Cultural Values And Personal Ethics

Personal, organizational, and cultural values can create a difficult problem when trying to make a business decision that includes all the previously stated. Personal values are what each individual holds dear to them living the types of lives that he or she like and would like to lead. Organizational values are what are best for the company to maintain a good public image and employee guidance. Cultural are set on traditions handed down from generation to generation to preserve a way of living that each culture holds dear and true to them. Trying to intertwine these types of values when making professional and personal decisions in ones life can create a very stressful situation. Stand by personal values and do not deviate then there are not too many difficult decisions to face.

Values are personal rights and wrongs that parents instill in their children.

Values are a person's outline or a mission statement that they try not to deviate from. People can also learn values as they get older and are in their own right and wrong situations. Values vary from person to person but people have to live and learn to discover what values that he or she hold very dear and close to them. Your values are also intertwined with morals and ethics.

Personal values are the standards that people have to live and learn in order to set what is right and what is wrong that they will not accept in their lives. The American culture takes pride in being able to have the freedom of personal values to live by. Respected or disrespected values are a freedom that we get to have as Americans. Instead of having some dictator or authoritative figure tell us what our personal values are going be.

Organizational values are values that companies/organizations try to conduct business by. Stated below is a quote from an article titled "A Framework For Universal Principles of Ethics" (Colero):

Individuals acting in a professional capacity take on an additional burden of ethical responsibility. For example, professional associations have codes of ethics that prescribe required behavior within the context of a professional practice such as medicine, law, accounting, or engineering. These written codes provide rules of conduct and standards of behavior based on the principles of Professional Ethics, which include:

* Impartiality; objectivity

* Openness; full disclosure

* Confidentiality

* Due diligence/ duty of care

* Fidelity to professional responsibilities

* Avoiding potential or apparent conflict of interest

Even when not written into a code, principles of professional ethics are usually expected of people in business, employees, volunteers, elected representatives and so on (Colero).

The above stated quote gives and excellent informal standards of professional ethics. The informal principles of professional ethics are a blueprint that most people in businesses and many other workplace settings can refer to when some guidelines are unclear. The bullet points supply great characteristics and/or qualities he or she should have in making business decisions or involve these in the critical thinking process. It's hard not to include personal values when making business decisions. It is a very trying task to make business decisions that heavily include ethics and morals. The bullet points above are some very good aids to help provide fair and just decisions in business.

A clear list or statement of ethics should be listed in every workplace/organization to establish what will and what will not be tolerated. This is very important to set an objective and/or reputation of a organization that has much camaraderie among workers. Benefits of managing ethics in the workplace are nine important factors (McNamara):

1. Attention to business ethics has substantially improved society

2. Ethics programs help maintain a moral course in turbulent times.

3. Ethics programs cultivate strong teamwork and productivity

4. Ethics programs support employee growth and meaning

5. Ethics programs are an insurance policy--they help ensure the at policies are legal

6. Ethics programs help avoid criminal acts "of omission" and can lower fines

7. Ethics programs help manage values associated with quality management, strategic planning and diversity management--this benefit needs far more attention.

8. Ethics programs promote a strong public image

(McNamara)

Ethical business decisions should include a list of questions in which to direct you in what way to go or what type of role to take on. A list of questions to follow when in difficult situations where it is hard to define or what decision to make that is ethically correct and good values are expressed. The Complete to Ethics Management lists an excellent list of questions that I would strongly recommend following when faced with difficult ethical situations! Theses questions are listed within the third method of the 3 Methods