Moral Compass Essay

Moral Compass Essay

A moral compass is a judging system that builds in one’s mindset which helps a person distinguish right behaviors from wrong based on moral and virtue. In other word, moral compass is a key driver for one’s decision- making, style even personalities.

The moral values differ from religion, society, culture and family environment, each individual grew up in a unique background where moral standards are formed differently from one to the other. As for personal integrity, it is the quality of having strong moral principles and moral uprightness. A person who has strong integrity uphold to consistent moral and ethical standards. Social conscience is the responsibility of concerning the problems and injustices of society, which is related to our everyday moral conduct respect to individuals and social. Moral compass is the foundation for consistent values that each individual holds regarding to one’s integrity, as well as the guide of society consciences.

With the importance of moral compass being said, varies of factors can change the shape of one’s moral compass. Ultimately, the formation of one’s moral compass attributes to wisdom tradition such as religion, culture and environments and it is built in to one’s mindset from young age. As myself, I was born and raised in a traditional Chinese family, growing up listening stories about Confucius, my parents even educated me using Confucius classic quotes. The legacy of Confucius reminds us to be polite and honest to other person. Confucius even listed out the good and bad conducts in the real life which affects the mindset of Chinese people for two thousand years, yet some of my personal conducts can still be tracked in Confucius Classic book.

Parents are important reminder of traditional wisdom, because their parents told them so when they were young and they spent most of their life to understand the ideology. We learnt from our parents about how they would interact with other people and to be well behaved in the society, then the legacy passes on.

Regarding to the question and value about traditional wisdom, if traditional wisdom differentiates by culture, religion and philosophy, how would people from different background get along if there are contradictions between one’s moral compass? Sometimes it is painful to adopt other traditional wisdom that contradicts with one’s own values.

Moral vision: In my mind, morally good life means living in a society that people respect each other regardless of wealth, position or any other ranks that separates people from high to low. Values that anchor my moral vision are equality and honesty. A story that inspires my moral vision is Confucius’ experience of being morally well conduct in the society. My traditional wisdom influences my moral vision on my personal integrity.

Moral code: The principle of my moral code is to always follow rules of my moral values no matter the costs. The moral code shows my determination of becoming the person described in moral vision. The code and vision can only be valuable when I think about them all the time till they become one of my habits, hence the moral compass becomes the significant judging system when I am making decisions. Wisdom tradition influences my moral code in the values of my moral vision I wrote down.

Moral fitness: The practices are honesty, respect and tolerance. There practices can be used through being respectful to people at all level, and always be thankful to the society, then one will have to willing to accept and welcome people from different culture and being able to tolerant the wrong from culture clash. Wisdom tradition influence my moral fitness by leading me to be open to embrace the difference and respectful for the members that we live together with.

Defining moment: The moral challenge that has been a key defining moment for me is when I try to uphold my values against the majority or chances to hurt the ones who are innocent, under this circumstances, I will reconsider it before I make the decision of speaking the truth. But I will never take compromises on upholding my moral value, maybe a different approach would work out smoothly. According to my traditional wisdom, one should always think about the consequences for other people more than oneself. Upholding personal moral value shouldn’t have any conflicts with caring about others. But it takes time and thinking to make both parties feel better. If I only speak the truth and neglect of others who might be affected, then I become to a selfish man and will lose respect from people.

As a future business leader, one walks out of Carey business School should always remind oneself the credo of business tough with humanity in mind. In the real business world, people have different purposes and ambitions, which may cause conflicts. As a great business leader, one has to deal with the divergence and make decisions that satisfies all parties. In a long run, I personally believe people who share common moral values tend to work together and usually work out well. In contrast, people uphold contradicted values doing business together would tend to be short term, the bond that connects them shared nothing in common but personal interests, the collaboration is fragile. Confucius classic line mentioned that “Men with totally different moral principles can never act together”. As a business leader, one should always consider long-term prosperity of the firm, by consistently showing your moral value will attract loyal partner and customers who shares the value in common. For example, if the company lies about the defection of their products, the partners and customers would lie to the firm as well. Some partners will lie to you and steal money from the firm. The customers will boycott the company’s product and create bad image for the firm. When the leader’s personal integrity is questioned, it will attract partners and customers who have the same problems, thus the potential loss for the firm is countless and it is impossible to be fixed. Hence, honesty and strong personal integrity are essential for a business leader, the good values are effective in running a long-term business.