Personal Values and Ethics, Organizations Social Responsibilities - Coursework Example

Values and Ethics Values and ethics denote certain objects or actions to which a person or an organization attaches high importance. Values and ethics play a significantly important part in consistent growth of an organization. If the values and ethics of an organization are not defined, the organization may face a number of challenges. In order to be able to have a consistent organizational culture, an organization must have a defined mission statement and the values and ethics of the organization should conform to the mission statement of the organization (McDaniel, 2004). Personal Values and Ethics My personal mission statement is: to achieve a successful career as an ‘Emergency Medical Technician’ by following my personal ethical values and the professional ethics observed in the organization and the profession as a whole. It is apparent from my mission statement that I seek to pursue a successful career on the basis of my ethical values. I attach significant importance to the ethical values as they form the foundation for a successful career or a successful organization. Along with following my own ethical values through my career, I would also follow the ethical values observed in the profession as a whole and in the organization that I would be a part of. Ethical values hold a very important role in the success of an organization therefore in my career I would opt for organizations that hold strong ethical values and the ethical values that are appropriate in conformity with the overall profession. My personal ethical values that would guide me as a future manager include; professional behavior, objectivity, integrity, accountability, innovativeness, cooperation, encouragement, fairness, equality, and confidentiality. Professional behavior would help me put my best efforts in my career by working sincerely. Professional behavior would also help me conduct the tasks in my professional capacity in a better way. Objectivity means having an unprejudiced opinion and not being biased while making a professional decision. As a manager, objectivity would help me make decisions that are best for the organization as a whole and I would not be influenced by any factors that may impair my objectivity. Integrity would help me conduct my job without any immoral or fraudulent acts. Accountability means being responsible for all the acts conducted in the professional capacity. Due to accountability, I would be responsible for my acts as a manager. Because of being responsible, I would try to conduct my tasks in the best way possible. Therefore, accountability may also act as a motivating factor to conduct my job in the best manner possible. Nowadays, one of the most important factors for the success of organizations is innovativeness. This factor has become one of the most important means for the organizations to operate efficiently and to attract attention from the industry. By being innovative in my work, I would be able to do my tasks in an efficient way and the continuous innovation would ensure the continuous growth of my organization and my own personal experience. As a manager, innovativeness would help me keep a dynamic environment in the organization. Innovativeness would also have an impact on the overall culture of the organization and this would make the organization stable in the overall industry. Another factor that I believe may bring effectiveness to the operations of an organization is cooperation. Due to cooperation, there would be increased team work in the organization and the output of the organization would be better. It is also a known fact that the output of a team working together is greater than the sum of outputs of the individuals. Therefore, cooperation is one of my ethical values and I believe that it would help me in conducting my duties as a future manager very efficiently. Encouragement is also very important for the motivation of the employees of an organization. An organization must have policies and procedures that ensure that the due credit is given to the employees for their hard work. Such policies and procedures may include appraisals and the rewards in accordance with the performance appraisals. As a manager, encouragement of the subordinates helps in motivating the subordinates and it results in the increase of their organizational commitment. Similarly fairness in decision making is also very important. The perspectives of the subordinates and other staff of the organization should not be overlooked and decisions should be made fairly by the managers. For the success of an organization and an individual, equality is significantly important too. An organization or an individual should not give preferential treatment to anyone and everyone must be treated equally. All the employees and all the external people who come in contact with the organization must be treated without any bias or prejudice. This is one of the most important factors for the success of one’s career therefore I have included it in my personal ethical values. In the profession of EMT, there may be instances where a professional may become aware of certain confidential information regarding the patients. In this scenario, it is the ethical duty of the professional to observe confidentiality. Confidentiality is one of the most important ethical values in this profession. Even as a manager, an individual must ensure that he does not give out any confidential information regarding any person even in casual conversations. Such ethical requirements regarding confidentiality may only be surpassed when there is express consent by the patient or when it is required in legal proceedings. Organization’s Values and Ethics The organization I was a part of had an organizational culture that represented the underlying ethical values of the organization. The ethical values of the organization were embedded with the culture in such a way that the employees of the organization did not find it hard to observe all the ethical values of the organization in their day to day operations. The workplace values included; real time facilitation of the patients without any bias or prejudice, observation of the confidentiality of information disclosed by the patients, consultation on difficult or contentious matters, fairness in decision making, encouragement of the employees on good performance and cooperation between the staff of the organization. The mission statement of the organization was; to provide the highest quality of services and ensuring the continuous growth. It is apparent from the mission statement of the organization that the organization attached high importance to the services provided to the patients therefore the overall ethical values of the organization were based around the provision of quality services to the patients. It is also a known fact that an organization cannot acquire success and growth unless it follows certain underlying ethical values consistently therefore in order to implement on its mission statement, the strategic core of the organization