimes your version of "ethical" isn't the only one there is, especially in the broad sense of things.  (That doesn't apply to $34 check charges, mind you, that's just wrong).