Business Ethics - Life Roles in Seven Areas - Assignment Example

Business Ethics Semester: Personal Mission ment: Before developing the personal mission ment, it is highly important to define your role in various phases of your life with different people in different settings. It is important to maintain a balance between your relations and your life (the role you are in). My Life Roles in Seven Areas: 1. Spiritual Well Being: How Would You Like To Be Described In this Role? My spiritual well being can be defined from the knowledge that I hold and my conscience that helps me to distinguish between the right and the wrong. This has helped me to become a person of principles and sane mind and soul who can benefit other fellow human beings without any benefit or personal-interest. 2. Mental Well Being: How Would You Like To Be Described in this Role? My mental well being represents the strong connection between my heart, my soul and my mind. Without maintaining a sound balance between my mental well being and my spiritual well being, I am unable to benefit and impart my knowledge to other fellow human beings. I cannot think of benefitting the people around me without a healthy mindset and positive thinking approach. 3. Physical Well Being: How Would You Like To Be Described in this Role? My physical well being helps me to fulfill my various roles and responsibilities. The well being of my physical health enables me to take care of the people around me and to fulfill my responsibilities in a more defined and active manner. 4. Relationships/Family: How Would You Like To Be Described in this Role? I am the kind of a person who cherishes relationships in life. To me, my family members and my loved ones are the most important people in my life, regardless of anything. I do not evaluate or judge them on the basis of their character or qualities they possess; in simple words, my world revolves around my family. I am very protective and concerned about their well being. 5. Education/Career: How Would You Like To Be Defined in this Role? I would prefer being described as a person, who makes the most out of his gained knowledge. I believe on spreading the information and the knowledge, and at the same time, I prefer being described as a person who is keen to gain any sort of knowledge or information from anywhere. Education enables a person to distinguish between the right and the wrong; it makes a person civilized and a productive element of the society. On the other hand, my career can describe my efforts of becoming the productive element of the society through the education I have gained and then using that education practically to attain my professional goals in life. 6. Finances/Stewardship: How Would You Like To Be Described In This Role? I prefer being described as a person who saves money for the rainy day. I am not a miser nor am I a person who spends lavishly. I prefer spending money only in need. I value every penny that I own because to me money is a hard earned thing. At the same time, I prefer helping the needy ones with the money I own. It gives me an inner satisfaction. I firmly believe that a time comes in a person’s life where he/she is bound to payback the society. Similarly, I feel some obligations of paying back to the society for all the bounties it has given me. 7. Service/Philanthropy: How Would You Like To Be Described In This Role? I would like to be described as the person who believes on paying back to the society for all that I have gained to the other people. I believe on benefiting the other people from all that I have and from all that I own. Personal Mission Worksheet: Who do I desire to become as an organizational leader? I desire to be someone who holds the qualities of being a perfect human being with character, principles, values, morality and knowledge. I want to become a productive part of the society who can benefit the people without any discrimination or biasness. What do I desire for the members of my organization? I believe in equality. I desire success and growth for myself and I desire the same for the members of my organization. I am a team player and therefore, I believe in giving the best support to my team members. When you work in an organization, I believe that you become and behave like a family and, no one feels jealous from his/her siblings. Similarly, team members are also like your family member and that is the main reason, whatever I wish for myself, I desire the same for them with my honest intentions. How would I like to serve as an agent of change in my professional role? I believe that your actions should be louder than your words. I prefer honesty of your words and actions. Honest intentions and words play a significant role in determining the role of a person in a society. People trust you on the basis of your honest intentions and actions. I believe in imparting the knowledge that I have gained over the period of time along with my experience to other people with honest intentions and actions. Personal Mission Statement: Draft Number One: “I believe on gaining education, knowledge and experience as important tools to achieve my goals of being a successful and a productive element of the society.” Draft Number Two: “I strive hard to achieve my goals through my skills, education, knowledge and experience with continuous improvement and struggle that leads me to the doors of success without compromising on quality of my services and professionalism.” Draft Number Three: “Commitment and Dedication are my key virtues. I firmly believe on giving the best quality