The Importance of Professional Values and Ethics in Success

The Importance of Professional Values and Ethics in Success

Lindsay Moss

Gen/200

March 28,2011

Donna Baker

The Importance of Professional Values and Ethics in Success

Professional values and ethics play an important role in success. An individual’s values and ethics determine how a person will apply those values in a professional atmosphere. If there is respect for others in the personal life that respect will likely carry over into the professional side of that individual’s life. In business, a balance between personal and professional values can lead to success not only for the employees but also for the company.

Individuals spend eight hours or more each day in the workplace. Each day they are applying their personal ethics and values to their workplace and habits. “Values are enduring beliefs, both hard-wired (i.e., acquired genetically) and shaped by cultural context, about preferred “end states” (Urbany, Reynolds, & Phillips, 2008). The society in which one lives strongly influences an individual's values. Values are the ideas and beliefs held near to the heart that hold meaning within each of individual. Honesty, pride in work habits, and dependability are examples of values important to success. Ethics, according to sociologist Raymond Baumhart “refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues” (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, J, & Meyer, 2010) Ethics are societal values passed down through parents, and learned in institutions such as school, church,

and work. Many individuals ethics will depend upon how strong their convictions and values are. A strong values system and ethical standard are recognizable by a individual's deeds.

In a way personal values and ethics are synonymous to professional values and ethics. When we enter a professional environment our personal values and ethics integrate into...