Social and Environmental Sustainability in a Profession - Coursework Example

Business: Reflective Pieces Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Meaning of Ethics Having grown up in a family that is religious, I always associated the concept of ethics with religion. There many instances that it was required of us to exhibit what they called ‘high ethical standards’. Following this, my explanation of the term ethics for a long time has had biased attachments to the religious views. My views of ethics, however, have now evolved to a great extent. This shift of view has been due to the exposure that I have gained in other aspects of my life like academic life and the profession life. I have been able to observe that ethics cannot be confined to mean a strict adherence to the demands of the law, following one’s feelings or following the expectations of the society. All these, however, may in one way or another be considered as aspects surrounding the core meaning of ethics. In my study on this area of ethics, and the associated coverage it has, I have been able to come across various issues that are addressed in this area. Ethics is a broad concept and the influence that is has is felt across dynamic areas such as politics, the public sector, the social engagements, business etc. (Williams 2011). Such dynamism in the coverage of the ethics concept is obviously different from my earlier religious concept bias. Further academic study made me to come across the various divergences in the ethics issues. One of my major areas of interest was what I found to be called professional ethics. As I discovered, in the context of professional ethics, there are associated obligations that are required in the job operations depending on the particular profession. Different jobs have different ways of operations. Following this issue, I saw that there is developed code of ethics for each unique profession. Recently, I have seen been able to see the implication that the issues of ethics have even in the workplace. I have been involved in the media profession earlier, specializing in the area of marketing. I left the profession and shifted to the marketing in the insurance industry. I have been able to discover that the ethics that guard these two places are very different. In the media, we were allowed to display information of a particular issue, individual or group to an extent that the insurance sector will shy away from in its ethics. However, before this issue was clearly known to me, I was engaged to a prospective client who gave me his data to process. As it later turned out to be, the ethics of privacy in the marketing data was not followed in my execution of service. This resulted to a justifiable claim for compensation resulting from the mishandling of the client’s personal information. I have progressively been able to appreciate and adhere to the dynamism associated with ethics. I have now been able to identify the meaning and scope of ethics in a broader concept. I think ethics covers two major areas. First, ethics will refer to standards of right and wrong that are well founded that are able to describe what humans are needed to do, usually considering the rights, benefits to the society, obligations, specific virtues, or fairness issues. My broad consideration on this aspect of meaning is to cover reasonable obligations like refraining from fraud, enjoining virtues like honesty and standards relating to rights like the right to privacy. I think that these standards are intrinsically related to ethics since they have well-founded and consistent reasons. The second meaning that I can attach to ethics is that it integrates study and development of the standard of ethics of an individual. I have observed that social norms, laws and feelings have a probability of deviating from what is ethical. This will need the evaluation of one’s standard so that they may establish whether they are reasonable and well founded. This is in relation of all aspects of life in the profession or in the social engagements. I feel that the concept of ethics also covers the continuous efforts to study our own moral conducts and moral beliefs so that we live up to solidly-based and reasonable standards. Social and Environmental sustainability in a Profession Having been involved in marketing professionally, I have been able to keenly observe the dynamism involved sustainability matters. The profession of marketing has been identified as an organizational function and set involving processes for the creation, delivering and communication of value to the customers. In the academic explanation of marketing, I have been able to come across both qualitative and quantitative measures attached to value in marketing. Considering the qualitative aspects, the value is the gain that is perceived composed of the person’s emotional, physical or mental condition. In addition, the social, economic environmental and cultural factors are considered (Zenker 2011). In the quantitative consideration, the emphasis that I have been able to find identified is on the actual value that is gained which is measured especially in financial terms (Lasaosa, Stevens & Tong 2010). When I consider the issues of environmental and social sustainability in general, I think it is a concept that is broad enough to be highly considered in wide range professions. I am for the idea that the various projects that are financed ought to highly regard social and environmental sustainability. Some of the covered areas in these aspects includes respecting the right of the affected workers and the communities. It is clear to me that there ought to be a design and operation that is in compliance with the applicable regulatory requirements and also good international practices. When I was working with the media in the marketing department, the issue of sustainability was brought up clearly to me through an experience that I had provoking a need for further consideration