Professional Ethics: the Principles and Rules of an Organization - Assignment Example

Professional Ethics Introduction Ethics is an important aspect in all spheres of life. When it comes to professional life it has more crucial value than one assume. Ethics means working morally and according to the principles and rules of an organization. As a person interesting to pursue a profession of a sales person, ethics is a central principle of my profession. The relation with customer and the employer can be strengthened only through professional ethics. The rights and wrong the motives and behavior of a professional is highly demanded in a sales sector. Sales people present much information to customers and a person without ethics can damage the reputation of products and employer quickly. Professional ethics for a sales person means honesty and integrity and is a stepping stone towards success but there are certain issues and dilemmas surrounding it (Thesis) In Today’s competitive world, the customer attention is not an easy attainable aspect. Sales people being highly interactive with public need to maintain their identity . People have a notion that sales persons lie mostly and distort facts and figures to get more sales. So this is a professional feed which need utmost truthfulness and ethical conduct. However, a complete honest approach is not suggested as every business has its secrets and sales tactics. Nevertheless, the conducts need to keep in consideration that the interests of customer and employer are not violated. Sales persons need to protect the trust of all parties concerned with business. As per (Dave) “The ethical salesperson will correct the customer and lose the immediate gain that the sale would have brought. The payoff, however, is the long-term gain in your reputation for integrity”. However, the current business world has issues and dilemmas regarding professional ethics. The Concept of professional ethics Professional ethics is the rules governing conduct, relationship and transaction in an organization. The ethics of a professional gains the confidence and reputation of employer, colleagues and public. According to (Reeder 108-110)“ Professional ethics concerns ‘those norms, values, and principles that should govern the professional conduct”. Professional ethics is the set personal, organizational and corporate behavior standards expected from professionals. In sales profession, employees have a responsibility towards their client to deliver safe choices regarding products and services. They need to inform and treat the customer with utmost respect, dignity and honor. The sales professional should not manipulate facts for getting sales. Every professional has an obligation to uphold law. “It seems particularly important for organizations to encourage ethical behavior among sales professionals, because of their boundary spanning and the extent of the ethical issues and dilemmas they confront”. Ethics are value based conduct and it describes what s right and wrong. Ethics provide a framework for the course of action for professionals for what is morally acceptable in a sales job. Sales personnel has obligation to customers, suppliers, colleagues and employer. The sales profession ethics means that one presents the facts in a truthful manner. Highest standards of profession need to be maintained in all circumstances. The professional ethics means the sales person depicts commitment and loyalty to their profession. It is also a personal identity that reflects the good morale and standards needed in a business world. Professional ethical issue and its implication Professional ethics is a not a concept limited only to business environment put expands to the cultural value of a society. A business organization is situated in a society and the customers, suppliers and employs are part of a society. The value that a professional sales person convey to the people he interact with has large impact on the cultural values of the society. If professionals think solely of gaining business then he can damage the value and beliefs of customer. Such an attitude from sales professional can project a stereotypical image about sales professionals. The ethical standards means preserving values between individuals and unethical behavior can disrespect and insult customers.” According to (Naagarasan 5)“Values are essence of life”. The ethics of a person implies that he has normal societal standards. The individual values of a person defines a person’s culture and once a professional shows ethical behavior then the society emerges to be ethically efficient. According to (Khosla 1-17) ‘Ethics is the word that refers to morals, values and beliefs of the individuals, family or society”.If many professionals behave unethically, then a large part of the society has unethical attribute and it will have a huge negative impression on the culture of the society and a country as a whole. How we perceive ourselves and operate within our environment is of such importance that institutions establish rules of ethical behavior that relate to practice. As per (Chmielewski) “Institutions that examine power and responsibility, and audit their ethical decisions regularly, develop employees that function with honesty and integrity and serve their institution and community”. However the professional people face ethical dilemmas in current world. Ethical Dilemmas In any profession, the employees face ethical dilemma as to what is wrong and what is right. And there is a huge difference between what is legal and what is ethical. The sales persons often face ethical conflicts when they get pressurized to take actions which are inconsistent with one’s ethical values. Sales person