Saturday, September 21, 2013

Opportunistic Behavior

I feel opportunistic behavior is an issue that is strongly embedded in our human understanding of ethics.  Whether it may be one's understanding of universal ethics, values that become apparent across many cultures, or local, cultural teachings of proper individualistic moral behavior, every facet of our world, in regards to ethics, becomes a major factor in determining whether one exerts opportunistic behavior or not.  This type of behavior is characterized by an individual's desire to take advantage of a set of circumstances in order to further his or her self interests.  This can happen when  a particular party takes advantage of their superior knowledge regarding a particular situation, or simply just takes advantage of their situation in general, such as times when they may be in possession of a desired good with a very limited supply.  Basically, Every instance where one chooses to behave opportunistically, taking advantage of their situation, they most definitely undermine the opposing party that is effected by the same occurrence.  More times than not, acting opportunistically will favor one party, and leave the other party with no benefit at all.

From my point of view, I fortunately do not remember any circumstance where I acted opportunistically at the expense of another.  However, there is a recent occasion I can recall about my previous roommate that appropriately displays an example of opportunistic behavior.

Two of my friends, my previous roommate and fraternity brother, were looking to do undergraduate research work for the university in an attempt to buffer their resumes to increase their chances of getting accepted to the desired medical schools of their choosing.  Both were excellent students and had fantastic standing with the university.  Both participated in different clubs outside the fraternity and engaged in community experiences through different forms of volunteer work.  Because of this, they were each other's prime competitor when a certain research position opened at Beckmann.

My roommate's discrepancy with my fraternity brother was that he was a year older, and therefore his need for the position was greater.  He felt my fraternity brother could just apply for the position again next year or find a different one.  He insisted that it was out of place for my fraternity brother to compete with him for the position since he already had gotten him into a previous lab through his own personal recommendation.  He felt that my fraternity brother's attempt to obtain the same job was a metaphorical slap in the face.  My roommate had an advantage though.  The position he was applying for was in the same lab, ran by the same people he had worked with in his earlier undergraduate years.  Because of this, he was made aware of certain, implicit preparation required for the interview. This undoubtedly would set him apart from all other applicants, including my fraternity brother.

Now my roommate and fraternity brother were both friends, and they often assisted each other in classes, as well as other facets of the pre-med curriculum.  However, in this particular instance, my roommate chose to withhold the information, allowing only himself better interview preparation.  In the end, my roommate stood out amongst the rest, and obtained the job as the research assistant.

Now some of the information may be a little skewed, since this is an event I am recalling from a conversation I had with my roommate on the subject.  His knowledge of the interview before hand allowed him to act opportunistically in order to place himself in a more advantageous position for obtaining the job.  I like to consider my former roommate an ethical individual, so I am not sure as to why he chose to place my fraternity brother at a disadvantage by withholding the information he received.  He could have shared the information, allowing both of them to act opportunistically, or ignored the information all together, and instead, place himself on the same playing field as everyone else.  

I feel he chose to pursue his own self-interests, because he ignored human ethics at the time.  Opportunistic behavior, such as this, seems to becoming evermore prevalent in society today, especially from my own experience in the United States.  I feel a major part is the present emphasis that everyone is capable of achieving great feats, and from an overall sense of individualism that is becoming more and more socially emphasized.  Because of this, a majority of actions are not based on ethics anymore,  and this in turn is becoming a social epidemic.  I feel my roommate acted opportunistically because of reasons such as this, and his actions paralleled what many others would have done given the same situation.

2 comments:

  1. The kind of opportunistic is very common among people in this such competitive society. I cannot say this behavior is unethical at all: opportunitists do not tend to harm others but just want to benefit themselves.
    I agree with your opinion about the reason that people always become opportunists. The modern society emphasizes on "success" much more than "ethics". Actually, when I faced the same situation with your previous roommate, I might make the same decision. I will not hurt other people for my own profits for sure, but I might take advantage of my situation and benefit for myself as well.

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  2. It is an interesting story. Was there are a quid pro quo because of the earlier help with getting the other position? That itself is an ethical question. Since you are relaying the story, and your got it from your roommate, he must have himself felt there was a quid pro quo.

    When normally ethical people don't act that way, there must be some other motive, like panic that this was the last chance for landing a research appointment. Survival instincts can trump ethical motives.

    On this theme there is a quite famous movie from the Depression Era called I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang, where the lead character in unfairly put into prison - he was an honest man. Eventually, he escapes. But to survive at that point, he becomes a thief.

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