Personal and Professional Practices as Big Parts of Any Business - Term Paper Example

?Personal and Professional Practice Personal and Professional Practice Whilst personal practice may refer what a person believes is right, professional practice refers to a set of behaviour that a business follows in its operations. In most cases, as businesses grow and expand even further, their inexorable drive for more profit may compromise on both personal and professional ethics. Many giant companies have fallen due to unethical behaviour perpetuated by lack of personal and professional practice in their operation. The most eminent one is the Enron scandal in the United States (Robbins & Judge, 2010). Thus, personal practice and professional practice are interrelated to a large extent. This paper analyses each of the two concepts within the framework of how they relate to the business. To begin with, personal practice is mainly concerned with an individual. In this regard, it refers to what an individual believes to be right. This implies that, personal practice varies from person to person and is contingent on the person’s beliefs, experience, culture, philosophy and religion, inter alia. In other words, personal practice greatly depicts a person’s traits and character. For instance, it may include transparency, honesty, and confidentiality, among others. As a fact, personal traits, characters and practices have great effects on a business in a plethora of ways. Thus, it is important for a company to establish measures aimed at fostering proper personal practices. This may be achieved through for example, the establishment of a code of conduct which is meant to set out rules and guidelines by which people in company are expected to abide in the course of their practices and activities within the company. All employees, agents, representatives, officers and other people inclined to the company in various capacities are obliged to align their practices with the requirements of the code of conduct. Thus, personal practice is greatly determines by such a code of conduct. Anyone who violates any of the regulations in whatsoever way is entitled to a disciplinary action. Therefore, as people carry on with their day to day activities within the business, they are expected to portray exemplary personal practice as it affects a business in a profusion of ways. First and foremost, it is expected that people should always comply with rules and regulations in all their endeavours. Robbins and Judge (2010) posit that, obeying the law forms the foundation upon which a business establishes its ethical standards. Thus, it is expected of employees, officers, agents, representatives plus any other person related to the company to portray consecrated obedience to the rule, laws and regulations of the state or country within which a company operates. Conflicts of interest also affect personal practice to large extents. A conflict of interest usually transpires when individual’s private interests tend to interfere with the interest of the company (Porter, 1998). For instance, it may occur when an employee of given company opts to work for a competitor, customer or even supplier of the company. It is therefore required that people attached to a certain company in any way should avoid both direct of indirect business interactions with any of the company’s competitors, suppliers or customers. As such, personal practice in place should enhance respect for this requirement. Personal practice may also affect a business with regards to insider trading. Usually, employees and other persons attached to a company in various positions, have unlimited access to a company’s confidential information. It is expected of them to keep such information confidential and not to reveal it for trading purposes to another person, business, company or entity. It is unethical and illegal therefore, for anyone of them to use the non-public and confidential information for personal financial gain. With regards to corporate opportunities, employees, officers, agents and other personnel in the company are prohibited from exploiting corporate opportunities discovered in the course of their interaction with corporate property for themselves. This implies that, no one should use corporate position, property or information for their own personal gains. Similarly no employee, officer, agent or any other person related to the company, should directly or indirectly compete with the company under whatsoever reasons. Thus, it is expected of them to advance the company’s interests in the case of such an opportunity. Personal practice may also affect a company’s competitiveness. It is the responsibility of everyone in the company to foster fair competition. Competitive advantage should be bolstered through ethical and legal business practices by each and every person in the business. Therefore, employees, officers, agents of the business are obliged to respect the rights of the company’s other employees, competitors and suppliers in the dispensation of their duties with regards to competition. It is unexpected of them to indulge in unethical and illegal practices that may compromise the competitive position of the business such as stealing proprietary information, infringing on patents and copyrights or disclosing the company’s secrets, among many others (Robbins & Judge, 2010). The personal practice should promote equality and prevent harassment. Employers, employees or any other person inclined to the business in whatsoever capacity is expected to refrain from illegal discrimination or harassment based on various grounds such as race, gender, religion, nationality, colour among others. Equipped with the knowledge about personal practice as elaborated in the foregoing discussion, it is important at this juncture, to analyze professional practice as well with regard to its effect on a business. In any business, it is important to establish a reputable professional practice