Personal and Organizational Ethics - Case Study Example

Personal and Organizational Ethics Imagine living your life like an animal which has no thoughts, values or even morality. Co-existence with other human beings would be a real problem. Each person has values, morals and code of ethics to live by in order to attain ones goals, dreams and ambitions. If one analyzes the most successful people in the world, they all had values that they really upheld which brought them to that top place. A value is a conviction, a duty, or a philosophy that is of significance. Either one is consciously alert of them or not, every individual has a core set of individual values. Values can range from the ordinary places, such as the belief in hard work and punctuality, to the more psychological, such as self-reliance, concern for others, and harmony of purpose (Velasquez, 2002). Every human being has personal values that they uphold and maintain as they grow up. These values are quite important in the life cycle of human beings as they define who we grow up to become and they define our future. They also help us develop a relationship with the people around us and in our places of work. The values that we uphold define our character and other people’s perception of who we are. I uphold various personal values which I believed have shaped me to be the person I am today. To start with, respect is my number one value. I believe one need to respect others to be respected. Respect begins with oneself, if you show no respect to yourself, no one will respect you. Secondly, I uphold the value of truthfulness/ honesty. The wise men said that honesty is the best policy and I totally agree with them. I believe if one is truthful and honest in their endeavors, they will always succeed in life. Integrity is another value I maintain, people with integrity are people who are respected in the society. They are people who are focused in life with a huge desire in success. I also believe in hard work which is the root of all the best things in life. I also uphold self-reliance and self thinking which form strong driving forces towards attaining my goals. Other values I uphold include selflessness, justice, creativity, discipline, team work, tolerance, trust, kindness, goodness, humility and many others. Every one of us is aggravated to move our lives in certain guidelines. That motivation is determined by the values we pledge to. Our values are thus the creations and ideas of the thought, the distinct formulations of understanding that express what we perceive to be important truths about life. These ideals are then toughened by our feelings and emotions, which turn those mental perception into a vital passion that we hope to realize in our lives. Whether we essentially make the effort to apply them is another matter. Without values we would be just mechanical beings, driven here and there by the pains and pleasures of life. Moreover, without values, we would be animal-like, bound to action only by our urges and passions. In this heartless existence, there would be slight deliberation for truths we hold dear, let alone implement them to ennoble and enrich our lives. In this realism devoid of principles, we would live lifeless lives, without meaning or purpose. Nevertheless, when we take to values, we live a determined and dynamic existence. Accomplishment of my goals, dreams and ambitions by working hard and upholding my values has empowered my co workers while proving my competence and expertise to my organization by achieving the best results at my department and this forms my vision statement. It clearly states my vision, what I have planned to do with my life for the benefit of my society and myself too. My mission statement is to achieve maximum profit from the organization under the assistance of my dedicated workers and help change the society. The vision statement of the origination would be to use the available resource for maximum productivity and hence maximum profitability. The mission statement of the organization is to be a worldwide recognized multi platinum company and through the use of available recourses, capital, personnel’s skills and knowledge for maximum achievements, productivity and profitability to bring a change in the economic gap in the world. Different work places or organizations have different values, culture they uphold, vision, mission statement and code of ethics. The values, culture and code of ethics are all interrelated and they work together for easy running of the organization. All working places and organization have values which help in running the organization affairs effectively. Organization values go hand in hand with personal values; the extent to which one is honest in their life is proportional to the honesty they uphold in the organization (Velasquez, 2002). My organization values include handwork which is essential for maximum productivity, respect between employees which enhances a favorable working environment for all the workers. Self motivation is another highly valued value in the organization, this enhances creativity; another value upheld in every organization, working without supervision and also leaves room for generating new ideas for the good of the company. Customer satisfaction is another very important value held high in our organization. The customer is our main target and their satisfaction is what we always try to achieve. To add to that, self discipline is another major value upheld by the organization, everyone is required to be highly disciplined and observe high morals in the working environment. Communication between the members in the organization is another very important value to hold onto, it helps in transfer of information from one source to the other in the organization and hence it must be observed to enhance efficiency of message delivery. Moreover, cooperation and coordination are other values in my organization which have to be observed at all times; they contribute to high presentation and output in the organization. Accomplishment is another great value to observe in the organization, they represent the achievements one has acquired at their term of service. Without success, an organization cannot run properly and hence it must be observed to help in growth. Other values held up high in my organization include accountability, accuracy, adventure, calm, peace challenge change, collaboration, cleanliness, orderliness, commitment, competence, competition concern for others, connection, continuous improvement, decisiveness, discovery, diversity, efficiency and finally equality among all the workers. No one is perceived as superior or inferior in relation to gender, race or religion (Velasquez, 2002). Organizational culture is the place of work environment invented from the interaction