services to the people around me with complete honesty, dedication and commitment from the skills, education, experience and knowledge that I hold.” Life Balance Goals: Personal Goal: I will be the best member of my family Professional Goal: I will be the best team player in my organization. Personal Goal: I will polish my knowledge and education further to benefit the society and the people around me. Professional Goal: I will use my education and knowledge in the success of my organization and for my professional growth. Personal Goal: I believe in servicing my community and giving back to the people around me who deserves the best. Professional Goal: I will give quality services to my organization which would help in the success of its employees and it would also help me in my professional grooming. Personal Goal: I will rectify my mistakes. Professional Goal: I will learn from my mistakes to gain professional experience and polish my skills. Personal/ Professional Mission Statement: “To gain success and to improve my services on the basis of my education, knowledge, skills and experience. My ultimate aim is to benefit my organization and my surroundings with honesty, dedication and sheer commitment.” Personal/Professional Life Balance Goals: -I will give my maximum time to my family members. -I will learn from my mistakes and I will not repeat them again. -I will share and spread my knowledge with the people around. - I will support and motivate my team players in all stages with complete honesty. - I will try to be a more groomed and a refined person. - I will put all my efforts in fulfilling my promise with my environment, society and my community. Personal Definitions: Ethics: Ethics can be defined as the set of moral values that shapes the personality and behavior of a person. Ethics play an important role in shaping the conscience of a human being which differentiates the various characteristics of a human from other humans. Ethics are the building blocks of a character in a person. “I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.” (Einstein). Leadership: Leadership is an art that motivates people to attain common goals or to accomplish the common tasks. The man who leads should possess some influential qualities to aspire people around him. Leadership unfolds the true characteristics and abilities of a leader who claims to be a role model for others. “The leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He is the person in the group that possesses the combination of personality and leadership skills that make others want to follow his direction.” (Ward). Character: Character of a person tell about the moral qualities that one posses. A character of a person is the combination of various attributes good or bad that shapes the personality of a person. It is the character of a person that distinguishes him from other fellow human beings. Moral values and ethics play an important role in shaping the character of a person. “A character is a disposition to express behavior in consistent patterns of functions across a range of situations.”(Pervin). Service: Service is benefiting the people around you in the similar way you want to benefit yourself and your loved ones. In other words, service is way through which you payback to your society and your community for everything they did to help you what you are today and in return, you help them to advance in a positive constructive way. “The definition of service is being useful and feeling good about helping people.” (DeVyre). Works cited: Einstein, A. Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas & Banesh Hoffman (1981) Ward, S. Leadership accessed online on 21st February 2012. Pervin, L. "A Critical Analysis of Current Trait Theory", Psychological Inquiry 5, (1994) pp. 103-113. DeVrye, C. Good Service is Good Business. (n.b) Retrieved Feb 21, 2012, from Good Service is Good Business: http://www.positivepath.net/ideasCD3.asp Good Values Open the Door of Success: Our values and ethics represent our personalities and behaviors. Good values encourage a person to do good deeds and gradually, our good deeds lead us to the doors of success. Our actions are very much dependent on our deeds therefore; it should be kept in mind that they should be focused on benefiting the society rather intending on harming them. Ethics, morals and values play a significant role in our lives. Our decisions and our personal/professional roles also depend on ethical decisions. Our ethical decisions are not limited to our personal lives but they also revolve around our roles as a leader or an employee in an organization. Like any other person who is concerned about his role and goals, I look forward to achieve my goals through my education, knowledge and continuous improvement. I believe on giving my best shot based on quality services with dedication and commitment. I believe that a person should strive hard to make his each day better than the previous one. Continuous improvement is a key to success. I want to make myself perfect to gain success and to achieve that, I firmly believe that your values, morals and ethics play the most important role. It is important to understand the value of ethics, leadership, service and character. Understanding these important elements in life enable a person to achieve his goals and also, help him to improve his services. Ethics are defined as the set of moral values. Ethics enable a person to differentiate between the good and the wrong no matter what he goes through. “I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.” (Einstein). As