Professional Values and Ethics Paper Resource
- Submitted by: Deathknight1995
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- Date Submitted: 05/11/2010 03:23 PM
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Values are the basis for every culture. They guide behavior. They answer the question of why people do the things they do. Values decide for people what is good, important, pretty, useful, appropriate, ect. Values can be positive and negative, some are even destructive.
Values can be defined as those things that are important to or valued by someone. That someone can be an individual or an organization. One example consists of an organization's core values in the case of the United States Air Force, “integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do”, were deemed important enough to be included in Air Force basic training. When values are shared by all members of an organization, they are extraordinarily important tools for making judgments, assessing probable outcomes of contemplated actions, and choosing among alternatives. Perhaps more important, they put all members "on the same sheet of music" with regard to what all members as a body consider important.
A Department of the Army pamphlet entitled Values: the Bedrock of Our Profession spent some time talking about the importance of values, and included this definition:
Values are what we, as a profession, judge to be right. They are more than words-they are the moral, ethical, and professional attributes of character . . . there are certain core values that must be instilled in members of the U.S. Army-civilian and uniformed soldier alike. These are not the only values that should determine our character, but they are ones that are central to our profession and should guide our lives as we serve our Nation.
What do we mean by ethics? One of the keys is in the phrase quoted above from the DA pamphlet: "Values are what we, as a profession, judge to be right." Individually or organizationally, values determine what is right and what is wrong, and doing what is right or wrong is what we mean by ethics. To behave ethically is to behave in a manner consistent with what is right or moral....
Values can be defined as those things that are important to or valued by someone. That someone can be an individual or an organization. One example consists of an organization's core values in the case of the United States Air Force, “integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do”, were deemed important enough to be included in Air Force basic training. When values are shared by all members of an organization, they are extraordinarily important tools for making judgments, assessing probable outcomes of contemplated actions, and choosing among alternatives. Perhaps more important, they put all members "on the same sheet of music" with regard to what all members as a body consider important.
A Department of the Army pamphlet entitled Values: the Bedrock of Our Profession spent some time talking about the importance of values, and included this definition:
Values are what we, as a profession, judge to be right. They are more than words-they are the moral, ethical, and professional attributes of character . . . there are certain core values that must be instilled in members of the U.S. Army-civilian and uniformed soldier alike. These are not the only values that should determine our character, but they are ones that are central to our profession and should guide our lives as we serve our Nation.
What do we mean by ethics? One of the keys is in the phrase quoted above from the DA pamphlet: "Values are what we, as a profession, judge to be right." Individually or organizationally, values determine what is right and what is wrong, and doing what is right or wrong is what we mean by ethics. To behave ethically is to behave in a manner consistent with what is right or moral....