Professional Values and Ethics, Essay Example

Different people have their own vision on what is good and just. Being accumulated through the whole life, values form personality. Achievements, leadership, money, freedom are someone’s key criteria for success and happiness. Others cherish honesty, inner harmony, excellence, and community. Ethics is based on personal values and addresses general perception of all people on what is right and wrong. However, there is a certain difference between values and ethics, as not all values can be ethical. In their attempt to become rich and popular, people tend to overestimate the role of money and achievements. Though earning good salary involves hard work, development of excellent communication skills, becoming rich by all means is not the very good way to behave.

Values, ethics and career success are interconnected.  In his article “Moral reasoning as a Strategic Competency”, Martin Cook describes moral reasoning as a key factor of achievements at work. “Clearly, the moral issues characteristic of this level of strategic leadership require a sophistication and nuance in moral thinking that simple slogans like “maintain your integrity” and “always tell the truth” do little to advance.” (Cook) According to this author, to behave ethically at work person needs to develop certain skills and values. Rewords and punishment is the first and the most important stage of development in formation of moral reasoning. In fact, person needs not only to indentify goals and values, but also to control oneself and act according to the new standards.

Ethical attitude of the employees towards work itself and colleagues is highly valued in both small firms and large corporations. Moreover, team building is essential for big companies with the great number of workers. Therefore, code of ethics is used to regulate positive environment within the corporation. “The Code [of ethics] summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession’s core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.” (National Association of Social Workers, 2008) In the “Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers”, Carter McNamara describes how personal values can be developed in the workplace. By implementation of code of ethics managers use to form and stimulate ethical behavior of the employees at work. (McNamara, 2008) For example, each employee is supposed to produce adequate amount of work in response to the salary he/she earns. If person fails to be productive or just does not want to, he/she is acting unethically towards the employee. Code of ethics is a good source to stimulate development of professional values and attitude towards work.

Finally, another source of ethical behavior and development of professional values is person’s character itself. Self-motivation is considered to be the most influential factor that drives people to improve their skills. It is obvious that there is no way to force person to do something until one desires to act accordingly. Therefore, setting mission in life and specific goals stimulates person to develop such values as hard work, openness to experience, self-sacrifice, and self-reliance.

Professional values and ethics are essential for career success. One the one hand, high productivity of the employee, willingness to work in a team, and responsibility can quicken career growth. Secondly, managers can positively treat employee in response to his diligence and ethical behavior. Professional values and ethics can also be applied to the whole organization, not just single employees. For instance, the case with Tylenol in 1982 has shown how business ethics can save the company’s good name. Cyanide was detected in drugs and several people died. Though it was obvious that some of the capsules were poisoned, Johnson & Johnson Co. has removed Tylenol from the market and carefully investigated this case. It was predicted that company should cease production and leave a market. Nonetheless, Johnson & Johnson returned its market share in just six months. If the company tried to neglect this issue, the number of buyers would be small and J&J would become bankrupt (Business Ethics Case Studies). Professional values and ethics are beneficial for both the employee and the company, as they stimulate good performance and effective cooperation.

References

Business ethics Case Studies. The Johnson and Johnson Tylenol Controversies. Last retrieved May 31, 2009 from http:/ /www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Ethics/BECG015.htm.

Cook, M. Moral Reasoning as a Strategic Leader Competency. US Army War College.

McNamara, C. (2008). Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit from Managers. Last retrieved May 31, 2009 from http:/ /www.managementhelp.org/ethics/ethxgde.htm#anchor39675.

National Association of Social Workers. (2008). Code of Ethics. Last retrieved May 31, 2009 from http:/ /www.socialworkers.org/pubs/Code/code.asp.