a leader in an organization, I would prefer equality based on the principles of ethical values, respect, trust and mutual co-ordination. Leadership is an art that motivates people to attain common goals or to accomplish the common tasks. The man who leads should possess some influential qualities to aspire people around him. Leadership unfolds the true characteristics and abilities of a leader who claims to be a role model for others. “The leader is the inspiration and director of the action. He is the person in the group that possesses the combination of personality and leadership skills that make others want to follow his direction.” (Ward). As a leader, I would prefer to justify the needs of my people, my employees and to help them to attain their goals with my motivation. And along with motivation and continuous support for my employees, I would seek ways to improve my qualities, services, and my personality for my employees. I would prefer adopting a rational logical behavior to be more co-operative with my employees. Service is benefiting the people around you in the similar way you want to benefit yourself and your loved ones. In other words, service is way through which you payback to your society and your community for everything they did to help you what you are today and in return, you help them to advance in a positive constructive way. “The definition of service is being useful and feeling good about helping people.” (DeVyre). Services depend on the way you want to make your contributions in the society either by resources, knowledge or by monetary means. As a human being, I consider rendering my services for benefiting the society and the people around me, to return what I have earned over the period of time from them and to help them to grow and advance in a positive manner. Character of a person tell about the moral qualities that one posses. A character of a person is the combination of various attributes good or bad that shapes the personality of a person. It is the character of a person that distinguishes him from other fellow human beings. Moral values and ethics play an important role in shaping the character of a person. “A character is a disposition to express behavior in consistent patterns of functions across a range of situations.”(Pervin). Good character represents the purity of a soul. Without the purity of a soul, good moral values and conscience, it is impossible to gain a good character. It is widely said “When character is lost everything is lost,” similarly, character adds meaning and value to a person’s identity in the society. Ethical Issues in an Organization: Every organization in the world is faced with different ethical issues. Somewhere the organizations are faced with discrimination, sexual harassment and exploitation of the rights of the employees and somewhere, the organizations are faced with some other kind of ethical issues. I believe that it is highly important for an organization to address these issues in order to grow and to bring satisfaction to its employees without this it would become impossible for an organization to grow and excel. In my opinion discrimination and prejudice along with exploitation of employees’ rights are the most highly graded ethical issues that an organization can encounter. It is highly important for an organization to address the issues concerning discrimination and prejudice to boost healthy environment within the premises. Discrimination can make an employee loose his trust from his employer as a result, the atmosphere of trust eliminates and the employee starts mistrusting his employer. Secondly, discrimination and prejudice may adversely affect the performance of an employee as an outcome of de-motivation and violation of trust from the employer. For an organization, it is highly important to address discrimination and prejudice to guarantee mental peace to its employees. Organizations should implement policies against discrimination and legal actions should be taken against such employers who violate the basic rules and adopt discriminative behavior against their employees. Apart from discrimination and prejudice, violation of employees’ rights is also a big ethical issue that is faced by majority of organizations around the world. Employees are faced with the violation of their rights and duties by their employers and leaders. However, in recent days, the rights of the employees are backed by the labor unions and other organizational unions which safeguard the rights and duties of suppressed employees. On the other hand, leaders and supervisors can play an effective role in harmonizing the organizational values and ethics in a balanced way (Peters and Austin). For many organizations, giving rights to their employees is not their first priority as these organizations trade their profits over their liabilities and to such employers; their employees are their liabilities. Employees should be given equal rights and duties according to employment law. However, on the other hand, there are some employees who manipulate their rights and duties on their employers to gain undue advantage of their legal rights (Halbert and Ingulli). In such cases, the employers are free to take any action to protect their reputation in the market and to minimize their liabilities. I believe that organizations should be based on value-driven management where equal rights should be granted to the employees without any discrimination and biasness. Case Study: The Loan Officer and the Debtors Jon Bellow is a senior loan officer with First National Federal