which is good for the business and the customers as well. Business, just like any other profession activity requires professionalism. This may be created thorough the adoption of a particular code of ethics so as to enhance professional practice and ultimately enhance lucrativeness of a business. Codes of ethics are developed for various reasons. They stipulate the guidelines to be followed by people who profess to a given profession. Thus, codes of ethics contribute in preventing unprofessionalism to large extents. In this purview, it is necessary for any business to develop business ethics in their quest to ensure professional practice. Business ethics refers to a form of professional ethics which defines ethical principles and problems in a business environment (Ferrel & De Cenzo, 2010). This implicates that business ethics is relevant in all the aspects of the business as well s applicable to the conduct of each and every individual in the business. As such, business ethics is a prerequisite for professional practice in business. Professional practice in business greatly defines the purpose of a company .It determines the expectations of the employees, the customers, suppliers, the community, shareholders and other stakeholders in the business. Also, professional practice promotes the corporate social responsibility of any business. According to Ferrel and De Cenzo (2010), professional practices in business have to be exhibited in all the spheres of the business. This ranges form the business’ financial obligations, human resource management, sales and marketing, production, intellectual property, competition to abiding by the laws and regulations To begin with, a business is expected to exhibit professionalism in its financial obligation. Among the professional practices expected from a business within the financial category include: prompt payment of tax, financial transparency which can be perpetuated by both internal and external auditing, financial contracting among other. A business should pay its suppliers on time, pay its employees, and pay debts and other financial obligation promptly. It would be unprofessional for any business to involve in acts such as misleading financial analysis, bribery, creative accounting, securities fraud, foreign exchange scams among other financial unprofessional practices. Secondly, professional practice should also be enhances during human resource management. In the recruitment, orientation selection, appraisal, compensation, training and development of employees, a company has to exhibit professionalism of high calibre. This includes being fair and devoid of prejudice in the whole process, treating employees with respect and dignity, and giving them appropriate platforms to air their grievances. On the other hand, employees too, have an ethical obligation toward the business by ensuring that they abide by the professional practice code. Besides finance and human resource, a business is expected to exhibit professional practice during its sales and marketing activities. This necessitates the need for marketing ethics. Professional practice in sales and marketing includes revealing to the consumers all the information about the product on factors such as environmental risks, product ingredients, health risks, security risks among others. Professional practice in marketing also involves showing respect for consumer privacy and autonomy. Also, the business has to practice honesty in advertisements, charging fair prices and ensuring uninterrupted availability of products to consumers. Professional practice must also be exhibited during the various pricing strategies such as price discrimination and price skimming. Illicit actions like price fixing should be avoided. A business should also adhere to any rules and regulations governing advertisements. This includes avoiding attack adverts, sexual-related adverts, and subliminal messages as well as avoiding giving false and compromising information during advertisement. With regards to production, professional practice should also be enhanced. This entails ensuring that production processes and the products themselves are not harmful in any way. Ethical practice in production also includes paying concern towards environmental effects such as pollution. Also, a business is also obliged to show professional practice when dealing with intangible property such as intellectual property, copyrights and patents. A business should therefore refrain from practices such as copyright and patent infringement, patent and copyright misuse, and biopiracy among many others. Another way of exhibiting professional practice is within the context of law and regulation. Any business is obliged to abide by law of regulation in the country in which it operates. Thus, businesses have to operate within the context of the legal system. In conclusion, both personal and professional practices are important elements in any business. Personal practices are mainly concerned with individual attributes which affect the business directly of indirectly. They are usually guided by a formal code of conduct. On the other hand, professional practice is a necessity rather than a requirement for any business. This has to be observed in all the activities of the business including production, sales and marketing, finance, among other. It therefore calls for collective responsibility from everyone in the business. Professional practice is thus, an indispensable part of any business. References Ferrel, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2010). Marketing strategy. Boston: South- Western College Publishing. Porter, M. E. (1998). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free Press Robbins, P. S., De Cenzo, D. A., & Coulter, M. (2010). Fundamentals of management. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Robbins, P.S., & Judge, T. A. (2010). Organizational behaviour, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Read More