Code of Ethics and Virtues in the Workplace: Ethics through Kants Categorical Imperatives - Essay Example

December 12, of Ethics and Virtues in the Workplace: Ethics through Kant’s Categorical Imperatives I believe that, in order to be ethical members of our society, we must be aware of and follow a code of ethics. This code will serve as a moral compass in navigating various ethical decisions in our lives. I believe that this compass is important to a good and happy life because we will have a guide in making decisions, assessing past conduct, and improving future decision-making processes. Ethics includes my core values and virtues and an honest assessment of my character. Ethics provides a concrete way of assessing the ethical value of my actions and attaining integrity through Kantian ethics that I applied to a workplace ethical issue. My core values are respect, integrity, responsibility, and fairness. Respect is important to me because I honor all individuals as human beings with dignity. Respect is essential in having a good life because, if I see every one as equal, I will not mistreat or abuse anyone. Furthermore, respect means being open to and tolerant of differences. If I respect people, I do not need to force my beliefs and values on them. I will not also unfairly judge them, which avoids prejudice and discrimination. Integrity is my second core value because it means being honest in what I say and do. Integrity is important to living a good life because I can earn and protect the trust of people. I will also feel better about myself because my values do not conflict with my actions. Responsibility is the third core value that I find important because I want to be accountable for my decisions and actions. Responsibility is significant to a good life because I am proactive in setting goals and handling problems. Fairness is also an important core value because I want to be impartial by listening to others and having an open mind. It is valuable to a good life because it results to just processes and outcomes. My core values will help me live a good life because they will enable me to become conscious of my ethical needs as a human being and to respect other people as beings with equal moral worth. I believe that I have good moral character because I live with integrity. Integrity is all about interconnecting my values, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. To be a person of integrity is to act according to my cherished values and virtues. The virtues that I aspire to cultivate and practice are connected to my code of ethics. I want to embody the virtues of hope, justice, and temperance. By having hope, I see positive things in people and the future. I also contribute to a hopeful future through my actions, such as by studying well, so that I can be one of the best in my field someday. Aside from hope, justice is also essential because it concerns being fair and equitable as a person. I respect all people and I want to be fair in dealing with them. Besides justice, I also want to be a person of temperance and I am aware of my vices. Temperance means things in moderation. I do not want to be overly materialistic in my goals, although I also value material comforts as part of my notion of the American Dream. In attaining these virtues, I want to eliminate rashness and pride. Sometimes, I can be moody when I am tired or when I think that some people are taking advantage of me. I want to remove rashness through being more patient and open-minded. Apart from rashness, I can have pride sometimes when I do not want to forgive people. I should also see my part in these conflicts and find the humility to ask for forgiveness and to criticize my faults. I have good moral character because I am aware of my vices and strive to eliminate them, so that I can be a person of values and virtues. Ethics is valuable to my life because it guides my actions through determining the values and virtues that I want to use in making and assessing decisions and in choosing the right actions. Ethics is my moral compass that helps me make more sense of my humanistic beliefs. Ethics is part of my conscience. It is the foundation of my values, attitudes, and actions. In addition, I do not think that I can live a good life without ethics because it is essential to knowing if what I am doing is right or wrong. For instance, I can have a good life by being fair to others because it is not only right, but it can also help me develop social relations where they can help me reach my dreams in life. Moreover, I also need ethics to be happy because an ethical life makes me feel at peace with myself. I cannot sleep at night if I am aware that I broke my code of ethics and if I did not correct my wrongs. For instance, I did not do my work well, and, because of that, someone got hurt or sick. Responsibility is important to my happiness because it means that I am doing my job well and I feel better each night because of it. Ethics guides me to having a good and happy life. The next point is a workplace ethical case that concerns the ethical issues of responsibility and respect. This is an ethical issue and not a legal or policy one because my actions would not necessarily lead to policy or law violations. In my work, I have a friend, a nurse, whom I will hide by the name of Cherry. She had been undergoing some marriage problems because she suspected that her husband was having an affair, but she lacked evidence. She was also in her first trimester of pregnancy. Her husband is a doctor in the same hospital where she worked. One time, I was going home late, when I saw Cherry’s husband kissing another nurse in the dark. I thought I was just tired, but they went into the man’s car, I was sure that the car belonged to Cherry’s husband. I did not know what to do because I respect Cherry’s husband, being part of the board members, and I did not know if I had a responsibility to tell Cherry the truth. In this case, the moral agents are me and Cherry’s husband, while the moral recipient is Cherry. I am a moral agent because I can be held responsible for doing or not doing anything after witnessing this extra-marital affair. The husband is also a moral agent because I also hold him responsible for his actions. His infidelity is the one causing me my ethical dilemma and causing Cherry emotional issues. Cherry is the moral recipient because she receives the actions of the moral agents. My ethical question is: Should I tell Cherry what I have seen knowing what the consequences are, in essence, I will get involved in what could be a messy divorce or an antagonistic relationship? Perhaps I should approach the husband instead, although I fear possible workplace retaliation. I want to focus more on the right thing to do, considering Cherry’s sensitive health conditions. As a moral agent, I need an ethical framework to determine the most ethical action for this problem. The ethical theory that I find most helpful is Kant’s ethics of categorical imperatives because it is aligned with my duty to exhibit respect and responsibility to my friend and to my workplace superior. Immanuel Kant offers two categorical imperatives in “Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative.” These are imperatives that must be performed conditionally, meaning they do not depend on consequences and virtues alone, but on two imperatives. The first categorical imperative is to act based on the maxim that it “should become a universal law” (152). The second imperative states that we should treat people as ends and not as means to our ends. These imperatives will help me follow the values of respect and responsibility because they promote integrity and the importance of doing one’s duty. I have to show respect to stakeholders and do the responsible thing. Using Kant’s categorical imperatives, I believe that it is my responsibility to treat Cherry as an end who has dignity and that it is important to not lie in order to be fair with her. I informed Cherry of what I have seen and also proposed different reasonable options to avoid getting her into trouble. I reminded her to stay calm and to find counseling to help her deal with this problem. As for the husband, I am sure Cherry will talk to him. They are free to settle this as a couple. I would not lie to Cherry because it is not an act that should be universalized. I also would not protect my self-interest by keeping Cherry in the dark. She deserves the truth and to tell her the truth matches my virtue of justice and values of responsibility and fairness. In addition, I do not have to talk to the husband because it is no longer part of my moral responsibility. I also have hope that they can settle their problem in a just manner. Through this case, I learned how important ethics is in having a moral framework in choosing my actions. I used my core values and virtues to implement Kant’s categorical imperatives. I treated Cherry and her husband as ends and not as means to my ends. I also did not lie to her because I want to be fair to her and I respect her as a person. I believe that it is only just for her to know the truth, instead of having her worry and finding out about it through a possibly less sensitive and sympathetic source. Knowing that I acted with integrity, I feel happy. I also know that this is my path to a good life, where I do not make decisions out of whims, but out of a solid ethical framework that supports my idea of an ethical identity. Work Cited Kant, Immanuel. “Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative.” Print. Read More