in me. In my department, I needed to engage in a lot of strategies to ensure that there is a competitive awareness of my station to the people so as to gain a comparative advantage. The methods of bringing awareness that my department involved in were very dynamic. These sometimes were not well standardized to address issues of sustainability. Some of the awareness functions that we held were explaining brands or issues within particular age limits due to their sensitivity. However, a keen measure was not been undertaken to ensure this is observed. The reason why I put this across in this case is that social sustainability will require a good consideration on the current and future generations as to create a healthy community. When I further the experience in the awareness functions, I am clearly able to identify the need for environmental sustainability considerations. Issues like noise pollution management and litter management scheme needed more attention. The natural settings where we sometimes held these events needed better car. There are more responsible decisions that will I see needing to be aligned in such a way as to reduce negative impact to the environment. I don’t agree with the concept of environmental and social sustainability being not a core consideration of professions. I have observed that sustainability issues are receiving a lot of attention in different governmental departments and the media as well. A lot of positive research is also being done that assesses the impact of the human activities in consideration to social and environmental impacts. Following these observations I affirm the need to have the professions move firmly in the direction of having their activities integrated with sustainability issues. I consider firms that have not been able to incorporate the factor of environmental and social sustainability as having neglected its duty whether deliberately or out of sheer ignorance. Cultural understanding and global professionalism Having been involved in marketing, I have been able to observe a need for professions to have a wide understanding of the culture under which they operate in. However, I can boldly assert that there are some professions that require more cultural understanding for efficiency than others. If I take the case of a specialized doctor as an example, the doctor is able to administer a surgery on any patient as long as they are properly diagnosed. The reason for my argument here follows a thought that the physiology of the human body is basically the same in its operation without significant difference attached to the cultural differences. Taking an example of marketing, I see a need for more of cultural understanding and especially if the target market is global. There are significant differences that are associated with different cultures and for any marketer to hope to compete favorably; they must strategically be set (Gardner 2012). When I consider the wine industry for an example, there have been recent developments in the industry that are largely attributed to the cultural positioning. In this case study I realized that the wine production and exportation, for a long time, have been dominated by what is called the traditional producers mostly from the European region. Following, the recent statistics I have been able to identify a great scope of reasonable change in this industry with new producers and exporters doing better. An example that I can consider here is Australia and South Africa as new winery regions. I have observed that Australia has been able to conquer the mainstream consumer market. The Australian wine exports were negligible in the 1960s and by the end of 2005 they had reached 10% of the global wine exports (Anderson & Nelgen 2011). When I was researching about these trends, I was able to identify some key associated factors. Doubtless, the openness of the global economy is a major factor. However, for this to be a significant factor it has to be linked to the cultural factor associated with the wine consumption. I reach to this conclusion on the basis that the perspective of the consumption of wine is a variant factor especially with the culture in view. Some cultures will totally prohibit or encourage the wine consumption while others vary in the attached significance. I can therefore comfortably say that the knowledge of the cultural backgrounds or settings is a key factor to success especially when some professions are considered. If I take this argument to the experience I have had in the marketing sector, I can be able to further support my argument. When I was selling a brand name for a chocolate variant, I noticed that the packaging was preferred by a culture from one region than from another. I followed this up to know the reason. I found out that the people of that region associated that packaging system with that of a pack of medicine. This was the prevailing notion and the knowledge that I gained helped us advocate for a change in the packaging for there to be significant sales achieved. I can therefore comfortably conclude that if a professional is able to identify and strategically make use of the cultural diversities that are in existence, he/she stand a better chance to compete globally. I see that there are many available opportunities available majorly for them that take their time to invest in having a wider view of the culture. This will enhance an integrated competitive system globally. References Anderson, K, & Nelgen, S 2011 Global wine markets, 1961 to 2009: a statistical compendium University of Adelaide Press. Williams, B 2011 Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy Taylor & Francis. Zenker, S 2011 How to catch a city? The concept and measurement of place brands Journal of Place Management and Development, 41, 40-52. Lasaosa, A, Stevens, I, & Tong, M 2010 The financial market impact of quantitative easing. Gardner, J N 2012 Assessment and learning J Gardner Ed Sage. Read More