Professional Values and Ethics
Even though unethical people can further his or her career by bending rules and taking shortcuts, ethics need to be part of every person’s professional toolkit to be successful because ethical people create trust and loyalty and ethical people follow laws and regulations, which allow a strong foundation for any business. How often do people turn on the news and hear about another scandal taking place in major corporations. Too often the next thing that happens is that corporation goes under because the public has no reason to trust them. People with ethics and values make a company successful but also keep a company successful. What are values and ethics and why do they benefit people and their professional lives?
Define Values and Ethics
The authors shall provide an accurate definition to understand what values and ethics are. The Oxford English Dictionary (2010) defines the noun values as
The relative status of a thing, or the estimate in which it is held, according to its real or supposed worth, usefulness, or importance. In Philos. and Social Sciences, regarded esp. in relation to an individual or group; gen. in pl., the principles or standards of a person or society, the personal or societal [judgment] of what is valuable and important in life.
The definition of values is so broad that the co-authors should provide a narrower definition. The writer Robert B. Perry’s book General Theory of Value, discusses the science behind the philosophy of values or axiology (Encyclopedia Britannica online, 2010). In his book, Perry states that values are divided into eight categories: “morality, religion, art, science, economics, politics, law, and custom” (2010). In the professional arena most would consider basic values to consist of honesty, integrity, loyalty, and hard work, to name a few; of course there are too many to list here. Values are important because each provides a moral compass, especially when hard decisions...