Cultural Values

An individual's personal, organizational, and cultural values are the foundation of their personal and professional decision-making cycle. These values form the core of that individual's moral fabric, and his actions and decisions are predicated on those beliefs. Shalom H. Schwartz defined values as "conceptions of the desirable that guide the way social actors (e.g. organizational leaders, policy-makers, individual persons) select actions, evaluate people and events, and explain their actions and evaluations" (Schwartz, 1999, pp. 24-25). Because values drive the way individuals select actions, this paper will outline how my personal, organizational, and cultural values affect my decision-ma...Decision making is a process in which the values of individuals and groups are brought to bear on the reasoning that leads to particular choices. Faced with many different messages and options, it's not easy to make decisions that one is happy with or that support one's health. One tool that can help youth make the best choices possible is an awareness of their personal values and the ability to use this information as a "guidance system" or compass for decision-making. "Values" refer to the principles, beliefs, and qualities that are most important to someone in life. They serve as an internal guidance system, telling us about how we see the "rightness" and "wrongness" of things. Generally, when our behaviour and choices are in line with our values, we feel good about ourselves and what we have done. On the other hand, when our choices and behaviours do not reflect our values, we tend to feel bad about ourselves and the situation.Values are very personal. No two people have exactly the same set of values. Values are shaped by our experiences and understandings of those experiences through what we've learned from our families, cultures, religion, school, media, etc. As we grow and change, so too can our values. What we make of the future will depend on what we believe has value. How we spend our time, where we spend our money and what we do with our lives, are all directly influenced by our capacity to make clear, balanced and "good" value decisions.While we recognize that our values influence our lives, it is sometimes difficult to get clear on exactly how our values are shaping our decisions and actions. We often find inconsistencies between what people say they value and what they actually do. We hear people say things like, "There's nothing's more important than my family", and see them so wrapped up in their work that they seldom have time for home; or they chant, "Our business is people" and find that their policies and practices don't really focus on people first, but profits or productivity.This paper explains the need for ethical self-reflection in order to arrive at decisions that are fair and socially just. The paper also describes how the author makes personal and professional decisions based on her own cultural and personal ethics.How individuals respond to these and similar forces depends in part on such personal matters as their goals, opinions, values, experience, and so forth.23 More particularly, individuals' responses depend on how they organize experience and information about the context in which they are operating, such as the technical or social aspects of the task; and with what degree of focus.

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