often needs to take decision and action according to the demands and needs of the buyer. The relationship creates a propensity for ethical conflict because the sales people ethical behavior may not compliment with the demands of the customer. The sales people are unable to resolve ethical dilemmas as they often encounter job related tension, frustration and anxiety regarding the sales turnover and decreasing performance. Ethical dilemmas of a sales person start when they face price discrimination, bribery, insider trading, kickbacks and conflicts of interests. Some times to keep the interest of the customer or gain sales or monetary benefit sales people can be in a fight with ethical values. They transgress the limitation of ethical code and take these unethical conducts on a lighter note. The sales profession tied between the sales targets, customer needs can slip in to a dilemma as to what might be the ethical action to retain customer and increase sales. As per ( Bass 1-17) “The sales profession suffers from a public perception that it has low standards of ethical behavior”. In such a situation the sales person, customer and employer are affected many a times. In cases where a sales professional distorts facts about products and services to customer can be an exploitation of the trusts and values of a customer. The customer is also cheated for his money. His needs and wants are used for monetary gains. In such a situation, the company can lose the customer on a long term basis. It can only be a momentary financial gain and the customer can also spread a negative impression of the product among others. In such a case, the sales person, customer, employer are all at loss on different levels. Also of the sales profession share the company information and product details and strategy to ties competitors then the employer and other people related to it can suffer damages. If sales professional take monitory benefits and perform price discrimination then the product, employer and suppliers may encounter problems. The professional ethics have wide implication than one may think as it has effect on many people internally and externally. (Koivunen 1-28) “Cultural policy reflects the values, principles and procedures that inform choices concerning publicly subsidized cultural activity subject to communal decision-making and control”. Ethical dilemma needs to be confronted by sales profession with utmost care and intelligence. For example a sales person knows that the company is setting a promotion a week after that there would be 20 % discount on cars. But he wants to fulfill his target and cannot tell the customer to wait for next week to make purchase. However his suggestion could save money of customer’s he is forced to keep silence as he want sales for the week. This is an ethical dilemma where the sales person has to choose between his profession and interest of the customer. Here if he let the customer know about the promotion then he would be losing out on his sales. As per (Oseni 1-8) the issue of business ethics is engaging companies more and more – both domestically and internationally. This trend is accentuated by high-profile examples of breaches of accepted standards of ethical behavior. In such a case it would be ideal for the sales person to consider that he is not violating any law and just performing his duty as the time demands. As a professional he is acting in accordance with the rules of his business and he cannot help himself to support the customer. It is a matter of time and as a sales person he cannot control the business strategies. A sales person has no ethical obligation to change the time in which a customer would buy a product .When they want they can buy and as a sales person he is not obliged ask customer when to buy. So if a customer is not getting promotional offer it is not an ethical violation as promotional offer is set not according to sales person’s wish. In order to prevent such misconduct the organizations have guidelines which describe the misconduct and ethical boundaries. Conclusion The profession ethics is an important criterion in all business environments. A business cannot survive without ethical standard hence all the companies have ethical standards and guidelines. In a sales profession a person has to keep interaction with many people and lack of ethics can drown their care. A customer and employer have many expectations from sales professionals as they depend on them. Customer has no knowledge about products and services and if they are exploited then the business and profession of a sales person can be doomed. According to (Mooney) when you are a CEO of a small business facing an ethical problem that is difficult to deal with, you should seek wise counsel In a sales profession one can encounter many ethical dilemmas and in such cases they need to understand the situation and act in a right manner. In many situations, sale person may be tempted to violate ethical standards and in such occasion, he should think of a long term professional goals and reputation of firm rather than short cuts for temporary success. The organization has ethical guidelines to restrict employees from acting unethical. However it is the duty of the sales personnel to consider his profession as his pride and solve ethical dilemmas with professional knowledge and counseling. Work Cited Bass, Ken. "The Moral Philosophy of Sales managers and its influence on Ethical Decision making." Jounral of personal Selling and sales management 18.2 (1998): 1-17. Print. Chmielewski, Christine. "Values and culture in ethical decision making." http://www.nacada.ksu.edu. NACADA, 2004. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. Read More