What Ethics Means to You as an Individual - Literature review Example

Student: ID: Tutor: Course title: Course code: Institutional affiliation: Date of submission: Reflective journal Entry 1 The first reflective piece requires you to reflect on what ethics means to you as an individual. The fact that ethics is an issue of morality means that each and every person has his own definition as far as their situation is concerned. However, I believe that every society has what it considers as ethical behavior and what does not fit into their ethical set of conducts. Ethics as I have come to interpret it over time from the many varied definitions, narrows down to one understanding; doing what is right and good in the face of the society. I believe what is right and what is wrong depends on perceptions, cultures and beliefs in a particular society. For example in Chinese and most Asian countries, aggressive and individualistic behavior is considered unethical and uncultured behavior. Aggressiveness on the other hand is a mark of heroism in western cultures. I think it’s an interesting contrast of cultures in as far as ethics is concerned. I noticed that the individual comes first before the society; it is an accepted norm as highlighted by Robinson & Harvey (2008). I particularly agree with Molinsky (2012) argument that individuals that purport to be members of a certain society have to conform to the ethical set of conducts desired by the communities they live in. To me this means that for so long as an individual wants to be part and parcel of the society and be considered as such, they have to conduct themselves within the societal code of conduct and norms to win the trust and acceptance of that society. I have also learned from Cohen’s article that ethics decide what is fair and unfair in the society. Cohen (2004) highlights this by defining prescriptive ethics as concerning what ought to be. By this Cohen (2004) means that there is a behavior or conduct that is considered right or just in the society and is what is expected of a person in certain situations. To me then, ethics ensure that there is fairness in the society since everybody is helped by ethics to know what is right and what is wrong in the eye of the society. For example I view it as unfair for people to use money to get a job or for hiring managers to consider personal relation when hiring employees instead of relying on merit. An ethical procedure will be subjecting everybody to due procedure without bias. That is what can be considered as ethical to promote fairness. It is important that I show leadership in my profession in regards to ethical behavior. I base this conviction on the article by Crittenden, Crittenden, & Pitt (2011) who argue that society does not have rules for everything and even so the justice system is not as efficient enough to recover the ethical loss in a society once somebody does something wrong in regards to ethical expectations. In the accountancy profession, safeguarding clients confidential information and not releasing outside for selfish interests is a practice that is considered as ethical. To remain competent and true to my call to a competent accountant, I should always uphold this as a value for as long as I want to remain a true profession guided by ethical code of conduct. In most of the systems that human beings conduct their activities or lead their lives, there are laws that guide the conduct of the people in the system however there is an expected behavior or conduct that is not necessarily a law in itself; it is ethics as defined by Gibbs & Ilkan (2008). Ethics in itself is a set of moral principles that guide the human behavior and also guides how an individual participates in an activity as noted by Cohen (2004). It is what the society expects to see of an individual regarding conduct and behavior. From this point of view I can rightfully consider ethics are very important to me as an individual to institute a guard against going to the extreme without considering the implications of a person’s actions to the society around them. Business students like me think ethics is a business public relations issue. We don’t apply the same ethical discipline to ourselves for reasons only known to self. Sometime back I threw out a soda can through a car’s window at night knowing all too well nobody will spot me and no charges can be pressed then. But then I felt guilty since it’s unethical to do so but I did it simply because I could not be held liable. Ethically speaking throwing such stuff by the road side is wrong and socially unacceptable behavior but one can get away with the crime if not spotted. It then I realized that ethics is all about taking responsibility of all we do even if we can’t be held liable. It is an issue of discipline and being guided by societal rules. Reflection Journal: Entry 2 The second reflective piece requires you to reflect on how social and environmental sustainability would (or would not) apply in your chosen profession. The 21st century has brought into fore the various environmental and social challenges facing the planet earth in the wake of a rapidly democratizing society in both political and private enterprise scenes. Industrializations and population growth are also growing rapidly. What I learn from this reality is that, the people and organizations in positions that can be able to uphold social and environmental sustainability are expected by the society to safeguard the wellbeing of the society in terms of environmental and social responsibility, a view shared by Hond & Bakker (2007) who go further to suggest that businesses are tasked with ensuring proper use of resources and proper disposal of waste from industrial activities. Basing on the views of Edwards (2004), Sandhu (2010), I think businesses are also expected to give back to the society that provides its labor force, provides its customers base and also the society which is the custodian of the resources that the business relies on to generate the wealth. I find Friedman conclusion in (Friedman, M., 1970) that the business of the business is the business of making profits and as such should not engage in activities that don’t make profit for the business as inaccurate and unfortunate to say the least as I have come to consider business as part and parcel of the society and as such should be as ethical as possible. However I believe that businesses and professionals like me have to conduct their activities in a socially acceptable and ethical manner. I believe so strongly that accountancy as a profession then has an ethical obligation of ensuring that the actions of the management safeguards ethical code of conduct not only in relation to shareholders wellbeing but also for the stakeholders involved in the operations of a business (Idowu & Filho, 2009). I believe accounting as a profession requires members of the body to ensure that a company keeps proper accounting books and pays the tax expected of the company to be responsible as any other citizen required by the government to pay taxes to enable society take care of itself. I would wish that accountants should understand that the profession ultimate goal is to help the society in general to sustain professionally run businesses and organizations for economic progress which is part of social sustainability of the society. Corruption and other ills such as corporate fraud are vices that promote unsustainable practices in the business. professional accountants should avoid