Professional Values and Ethics

1208 Words5 Pages
Professional Values and Ethics Abstract Every individual follows a set of ethics and values throughout their lives. Individuals form these ethics and values through many aspects, including family upbringing, religion, and education. These ethics and values can directly impact career success. Acting as a person’s moral compass, his or her ethics and values will determine what kinds of choices they make in a professional environment. Will they cheat, lie, steal, or be honest? These questions are answered by an individual’s ethics and values. Professional Values and Ethics Values and ethics can relate directly to career success. People make value-based decisions daily that affect the outcome of their quality-of-life. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (9th Ed.) defines values as: “7. (in pl) one’s principles or standards; one’s judgement of what is valuable or important in life.” (Thompson, 1995, pg. 1549) Therefore, people make value judgements daily. They subjectively estimate the quality of family, friends, and coworkers. Some are highly valued whereas others are not valued at all. These value judgements are based on an individual’s ethics. Oxford defines ethic as: “n. a set of moral principles (the Quaker Ethic). adj. = ETHICAL.” (Thompson, 1995) Ethical is defined as: “adj. 1 relating to morals, esp. as concerning human conduct. 2 morally correct; honourable.” (Thompson, 1995, pg. 463) Therefore, people use their ethics and individual moral code of conduct to establish his or her daily values. These would include whom they trust and if they will cheat to move ahead in school, work, and life. Sources of Professional Values and Ethics Professional values and ethics are built from within us from birth. Family values, personal integrity, and academic ethics all play roles in how we handle

More about Professional Values and Ethics

Open Document