Professional Values and Ethics

"Values", from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Definition: 3 a : relative worth, utility, or importance : degree of excellence : status in a scale of preferences; 12 : a term or an expression in logic that may replace a variable in a propositional function so that the resultant is a true or false statement

"Values" was defined very clearly in the "How to Make Values Count in Everyday Decisions" article in the MIT Sloan Management Review 49(4), 75, written by J. E. Urbany, T. J. Reynolds & J. M. Phillips in the summer of 2008. "Values are enduring beliefs, both genetically acquired and shaped by cultural context...values guide our everyday behavior, even the most mundane choices."

There are two main resources for professional values that stem from both personal sources and professional sources. The personal resource contributes its beliefs from parental upbringing, intra-social behaviors with friendships and the inner ability within their own self to think things through. The professional resource in developing professional values can be found in a couple places within the business establishment. The common place to find what the values are in a company is found in its "Mission Statement". The "Mission Statement" has the foundational guidelines of how the company is supposed to be run, the main focus of the company and the goals it wants to accomplish.

These values within the mission statement are then taught to the employees who are expected to use those values to propel the company to reach its goals. Every decision is a trade-off in values; it represents a choice both having positive and negative effects. Communicating clearly the logic of decisions help others to learn the values of the company to promote and work better within it. Employees within the company are also used as a resource to uphold the values of the company.

When a new employee is entered within the company team, the coworkers, supervisors and other leaders in the company pass...