Cultural Values and Personal Ethics

According to Abiodun and Oyeniyi (2010), ethics addresses issues of good and bad and with moral issues and duties. Ethics sets rules of conduct in place in the hopes of providing guidelines for human behaviors focused on the preservation of a society. In the United States, National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has put instruction or guides specific to restriction for legislators in relation to restrictions on gifts from lobbyists to legislators. Some states are more specific and prohibit gift giving with exceptions. This writer is of the opinion, the exceptions are where the “S” is taken out of stretch.

It is easy to understand Solomon’s argument that unethical practices destroy the business and its key people. This has been proven by so many companies, such as Enron case, whose scandals have been unveiled to the public and the people who used to amass great wealth out of unethical practices are now behind bars. Even if they get out of prison, it will be difficult to imagine how they can recover from the negative image that the public already has on them.

Beliefs are steeped in our past histories, habits and traditions, and are thus constrained by individual experiences and not as adaptable to new situations. Alternatively, if you use values to make decisions, those decisions will align with the future you want to experience. Values transcend both contexts and experiences. Therefore, they can be used for making tough decisions in complex situations that have not yet been experienced. As a result, values provide a more flexible mode of decision-making than beliefs.

“A picture is made up of so many square inches of painted canvas; but if you should look at these one at a time, covering the others, until you had seen them all, you would still not have seen the picture. There may, in all such cases, be a system or organization in the whole that is not apparent in the parts. In this sense, and in no other, is there a difference between society and the individuals of which it is composed; a difference not residing in the facts themselves but existing to the observer on account of the limits of his perception. A complete view of society would also be a complete view of all the individuals, and vice versa; there would be no difference between them.” Charles Horton Cooley, in “Human Nature and the Social Order”.

Centered on psychological, sociological and philosophic principles such as virtue ethics, deontology, utilitarianism and intuitionism, for instance, many theorists argue that our decision making ability or ethical judgements are based on our own experience, or the nature of our standards of reason. Ethics, whether personal or professional, is about our actions and decisions. Moreover, it is acting in a way that is consistent with our values and choices, not just simply following the rules. Our Code of Ethical conduct originates from our values which are greatly influenced by our morals; they provide guidance and are our standards for the ways in which we carry out and view right and wrong actions; these standards are derived from our fundamental beliefs. Ethics are usually the principles we use to form decisions on what is right or wrong, good or bad and are typically cultivated from our culture, environment, and religious beliefs. Moral responsibility is said to be innate and/or instilled within an individual outside of themselves, however, studies also suggest that moral attitude and action are also affected by

In addition to the process of grieving and accepting significant loss, individuals are often faced with moral and ethical issues related to the process of death. These issues include the prospect of their loved one experiencing a “bad death”, which has been discussed as involving distress, a lack of acceptance, and death not being in agreement with their wishes (Somerville, 2001; Tan & Manca, 2013) or difficult end of life decisions, like end of life care or euthanasia (Lovell, Smith, & Kannis-Dymand, 2015; Somerville, 2001). In the case of the latter, there is often a moral debate between continuing someone’s life in spite of his or her medical state (pro-life) and choosing a medical

The “Heritage Assessment Tool” is a guide to help determine cultural, ethnic, and religious heritage. It may be used to assess your own cultural values or the cultural values of other ethno cultural backgrounds. Using this tool will guide the user into making non-stereotyped assumptions about the heritage of a patient. The Heritage Assessment Tool allows the interviewer to gather a deeper understanding of the traditions that make up the health background of certain individuals or groups. Three families including the authors own, will be evaluated for differences in health traditions. Health maintenance, protection and restoration will be addressed as well as, identifying common health traditions based on the authors own cultural

According to Johnson (2012) leaders are powerful role models, and policies will have a little effect if leaders do not follow the rules they set. In Enron case, corruption and ethical misconduct were deeply embedded in their business culture where profitability was more important than ethics. In this paper, I will address the factors that had led to the development of the culture of profit before principle at Enron. Also, I will create my personal code of ethics that will guide me in my professional and personal decision making and doing the right thing when faced with ethical challenges.

I was born in the late 1950s and spent my childhood in the 1960s and teen years in the 1970s. My upbringing was shaped very much, by how I was taught and raised. My parents were both members of a conservative religious organization and so with that said I learned this way of thought. We were raised to believe that the 10 commandments were the basis of all things right and wrong, that if we followed them our lives would be as God wanted. Not to mention our parents! As a child, we first believe all that our parents teach us. They are like God to us and must be right no questions asked. I had by then

“In the early part of this decade ethical scandals erupted though corporate America. Corporate Leaders from major companies such as Enron were caught up in scandal’s ranging from fraud, conspiracy, grand larceny to obstruction of justice” (Cross, 2011, p. 76). At the time, the Enron scandal was considered to be one of the most notorious and compelling business ethics cases in modern generations. It’s was a textbook version of what can go wrong in an organization that lacks a true culture of ethical standards. Investors and the media once considered Enron to be the company of the future, but as its demise suggests, it was in reality not a particularly modern business organization, especially in its approach to ethics.

All people have personal values and ethics, just as they have cultural values. Often times, those personal values and ethics may clash with those of their employer. As an example, as an individual, a person's ethical guidelines might require honesty, integrity and respect. If that individual works for a company that does not necessarily operate under those same tenets, the employee may well face an ethical dilemma. This paper looks into how personal values, organizational values and ethical values come into play in the decision-making process.

Cultures vary all over the world. The different states across the globe have their own cultures—the way they speak, the foods they eat, the clothes they wear are how these clothes are worn, marriage, the type of music, what is right from what is not, how people treat their visitors or how they behave (Zimmermann, 2015). Code of Ethics defines how a person conducts and behaves himself in a situational basis. Here are some of the ethical practices of Americans. In the US, greetings are casual (Kwintessential, 2014). In introducing everyone to each other, the use of first name, the showing of genuine smile, and the shaking of hands are enough (Kwintessential, 2014). If the occasion if formal, the use of titles and surnames signify courtesy

Values differ depending on the person and their culture upbringing according to (Manning,Curtis, McMillen, & Attenweiler, (2011). Personal values are a set of guidelines that we live by in order to make the best ethical decisions in life. Indeed, this changes over time for many people because of highly stressful events that occur beyond our control. In fact, those stressful events can make a person reevaluate their personal value system altogether. For instance, many young African American have been target of recent police shootings. In light of such emotional events of racial profiling, I now urge my children to change their personal cultural norms to avoid becoming targets. While I only seek to challenge the status quo for this discussion,

Morals and values are the basis of all human decisions and knowledge. Every person’s morals are different from one another and can be used to define what is right and what is wrong in their own eyes. Values are used as a personal translator that explains another person's behavior or beliefs to a different individual. When people focus on both morals and values that have been set by them, they see everything with a limited view, but take in more about what they learn. People create and set personal values and morals based off of knowledge and understanding of the world and people around them, past experiences that they themselves have gone through, and the personality

The overwhelming facts point to a shady underworld of self-dealing and opportunistic exploitation of the poor and working class, which was until recently, well hidden from the commoner. The executives of WorldCom and Enron provide real world examples of unethical business practices, where the desire to make money for their shareholders transcended into an addiction to greed and self-dealing that were displayed by their, “excessive pay, perks, and golden parachutes”(Carson 392) at the expense of all stakeholders. All is not lost, there are corporations that pride themselves in their sound business model and commitment to ethical business practices. Such companies as Eaton Corporation, and Weyerhaeuser, who according to Ethisphere.com, a business ethics watchdog, are among the “2010 World`s most ethical companies.” (Ethisphere)