such behaviors if at all they owe the society a duty of ensuring that business resources are not used inappropriately for the benefit of a few at the expense of the society. I know the profession does not directly interact with people outside the business. Accountants usually do the bulk of their work inside offices and don’t shape companies’ agenda at most. Accountancy then as a profession within management has limited capability to impact on social and environmental sustainability since management decides how expenditures are to be made in regards to such matters. This means that environmental sustainability may not impact so much on accountancy as a profession. But then accountants may choose to work in companies that have massive respect for social and environmental sustainability. I also believe accountants can ensure businesses safeguard the wealth of the society by ensuring shareholders get the right financial reporting to know how sustainable the businesses they invest in are. In a management workshop I attended towards the end of last year, a finance manager told us about a dilemma he had in ensuring a start up restaurant he was working for reserved as much profits to sustain its activities and giving financial support to a neighborhood students club that had tree planting activities. The finance manager thought about it and felt the company had to show its part of the society if the community around was to spend money at their restaurant and at the end of it he made the decision and informed the company owners who had protested but afterwards saw the benefit of it. This served to convince me that businesses do not exist in isolation and as such have to be part of the societies they operate in to ensure sustainability. Reflection Journal: Entry 3 The third reflective piece requires you to reflect on how cultural understanding might (or might not) help you develop as a professional in a globalised world. Friedman (2007) once said the world is becoming flat. I think this is indeed true as I noticed that towards the end of the 20th century, the world has experienced perhaps the biggest interaction between people of different cultural background and religious as well as race backgrounds, the interaction has gone beyond trade but also to cooperation through multicultural workplaces and joint ventures all over the world as Friedman (2007) observed. It means therefore that Professionals like me should understand different cultures to relate well with people since the world is becoming more of a global village where business have to rely on everyone to stay ahead of the competition. Business leaders according to Crittenden, Crittenden, & Pitt (2011) have an obligation to ensure that their teams move together towards the predetermined goal of the organization. I know this is a daunting task in the modern workplace especially in multinationals where different cultures and religious beliefs define the workforce. As an accountant, I will most of the time need to interact with virtually all departments of the business wherever I will be working, it means then that I will have to therefore understand different cultures of the people I am working with to improve relations between me and the team. Keeping good accounts means that you have the right information and you can also pass appropriate information for improvement in relation to financial matters. This is not possible in a situation where cultural diversity hinders productive relations in the work place as noted by Molinsky (2012). I believe as an accountant cultural understanding will help me go out of my way to ensure that I too promote understanding of the cultures and diversities in the work place by increasing my awareness of other cultures which I am currently poor in. This not only shows that I as an individual value other people’s culture but it will also ensure good relations between me and my colleagues who I will learn a lot from in other fields of business outside accounting to make me a holistically knowledgeable accountant. I find this phenomenon to be even more visible when it comes to international business. It has been said that cultures of the west especially north America, promote aggressiveness when pursuing opportunities (Robinson & Harvey, 2008). These authors also claim that the western culture has also been termed as individualistic where the benefits to an individual are more important than societal benefits. According to Robinson & Harvey (2008) this is complete contrast with Asian or eastern cultures such as Chinese culture. In Asia aggressiveness is seen as rudeness while individualism is not a virtue to be envied; the society is more important and it comes first before the individual. To broker financial or merger deals, I will be at an advantaged position if I understand how other cultures interpret different things to know when to say or do what during the process of negotiations or in sustaining partnership relations between business and different investors. Wrzesniewski, Berg, & Dutton (2010) therefore suggest that business leaders have to understand such differences in national cultures in order to ensure relations with their partners in other regions are productive and that cooperation and growth maybe achieved where both cultures seem to agree. I also agree with this contentment as I have come to realize that working in an advertising firm during holidays, there were people from different backgrounds working in the company. People form groups in the company depending on backgrounds. They don’t work as a unit and thus impact negatively on performance. The management does not do a lot to change the situation and as such the company does not achieve its maximum productivity. References Brown, A. 1998. Organisational Culture. London : Financial Times Pitman Publishing. Cohen, S. 2004. The nature of moral reasoning : International management ethics and values. South Melbourne : Oxford University Press. Crittenden, V. L., Crittenden, W. F., & Pitt, L. F. 2011. Implementing global corprate citizenship: An integrated business ramework. Business Horizons , 55 (1), 445-455. Edwards, M. 2004. Future Positive - International Co-operation in the 21st Centrury . London: Earthscan. Friedman, M. 1970. The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits. New York Times. September 13. Print. Friedman, T. L. 2007. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. D&M Publishers Incorporated. Gibbs, P., & Ilkan, M. 2008. The ethics of marketing in Islamic and Christian communities-Insights for global marketing. Cross Cultural Management , 15 (2), 162-175. Hond, F., & Bakker, F. 2007. Managing corprate responsibilityin action: Talking, doing and measuring . Ashgate Publishing. Idowu, S., & Filho, W. 2009. Global practices of corprate social responsibility. springer. Mackay, J. 2013. The kind of capitalist you want to be. Harvard business review , 91 (1), p.34. Molinsky, A. 2012. Code switching between cultures. Harvard business review , 90 (1), 139-143. Pfeiffer, J. 2011. Management a profession? Where's the proof /. Harvard business review , P.38. Robinson, D., & Harvey, M. 2008. Global leadership in a culturally diverse world. Management Decision , 46 (3), 466-480. Sandhu, S. 2010. Shifting Paradigms in Corporate Environmentalism: From Poachers to Gamekeepers. Business and Society Review , 285-310. Wrzesniewski, A., Berg, J., & Dutton, J. 2010. Turn the job you have into the job you want / . Harvard business review , pp.114-117. Read More