Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper

Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper

As defined by Webster's 1913 Dictionary, "Ethics is a particular system of principles and rules concerting duty, whether true or false; rules of practice in respect to a single class of human actions". Ethics are standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves.

On the other hand, the word value has many meanings and may be used in different senses. Because value is usually a relative term, its true meaning must be determined by the context in which it appears. In this paper value is a principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable. Each individual, organization, and society has its own values.

Personal Values

Each person or individual had a core of underlying values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas, and opinions. Integrity in the application of a value ensures its continuity and this continuity separates a value from beliefs, opinion and ideas. Also each person has their own unique values that draw the guidelines of there character. Personal values can be partially adapted and it could be influential. There are several sources of an individual's values they are religion, tradition, culture, surrounding environment or organization, and most important how this individual was raised.

Organizational Values

What is an organization? In my opinion and organization is the surrounding environment of a person, either on personal and family bases or on professional and business bases. Organizational values are those we adapt from our personal and professional instant contact. One could also be influential in an organization by letting other individuals adapt her or his values.

For most organizations, values statements are simply rhetoric that sits on a fancy plaque on the wall. Your real values are seen in the halls, not on the walls. High performing organizations are clear about their values and about what they translate into in day-to-day behavior. They use their values strategically, to guide every decision and action (Tangri, 2003).

Cultural Values

Cultural values are the laws we abide by, it is what we were taught from a very early age. These values are determined by our religions, nationality, and historical background. They are passed from one generation to another; but each period adds its own. The dynamic and interaction between individual values are as important as the values themselves. Values influence choices and provide framework for life goals (Nonis, 2001). Societies have values that are shared among many of the participants in that culture. Individual's values typically are largely but not entirely in agreement with their culture's values.

Ethical Dilemmas

As defined by Wikipedia, an ethical dilemma is a situation that often involves an apparent conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another. Many dilemmas arise because of a certain kind of conflict between the rightness and the wrongness of the actions and the goodness and the badness of the consequence of the action (Mortimer, 1988). In my opinion, ethical dilemma occurs between us