Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper 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. Personal Values One's personal values are acquired early in life and they tend to remain fairly steady. Personal values are those that set the tone …show more content…
Organizational Values Organizational values are the principles under which the organization operates. As an example, General Electric cites their organizational values in very few words: Imagine, Build, Solve, and Lead (General Electric, 2005). It is those words that guide every activity within the corporation. Simply stated, if an activity does not support one of those values, the activity is eliminated. Another example of organizational values is that of Verizon Communications, whose values are based upon integrity, responsibility, accountability and trust (Verizon, 2005). As with GE, it is these few words that are meant to guide every activity within the corporation. Imagine the ethical dilemma an employee of one of these companies might face knowing full well what the company expects but also knowing that a given product or process does not support the value statement. Employees may well be hesitant to report such an issue if one of their personal values entails career advancement. Cultural Values As noted by Ludwick and Silva, "Cultural values refer to enduring ideals or belief systems to which a person or a society is committed. The values of nursing in the States are, for example, embedded in the values of the U.S. American culture with its emphasis on self-reliance and individualism. Basic to the value placed on individualism are the beliefs that individuals have the ability to pull themselves up by their
The values of the organization express its culture and act as guiding tenets for influencing thoughts and behaviors. Values define the character of the team. In crafting a values statement for my organization, I must consider the following: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, personal courage ethical behavior, relationships, success, and
Thompson, Gamble, and Strickland (2006) define a company’s values as “A company’s values are the beliefs, business principles, and practices that guide the conduct of its business, the pursuit of its strategic vision, and the behavior of company personnel” (p.19).
An individual's personal, organizational, and cultural values are the foundation of their personal and professional decision-making cycle. These values form the core of that individual's moral fabric, and his actions and decisions are predicated on those beliefs. Shalom H. Schwartz defined values as "conceptions of the desirable that guide the way social actors (e.g. organizational leaders, policy-makers, individual persons) select actions, evaluate people and events, and explain their actions and evaluations" (Schwartz, 1999, pp. 24-25). Because values drive the way individuals select actions, this paper will outline how my personal, organizational, and cultural values affect my decision-making.
One of the great challenges encountered in relation to organizational ethics is that of individual ethical values. Individual factors are essential in the resolution of ethical issues of concern.
Value Statements are important for healthcare organizations because they define the principles and ideals that connects the organizations’ stakeholders, they serve as the ethical standards for the organizations and they provide guidelines for decision making. Healthcare organizations employs various professionals and collaboration between professionals is required to deliver quality care to every patient. Employees who shared the same core values, ideals and principles can collaborate better and contribute to the success of the organizations. When employees’ values do not match the organizations’ value, it can result in high employee turnover, decreased productivity and dissatisfied patients. Moreover, investors can decide whether they would
Today’s workplace in consistent with several diverse backgrounds, which include different aspects of a working relationships within an organization, including age, nationality, education, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion. Although the companies include the diverse backgrounds, upon entering employment, each individual brings their own set of values, goals, and perception of acceptable behaviors (Lankard, 1991). In respect to the organization, these multicultural individuals are asked to work together in obtaining the corporations goals and policies. However, in the workplace, several ethical dilemmas may arise, which is not limited to, downsizing employees, salaries, successful employing organization, these dilemmas are additional stress to a diverse working population. Resolving ethical dilemmas requires critical discussion, analyzing, problem solving, and decision-making (Lankard, 1991). Resolution cannot be completed with one or two individuals; this process needs to include all stakeholders, current, and future for legal and ethical purposes. Stakeholder’s views must be expressed and reviewed because it
In a professional work environment, managers are expected to bring high ethical standards to their decisions (Bommer, 1987). As a result, personal values may be disregarded and the more socially accepted decision may be the determining factor of the decision to be made. This concept mirrors the dilemma of Jim Willis.
This assignment will investigate whether it is completely appropriate that personal ethical standards are influenced increasingly by corporate culture, as people move up the organisational hierarchy. Section 2 reviews the meaning of culture and describes an important subcomponent of culture called rite of advancement. This follows with a look at the factors that influence decision-making in organisations in Section 3. Section 4 provides a critical discussion using real life examples about the results of unethical decision
Business values can be defined as beliefs of an organisation, they are “the context in which an organisation’s norms are established and justified” (Nieuwenhuizen & Oosthuizen, 2014, p.95) therefore compel one to think about issues such as honesty, loyalty, morality etc.
What kind of ethics does you posses as a person? You may have wondered this question about your self but have you ever wondered it about the company you work for? All businesses have a code of ethics. There are companies with posses good ethics and those who posses bad ethics. As the Mondy (2012) text states, “companies that “out behave” their competitors ethically will generally outperform them financially” (p.28). Ethics start with the company’s motto, their code and how upper management protects their statements. Ethics needs to be part of the company’s culture. Companies who back their code of ethics and mottos have positive work culture (Solomon, 1992). Throughout, this paper we will compare companies culture with the Ethical Flaw text from Mondy (2012).
Corporate values are ‘the operating philosophies or principles that guide an internal conduct of the organization and its association with its clients, partners and shareholders’. It is also a fundamental and long-lasting belief that specific mode of conduction highly valued by the organization’s membership’ according to IBM corporate responsibility report (2002, What is the value of company).
Decisions are made every day in the workplace that may have ethical implications. It is important to conduct business in an ethical way because those decisions may have an impact on their companies, employees, shareholders, customers, and possibly on society. As organizations integrate ethical values into their corporate culture, they will have an engaged workforce that will have higher morale, higher employee retention, and higher production. “American Management Association (AMA) executive members completed an online corporate values survey. Ethics and integrity were listed among 76% of the respondents’ company corporate values and 72% said that they were practiced most or all of the time. Yet respondents had seen unethical
For any company to succeed, there must be a vision, and the company must have employees that are well trained, agree with the vision, feel valued and cared for, and are ready and willing to help the company become successful. According to Sheehan and Isaac (2014), corporate values are considered feel-good statements and have virtually no effect on a company’s operations.
Ethics are a great concern for professionals because a company 's behavior will have a strong influence on its reputation and its success. Moral issues arise in business when individuals face a decision that involves choosing between the right and the wrong. However, as simple as it may sound, making the right choice is not an easy task since moral law is not written down like legal law, and consequently each individual has its own view on the matter (Jenman, 2014). This is why firms implement ethical codes of conduct which have a strong influence on how employees act, since they will refer to it when facing a difficult decision.
An ethical issue is a problem, situation, or opportunity that involves an individual or organization to choose between several actions that must be regarded as right or wrong, ethical or unethical. Ethical issues usually arise because of conflicts between individuals’ personal moral philosopies and values, the attitudes and values of the organisation in which they work in, and those around them in the society where they live. The business environment can create many ethical issues. A company trying to maintain its objectives may interfer with its employees efforts to achieve their personal goals. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2000) Ethical issues for both individual employees and managers are very