Professional Values and Ethics

Professional Values and Ethics

GEN/200

1 March 2011

In order to determine how professional values and ethics affect success in a career, we must first define career success. To some, career success is defined as achieving the occupational goals an individual has set. It is also described as when individuals can look at their jobs and find happiness with their achievements, actions, status, benefits, contributions, and connections. An example would be a medical student not just reaching the goal of wanting to be a doctor, but actually becoming a doctor, traveling the world for emergency efforts, joining compliance and research groups, providing personal best care, and using all skills to share knowledge with others along the way. Career success is being able to look back upon a profession and feeling happy about all that was experienced. To achieve this success, it is important one attains or develops professional values and ethics.

Values are principles that guide decisions and actions in a career. A professional value is a term that is summed up with establishing the means to an end in the workplace, or career field, of choice. This means an individual can place importance upon things such as status, knowledge, experience, compensations, accessibility, benefits, and personal growth, among other things. The worth of such things is personal and shared collectively, such as students in a master’s program valuing the degree because they understand it will better their chances in obtaining a good job. The focus is on avoiding the struggle to pass classes, finding funds to continue education, juggling work and school simultaneously, and learning new material. In the professional environment, individuals usually want to achieve more. They value job security and advancement. Workers know that hard work, dedication, training, experience, and judgment are all instruments used to help satisfy their desire for the things they value.

Professional ethics are rules...