Personal, Cultural And Organizational Values In A Global Setting

INDIVIDUAL ACADEMIC PAPER

Individual Academic Paper

Lascelles Lee Jr.

University of Phoenix

An individual must combine the personal, organizational, and cultural values and ethics that they have learned in life to be able to succeed in a global setting.

Values have been subdivided into instrumental values (modes of behavior) and terminal ones (values pursued for their own sake). Whereas terminal values are self-sufficient, and desired states of existence that a person strives to achieve (i.e., wisdom, a comfortable life, knowledge), instrumental values are modes of behaviors used day to day that help people to reach terminal values (i.e., being helpful). (Nonis and Swift, May/June 2001)

Personal ethics/values, tend to guide us as we walk and communicate in the world daily. People often ask what ethics are. There is no one definition. Every society and culture has a different way of interpreting and defining ethics; ethics is the development, understanding, and application by the way their own culture does things or the society norms. According to the Webster's Dictionary, ethics is defined as the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty. I see ethics as the set of rules of conduct that reflects the character and the sentiments of the community. Ethics help us establish standards of honesty, loyalty, and fairness. Expressing one's personal take on ethics and life may not always be understood in the context of the world at large. There are four parts that contribute to an individual's ethics: cognitive development, work ethic, personality and emotion. Cognitive development refers to how a person thinks, perceives, and gains an understanding of his or her world through the interaction and influence of hereditary and academic aspects. Work ethic is devotion to hard work, duty, thrift, self-discipline, and responsibility. Personality is the sum of qualities and a trait, as of character or behavior that is peculiar to a specific person. Emotion is the part of the consciousness that involves feeling and sensibility.

Culture is defined as the civilization of a given people or nation at a given time or over all time; its customs, its arts, and its conveniences. Values are defined as the established ideals of life; objects, customs, ways of acting, and the like, that the members of a given society regard as desirable. Thus, cultural values are the ideals of life, objects, customs, and ways of acting for a given people over time. Many cultural values are prevalent in the U.S. today. Cultural processes increasingly intervene and restructure natural processes. Values that are taught in church can affect how one's mental outlook on life in general, but specifically on our values. Values taught at home directly and indirectly influence our decision making process.

Cultural values and personal ethics are quite interesting to describe. Cultural values represent the implicitly or explicitly shared abstract ideas about what is good, right, and desirable in a society. These cultural values (i.e. freedom, prosperity, security) are the basis for the specific norms that tell people what is appropriate in various situations. The ways that societal institutions (i.e. the family, education, economic, political, and religious systems) function, their goals and their modes of operation, express cultural value priorities. In everyday life, cultural values and personal ethics usually go hand-in-hand. While one is making a personal or business decision, everything about them is at work, her cultural background, as well as her personal ethics. We do not suddenly make a decision or decide something. These deliberations come from the things that have made us the individuals that we are. Our upbringing is the key to the decisions and moral choices that we make every single day.

Just like individuals, different organizations have culture and ethics that vary widely depending on the industry, size of the business and the nature of business. There are four types of organizational cultures into which an individual must adapt: clan, entrepreneurial, bureaucratic and market. In the clan culture, members understand that contributions to the organizationl exceed any contractul agreements. Members share a pride in the company as well as feelings of personal ownership. Teamwork and participation and consensus

decision making are believed to lead to success and success is assumed to depend substantially on sensitivity to customers and concern for people. The entrepreneurial culture doesn't just react to changes in the environment, they create the changes and are committed to experimentation, innovation and being on the leading edge. Individual initiative, flexibility and freedom foster growth and are encouraged and well rewarded. The bureaucratic culture values standardized goods and services and are more concerned with predictability, efficiency and stability. The tasks, responsibilities, authority, rules and processes are clearly defined. There is not much room for creativity and innovation. In the market culture, independence and individuality are valued and members are encouraged to pursue their own financial goals. Usually they do not exert much social pressure