Personal Responsibility And The Common Good

Every individual, in all different kinds of professional sphere, should have personal responsibility for what he or she is doing. Dealing with something in professional manner means that you are responsible first towards yourself and then towards your boss and even towards the society, depending whether these other people are involved directly or indirectly. That makes it a little bit complicated. But, in my opinion, if people take their own dependability and start thinking from the ethical point of view in their business, there should be a common good and the society would be satisfied. There could be a lot of mistakes and obstacles in the course of every business and then comes the ethical part. However every person must have his or hers own principles and obey some rules in their professional career. The individual should build these rules in the course of life, in the course of studies and by experiencing. After you gain some experience through school, part time jobs, internships, I think you are ready to go on step 2. You'll be able to follow exact orders and be sure the people that are in higher position than you are satisfied with your work. Your supervisor, your manager, boss will give you orders, so that you can follow them and don't think beyond that point. You'll be pleased and happy. There won't be any reason for being worried. The only ethical issue here is to satisfy the boss and be sure that you are acting fairly right towards your manager.

However you're not going to stop your developing like that. After a while there is a need for stepping forward. Following ones' orders is not really fun and makes you feel limited. That's how the human is created. Everyone gains experience through his or hers own faults or through other people' faults. That's how we come to the point when a lot of people start looking beyond the position where their boss has told them. It gets even more complicated, because you would be able to think not only how to satisfy your boss. You would be able to see around him and the things he is dealing with. Like every human being, your superiors might be wrong as well. That is going to bring some conflicts and cause something called the "common good" or making sure there is such thing as common good. It is hard to do that. And there would be always slight hitches which would cause ethical issues. Let's give an example: There is a company dealing with construction. They find a perfect spot, cheap, for building some structure. The expected profit is enormous and the customer is satisfied. You are in charge of inspecting the nature and climate factors for this area. After series of researches and tests you find out that there is some underwater and it might cause slight defect in 50 years, which is not 100% sure. You tell you supervisor or manager about