Professional Values and Ethics

Professional Values and Ethics

GEN 200

February 1, 2010

Professional Values and Ethics

This paper will focus on values and ethics and their relationship among career success. Values and Ethics will be defined and described how they differ. Values and ethics are important in one's personal and professional lives and are vital to any organization, team or group. Values and can be instilled from many different sources whether it is from parents, religion, school, etc. Professional ethics can be outlined by the employer, professional organization, or association on how their staff or colleagues should conduct themselves.

The (2010) website Dictionary.com defines values as relative worth, merit, or importance The same source defines ethics as the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc (2010). A Department of the Army pamphlet entitled Values: The Bedrock of Our Profession discusses 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." Ethics is behavior in a way that is consistent with what is generally considered to be right. Most of an individual's ethical development occurs before entering an organization. The impact or pressure of family, community functions, and school will determine individual values.

Values and ethics are apparent every day in a professional setting. The mere act of showing up for work is an example of using both ethics and values. If a person possesses a strong sense of work ethics, they will go to work every day. When a person decides to or decides against doing a job or task with integrity, they are exercising ethics and values.

Many different professional organizations have their own code of ethics, which are to be followed. For example, accountants, doctors, and lawyers must abide by the code of ethics defined in by their highest-ranking peers. If the code of ethics are not followed and they are found guilty, they can be permanently banned from practicing their profession. When the code of ethics are followed, it can impact their success in a positive way leading to a higher position in their profession.

A professional example of exercising both values and ethics is in the insurance industry. All insurance salespeople must be licensed by the state in which they sell insurance products. With the license comes a fiduciary duty. This is the duty that is trusted with all licensed professionals to abide by, inform, and instruct clients correctly and do business in an ethical manner at all times. Essentially, the licensed professional is trusted to do business to the client's benefit, never to benefit themselves. There are many situations in which this fiduciary duty can be violated. If a client is not aware of certain laws or language in a contract, it is the duty of an agent to explain that language thoroughly so that the client is well informed. Another example is a client trusts an agent with funds in cash or from an account, and the agent does not follow through with the client request or keeps the money for him or herself. When either of these situations happens, the agent is in violation of his or her fiduciary duty.

Another example of exercising values and ethics as service professionals, are the laws in place to protect the public. There are many times when a service professional interacts with other professions on a daily basis. For example, when a client applies for life insurance, there must be a thorough check done of their medical background. In this scenario, there are two service professionals working for one client; the insurance agent and the medical professional. Both must keep the client's best interest as well as privacy in mind. Medical records are secured by The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information; the HIPAA Security Rule, which sets national standards for the security of electronic protected health information; and the confidentiality provisions of the Patient Safety Rule, which protect identifiable information being used