📋 Written Ability Test (WAT)/Essay Analysis Guide: Can Happiness Justify Morally Questionable Actions?

🌐 Understanding the Topic’s Importance

This question probes critical thinking and ethical reasoning, reflecting a core competency in B-school curricula. It ties directly to leadership, decision-making, and moral responsibility.

📝 Effective Planning and Writing

• ⏱️ Time Allocation:
  • Planning: 5 mins
  • Writing: 20 mins
  • Review: 5 mins
• 📖 Preparation Tips:
  • Compile key statistics on happiness indices and ethical dilemmas.
  • Note opposing philosophical arguments.

💡 Introduction Techniques for Essays

1. Contrast Approach: “While happiness is a universal goal, its pursuit often leads to ethical quandaries, challenging societal norms and individual integrity.”
2. Historical Perspective: “From Aristotle’s virtue ethics to Bentham’s utilitarianism, philosophers have debated whether happiness justifies moral compromises.”

📊 Structuring the Essay Body

🏆 Achievements

Highlight cases where happiness-driven initiatives maintained ethical integrity, such as Nordic welfare models.

⚠️ Challenges with Comparative Analysis

Explore scandals (e.g., Enron, Theranos) to illustrate ethical failures in happiness pursuits.

🔮 Future Outlook

Recommend ethical frameworks ensuring happiness aligns with societal good.

📄 Concluding Effectively

1. Balanced Perspective: “The pursuit of happiness must respect ethical boundaries to foster trust and long-term progress.”
2. Global Comparison: “Learning from global practices, ethical governance can harmonize personal and societal happiness.”

📈 Analyzing Successes and Shortcomings

✨ Achievements

Ethical policies driving societal contentment.

⚠️ Challenges

Ethical compromises undermining long-term welfare.

🚀 Recommendations for Sustainable Progress

1. ✅ Institutionalize ethical happiness frameworks in governance and leadership.
2. 🎓 Promote education in ethical decision-making.

✍️ Sample Short Essays

⚖️ Balanced Perspective

“While happiness motivates human progress, actions devoid of ethics risk societal trust, necessitating a balance between the two.”

🔧 Solution-Oriented

“Aligning ethical principles with happiness pursuits ensures individual and collective well-being, fostering sustainable development.”

🌏 Global Comparison

“Learning from Nordic models, ethical happiness can become a cornerstone of global leadership and policy-making.”