Personal Ethics Development Paper

Trevino and Nelson (2007), define ethics as “the principles, norms, and standards of conduct governing an individual or organization. ” I was influenced the way I determine different actions or behavior in a particular situation since I was a child. Growing up with a single Catholic mother made me value different things and behave in a particular way. In addition, this made me a have a particular ethical system that influences the way I work and act as an individual. At the corporation level, ethics is important because they set the rules and regulations.

In this paper, I will explain the developmental aspects of my ethics as well as my ethical system, the effects of my ethics at my workplace, and importance of ethics in an organization to achieve its goals. My ethical system was shaped since I was a child. Growing up with a catholic single mother, definitely influence the way I value the family. Also, some of my decisions are influenced by this catholic background, which I do not genuinely practice but follow to some extent. Other factors that shaped my ethics were my family, school, and personal events.

My family always corrected me whenever I did something that they consider wrong, which could be something simple as taking a flower from my neighbor’s garden. My family saw this little example as stealing, but as I child I saw this as taking the flower for my mother. School taught me what was legally wrong or right. I learn that some people simply don’t care too much about the actions and consequences of their actions and act impulsively. When making decisions, my ethical system influences they way I act because tend to be bias by what my mom, my family, school, or personal events taught me.

Time has taught me to value the importance of learning form other mistakes and advices. This had leaded me to draw conclusions from specific examples. For example, when considering any issue, I usually use inductive reasoning and go from the very specific problem to the general conclusion. At the workplace, my ethical system influences the way I behave and perform in a positive and negative way. Based on the nature of the work, my ethical system at the workplace tends to be a combination of duty-based and goal-based. Duty-based is an “a moral obligation or commitment to act in a certain manner. For example, I work for the United States Postal Service and I am commitment to my work, which includes several tasks determined by the Postal Service rules and regulations. If I fail with one of this laws or rules I could be on probation or lose my job. Therefore, it is important that I obey those rules. In addition, all this tends to be influenced by the actual goal of the company and my personal goal. The company goal is to complete my assigned tasks in a timely manner, which is to deliver the mail. My personal goal is to produce money to sustain my family and pay my expenses.

This personal goal drives me to be ethical and the do the right thing at my workplace because I do not want to put in jeopardy my job. This puts into play my personal family values. Therefore, my ethical system could be considered individualistic and very very competitive, which could impact my workplace in a negative way. On the other hand, this could turn out to be very positive because I am very reliable and undependable at work. Business ethics (2009) is defined as “moral principles defining how businesses and business professionals should act towards each other, employees, and the public. In other words, ethics are needed in an organization because they determine the company norms and principles for its employees and customers. To determine the company ethics its important because based on this, the company will be perceived nationally or internationally. Business ethics play such as important role today that the government forces companies to pay attention to corporate responsibility and business ethics. This norms, rules, and regulations also play an important role to achieve the company goals and direction.

The effects of the application of these ethics influence consumers, employers, other businesses, and the society in a positive way. In order words, not only this company teaches other companies what is the right thing to do, but it also acts as an example for individuals who work there or purchase their items or services. In conclusion, ethics are rules, norms or regulations that influence the way people or corporation act. These influences could be either positive or negative and there is shape early in our lives or at the early stages of a corporation.

In this paper, I explained that my personal ethics were shaped since I was a child. My ethics and values have changed based on personal events, religion, and family values. My ethical system influences the way I perform my job to achieve my personal goals. Based on these factors, ethics play an important role in corporations because companies are run by individuals who have their own ethical systems. In addition, ethics determine who the company is and how it is perceived in the society.