Personal Values Development Paper - Essay Example

Introduction The choices I have made during my life regarding who and what would influence the development of my personal values, ground rules and general ethics have been at least as important as the resulting principles themselves. My values, including my prioritization of family, work and other responsibilities, my guidelines for my treatment of others, my principles for handling ethical dilemmas, and my overall life philosophy, have all been heavily influenced by various people, institutions and events in my life. The importance of making the right decisions about association is tremendous. Many of us received childhood warnings from our parents about being careful to avoid getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. While we may have shrugged off these admonitions as typical parental over-protectiveness, they were really on to something. Our values have been shaped largely by these kinds of choices, and we are surprisingly dependent on the people and events in our lives for our moral compass. Like anything else, we learn right from wrong largely by observing how others behave and react within certain situations, and the repercussions of those reactions. That is not to discount the effect of trial and error. To be sure, the extent to which our personal ethical guidelines are relaxed or stringent, well-defined or vague, is also the result of the repercussions we have incurred due to the choices we have made in our lives. Our value systems are largely the product of a confluence of the countless times we have gotten burned or been rewarded, or seen others get burned or rewarded, based on our actions. However, learning by example is much easier and less risky than learning by trial and error. While this learning is likely to be revised over time as it adapted within one’s workplace and elsewhere based on certain criteria and decision making factors, it remains the single most important basis and foundation for my ethical standards. Influential People Among the people who have most heavily influenced my value system are my spouse, my siblings, my parents, and my friends. These people, each with their own concrete values, have set examples for me, have taught me, and have helped me to assess the moral impact of the choices I have made in my life. Without these people in my life, I would very likely be a far different person from the one I am today, for better or worse. My spouse is first and foremost among the people in my life who impact the current development of my values. In her various roles as a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, and a friend, she has taught me the importance of being there for others, of self sacrifice, and of standing up for what is right, even when doing so is associated with unpleasant repercussions. Spending most of my adult life with her, she has been privy to my most personal struggles and challenges and has been instrumental in keeping my moral track in line. While she does not always agree with the ethical decisions I make, she helps me to think through those decisions and as long as she can understand why I am making them, she has been very supportive. My parents have been the most influential in terms of my early ethical foundations. My mother taught me the importance of family and sacrifice, always being the one to honor tradition and make sure the each member of the family understood and respected the others. She encouraged me to spread my wings and realize my potential. My father taught me the values of being respectful of others and the importance of forgiveness. My distaste for grudges traces directly back to my father, who lived his life based on the notion that life is too short to spend resenting others. He passed that value on to me. In addition, he also taught me the importance of taking pride in on one’s property and one’s appearance. My siblings have each influenced my value system in their own way. They all have ethical strengths and weaknesses from which I have learned, including the value of hard work, the importance of choosing good friends, what it means to be a good parent, and taking responsibility for one’s actions. While I am closer to some of my siblings than to others, I am grateful to each of them for contributing to my ethical foundations and developments even to this day. They are perhaps the only people in my life who influenced me ethically from the very beginning of my life and continue to influence me as much as always. Finally, my friends have played a significant role in influencing the development of my value system. In particular, my best friend of over 20 years has taught me as much about ethics and values as anyone. He did this not only by setting a sound example based on his own strong value system, but also through observation of the negative effects of his own foibles. Hi has also been one of my closest advisors over the years, a confidant with whom I could share many of my most private ethical struggles, and who would invariably provide me with sound advice. Influential Events and Institutions There have been many experiences in my life that have been formative from a moral standpoint, and have helped me develop my current value system. These include some altercations I have had as well as some opportunities I have been given to test my ethical metal. Many of the disagreements I have had over the years have taught me a great deal about who I am from a values perspective. When I have had these disagreements, I am very committed to smoothing over the situation as quickly as possible. I do not like to hold grudges, and I am often willing to forgive and move on so that my life does not become weighed down and defined by these kinds of negative events. I also strongly believe that it shows respect to others when you are willing to bury the hatchet. I learned this from my father. My professional life has also presented me with many opportunities to develop my ethical standards and guidelines and test my values. Dealing with situations that arise in a large for-profit corporation certainly offers a distinct environment in which some unique ethical dilemmas arise. This involves acting in the interest of the company versus customers, doing right by employees, and making sure to avoid situations that could give rise to the appearance of impropriety. These kinds of things have enabled me to hone my values in a more specialized atmosphere, and to observe others whom I might not otherwise have the opportunity to see handling these types of issues. Among the institutions that have influenced my values, the Church is certainly at the top of the list. While I have been disillusioned recently with the ethical shortcomings of the Church, I view the people who run it rather than the principles of the Church as being the problem. Church teaching has provided me with a foundation in Christian ethics that teaches forgiveness, charity, grace and humility. School has been another institution that has contributed to the development of my values. Various teachers I have had during my many years of schooling, from elementary education through an advanced degree program, have taught me the benefits of being honest in one’s work, stretching myself to realize my full potential, and the importance of combating ignorance. Impact in Workplace My values have impacted my performance in my workplace. They have, at times, led me to sacrifice individual rewards and benefits in exchange for doing the right thing. For example, there have been times when I could have benefited financially from holding a customer to a bad deal or trying to sell a customer on something they really did not need. My values have enabled me to feel good about sacrificing those personal gains in order to do right by others. My attitude has generally been a short term versus a long term view. In other words, often the long term cost of a short term gain makes it clearly a bad move. That cost could manifest itself as a diminished self respect, harmed reputation, or even a more concrete sacrifice of business goodwill that could have resulted in a far larger gain or monetary reward down the road. Certainly, these considerations have been influenced by the people, events and institutions that have informed my ethical guidelines and value system throughout my life. Read More