created such a culture that ultimately directed towards the growth of the organization. The ethical values of an organization are effective only when they are followed by the strategic core of the organization itself therefore in order to ensure that the underlying ethical values of the organization are followed by the rest of the staff, the strategic core implemented on the ethical values on a regular basis. The strategic core of the organization did not preferential treatment to any employee and everyone was treated equally. The employees did not feel ignored and everyone was approached for their opinion in the process of decision making, especially for the decisions that directly affected the employees. It was also ensured by the strategic core of the organization that the services provided are of high quality and the patients are not disappointed due to any cause. In order to encourage the employees and to reward them for their work, the management conducted periodic performance appraisals. The performance appraisal also included a review regarding whether the employees have observed the ethical values of the organization. The managers reviewed the performance of the employees under their spans and determined whether the employees have performed well. In order to facilitate the performance appraisal, the employees are given a chance to determine their goals at the start of the appraisal period and at the end of the appraisal period, the managers determine whether the employees were successful in achieving their goals. The managers also commented on the extent to which they were successful. The employees are rewarded with recognition throughout the organization and they are promoted in accordance with their performance. The organization also offers monetary rewards in order to motivate the staff for better performance. As a result, the employees of the organization performed well and they tried so hard to achieve the goals that they set for themselves. Since the performance appraisal also takes the observation of the ethical values into account, the employees also try their best to comply with the ethical values of the organization. In this manner, the strategic core of the organization ensures that all the ethical values of the organization are properly followed by the employees of the organization and the organization remains in conformity with its mission statement. Organization’s Social Responsibilities Since the organization was related to the medical profession and the provision of services included direct contact with the society, it had a number of social responsibilities. One of the biggest social responsibilities of the organization was to provide high quality medical services at reasonable cost to all the individuals equally. The medical services are not affordable for everyone and at the same time these services are needed by everyone at one time or another. Therefore it was the social responsibility of the organization to ensure that the medical services are provided to the patients at reasonable costs. The factors that add to the high costs are administrative costs and the costs of depreciation of equipment. It is sometimes hard for the medical organizations to bring the final cost at an acceptably low level but with sufficient planning and budgeting, this goal can be achieved. It was also the responsibility of the organization to bring the overall cost of its operations at an acceptably low level. Another social responsibility of all the medical organizations including this specific organization is the provision of equal quality of services to every individual regardless of the ethnicity or race of the individual. This is one of the most significant problems observed in the medical organizations therefore this is also a significantly important social responsibility of the organization. The organization tried its best to meet its social responsibilities and it was successful to a significant extent. In regard to the responsibility regarding providing high quality medical services at an affordable cost, the organization provided rebates to deserving patients and if the management felt like the patient needs medical care but is unable to bear the expenses, extensive relaxations to the costs were made in such cases. With regard to the responsibility regarding equal treatment of all the patients, the organizations took strict notice of any instances of unequal treatment by the staff of the organization. The organization ensured that all the patients are treated equally and no one is prejudiced against. Any instances of bias that came to the attention of the management of the organization were looked into and disciplinary action was taken against the personnel who were involved in biased treatment of the patients. Thus, it can be said that the organization fulfilled its social responsibilities. Organization’s Ethical Analysis There are a number of ethical values that were observed in the organization and I affirm with almost all of them. The ethical values that I respected the most were regarding the equal treatment of all the employees and the patients notwithstanding the ethnic origin of the individuals and regarding the encouragement of the employees for their work. For instance, one of the employees observed all the ethical values of the organization regularly and attained all of his goals to a significant extent he was promoted and given monetary reward for his performance after his performance appraisal. In view of all the judgments I made regarding the ethical values and culture of the organization, it can be inferred that there is not much that would require any changes. What I observed was a little lack of innovation in the organization therefore if I were given an opportunity to become the leader of the organization I would add the factor of innovation to the list of values of the organization. Innovation is highly important for the survival of any organization and if an organization does not have a flexible environment that changes in accordance with the external environment, the organization may face crises. The change procedure that would be followed in the organization would be progressive. The change would not be imposed upon the employees in one instant but it would be implemented upon gradually. Initially, the change would be communicated to the employees so that they have an idea regarding the direction in which the organization is headed. Afterwards, procedures would be initiated in conformity with the change, such as inclusion of the appraisal regarding the innovative behavior. Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that ethical values are highly important for any organization to survive in an industry. Without any specific set of ethical values, an organization may not grow because it would lack any specific direction in which it is supposed to head. Thus, defined set of ethical values are highly important for every organization. References McDaniel, C. (2004). Organizational Ethics: Research and Ethical Environments. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company. Read More