Bank, the second-largest financial institution in Wyoming. Jon, who has been with First National Federal for ten years, handles loan applications from all over the state. Following the savings and loan debacle of the late 1980s, First National Federal implemented many institutional changes. Some of the changes were operational; others involved the bank’s lending policy. A change that Jon found frustrating was an increasing emphasis on ethics. Jon complained to one of his loan officers, “I don’t get this ethic stuff. If it’s legal, I’m ethical.” One of the loan officers, Mary Willow, a recent graduate of the University Of Wyoming School Of Business, replied, “Sometimes doing what’s ethical just costs you more money!” Later that morning, following their discussion, Jon appeared in Mary’s office with a loan application from Michael Johnson, a rancher in the northwestern part of the state. He told Mary that they needed to take a trip to evaluate the proposed collateral for the loan. An on-site evaluation of collateral is a required procedure for loan processing at First National Federal. Jon added, “Johnson’s paying our way up there for the evaluation.” Mary asked, “Shouldn’t the bank pay our way, since we may not make the loan and we wouldn’t want to be obligated to Johnson?” Jon responded, “Now why in the hell would I want to pay our way up there and increase my costs when he’s offering to pay?” Mary was uncertain about the propriety of the proposal. Jon added that First National Federal’s annual fundraiser picnic was coming up and that they were planning to have the usual prize drawing. “So,” he told Mary, “just get on the phone to all the customers whose loans you handle and see what prizes they’re willing to donate for this year’s drawings.” Mary asked, “Isn’t it wrong for us to pressure our customers into donating prizes?” Jon replied angrily, “These prizes are not for us! The money is not for us! This is charity! What could be unethical about that?” Mary went home that evening to prepare for the trip to the ranch. She hadn’t called any of her customers for donations, and she didn’t want to go on the trip unless the bank paid. Mary was also $20,000 in debt from school, and it had taken her four months after graduation to find this job. “I guess this is just the way business is done,” she concluded. “I wish I knew what to do about this, but I’m confused and worried about making the correct decision.” Case Discussion: This case clearly discusses the ethical constraints between a fresh new employee and an old senior employee. Mary who is new on job surely doesn’t want to go against her senior officer but at the same time she disagrees with his idea. Mary’s personal and professional interests are floating in the ship of ethical issue that is in need to be addressed. Mary can: -Ask her officer to take someone else on the visit, -Ask Mr.Johnson to bear the visit expenses of Jon only. -Ask her superior head to settle down the issue between two of them in such a way that it won’t offend anyone of them. This would help Mary to learn some organizational ethics required in a workplace. She needs to pick her choice wisely which do not offend Jon for her decision. On the other hand, it is expected that Jon can develop grudge for her in his heart which would give rise to harassment or discrimination. To avoid this matter, it is highly important for Mary to play her cards right. Communication plays an important role in negotiation and solving problems. Mary should communicate her problem either with her superior boss or she should address this issue in a polite manner with Jon but before addressing the issue, Mary should have solutions in her hand which should be based on logic. In long run, this would benefit Mary on how to address organizational problems in a most ethical manner without violating or harming the emotions or damaging the reputation of a person in a wisest manner. I will always cherish my time spent during this course. This course has helped me to think beyond limits in a rational way when it comes on ethical matters without being discriminative or adopting any biased attitude. I can relate this course to my upbringing and with the teaching of my parents that how they used to emphasize on building the quality character and moral values during my early ages. I believe moral values and ethics play an important role in shaping the personality or defining the character of a person. Ethics, moral values and our principles play an important role in defining our responsibilities and functions in a society. All of them are intertwined with each other and, lack of any element may result in damaging the entire infrastructure of a society. Therefore, these basic elements can be described as the basic fundamental building blocks of any structure, no matter if it’s a person’s character, a society or an organization. We cannot live without our moral values and strong ethical grounds. Works cited: Halbert, T., and Ingulli, E. Law & Ethics in the Business Environment, 5th edition (2006). Mason, OH: Thomson Learning. Peters, T.J., and Austin, N. Passion for Excellence: The Leadership difference. (1985) New York: Ballantine. Einstein, A. Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas & Banesh Hoffman (1981) Ward, S. Leadership accessed online on 21st February 2012. Pervin, L. "A Critical Analysis of Current Trait Theory", Psychological Inquiry 5, (1994) pp. 103-113. DeVrye, C. Good Service is Good Business. (n.b) Retrieved Feb 21, 2012, from Good Service is Good Business: http://www.positivepath.net/ideasCD3.asp Read More