of the employees in the workplace. Organizational culture can be explained by all of the life, upbringing, experiences, education, strong points, and weak points of the employees. While managerial leaders play a big role in defining organizational culture by their actions and leadership, all employees add to it (Donaldson, 2001). Culture is like personality in many ways, for instance, the personality is composed of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, experiences, interests, upbringing, and habits that create a person’s behavior. More so culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the conduct that results when a crowd arrives at a set of rules for working together. An organization’s culture is composed of all of the life occurrences each employee comes with into the organization. Culture is especially predisposed by the organization’s executives, founder and other management staff because of their role in judgment making and strategic direction. Our organizational culture is maintained by having occasional dinners, having activities that bring the employees together. The organization also has special days that are commemorated each to remind the workers of the history of the organization and where it is headed. Social responsibility is an ideology that determines whether an organization has a responsibility for the society at whole. My organization has a responsibility to uphold the moral standards in the society and it does this by having role models for the young generation by outdoing ourselves in our work, being involved in society matters like cleaning the environment, providing to the needy in society, visiting the sick in hospitals and giving them moral support, helping the less fortunate in the society like the crippled, blind, deaf and people with other sorts of disabilities. It is also involved in educating the people of major environment hazards and offering a hand to help incase a tragedy strikes. Moreover, being part of charitable affairs in the society like helping the orphans and widows also plays a major role in social responsibility. By doing all this, it shows that my organization has a social responsibility and hence it is part of the society it thrives in (Velasquez, 2002). Codes of ethics are printed guidelines issued by an organization to its workers and management, to help them carry out their actions in agreement with its key principles and ethical standards. The code of conduct guides the workers in an organization on how to behave, how to make decisions and they also stipulate the importance of the organization (Donaldson, 2001). Some of the rules stipulated in our code of conduct book are: Punctuality must be observed to avoid reduction in the salary; all the workers must respect one another at all times: all members are equal and hence issues of discrimination will be dealt with sternly; corruption and bribery is a crime punishable by legal law; carrying our illegal transactions or other transactions without the knowledge of the management is a crime punishable by law; organizations’ secrets are not the be shared with other people outside the organization; workers should not jeopardize the organization for personal gains or benefit. Some of the moral philosophies in the organization include relativism and idealism. Relativist will be handled and is not welcome in the organization as they bring conflicts and other social injustices (Velasquez, 2006). Moreover, idealism is highly discouraged as it puts the organization in more danger of conflicts and lowers productivity. Ethical principles addressed in the organization would include, gender discrimination, sexual harassments, leadership issues, meet obligations, being trustful and many more are some of the ethical principles really upheld in my organization. As the manager, I would not acknowledge any of the philosophies above, idealism and relativisms as they cost the organization credibility and productivity is lowered. The company’s ethical analysis and training program are very crucial in determining the recruits the organization is looking for. In ethical analysis one is given the code of ethic and code of conduct handouts to go through and see whether they will be in a position to follow them. If they accept, they sign a contract that binds them with the organization and incase they commit a felony, the contract is retrieved and they might be sued for an offence committed against the company. There are different training programs, for example, a recruit is assigned a worker who helps them to learn as they continue working. Any question they have is directed to the person they are assigned to. Another way of training is by having students come for attachment and internship and that is how they learn through practical and theory part. Throughout the course I have come to learn that an organization requires not only leaders to be effective and productive but also values, morals, code of conduct, code of ethics and an upheld culture to enhance productivity. If I were a manager my organization would have very well designed code of ethics, morals, values, culture, and vision and mission statement. When all of these are very clearly laid out and known to all the members of the organization, running the organization becomes quite easy and enjoyable (Velasquez, 2006). Organizations with all the above clearly laid out rarely have big problems in management. To implement these changes, I have ordered each worker in the organization to get a copy of the code of ethics, know the vision and mission statement, and uphold their values and also having coffee meetings to help boost the image of the organization worldwide. To motivate the workers I have come up with awards for the different departments in the organization, for example the best dressed, most hardworking, the employee of the month and other awards to help motivate the workers on how they carry themselves in the organization. This also includes the way they behave, communicate, work and present themselves in the working environment. In conclusion, I would like to state that values, morals, culture, codes of conduct, vision statements, mission statement, philosophies and ethical principles are necessary for any person and also for organizations. They help in attaining and realizing our dreams in person or in an organization. They are the required ingredients to healthy living and co-existence among people and also among organizations. References Richardson, J. E. (2001). Business ethics 01/02. 13th ed, Dushkin /McGraw-Hill. pp. 140-147. Velasquez, M. (2002). Business ethics: Concepts and cases. 5th ed. Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Velasquez, M. (2006). Business ethics: Concepts and cases. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Read More