Business_Ethics

Managing Business Ethics Paper Melissa A. Brun University of Phoenix MGT 216 Organizational Ethics and Social Responsibility Professor: Daniel F. Clearly April 4, 2010 Ethics Paper “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential (Barack Obama .Copyright 2009 BrainyMedia.com). Business ethics is the measurement of one’s maturity and when implemented in their profession often determines how far they can grow professionally. Values are made up of one’s belief system and what they aspire to be, and their ethics are the grounds in which they will stand on to reach their goals. In this paper, it will discuss three major ethic issues within today’s business world; religious beliefs, sexual orientation and harassment. Discussing these issues one can begin to evaluate on their own set of professional goals and ethical values. Ethics refers to standards of conduct, standards that indicate how one should behave based on moral duties and virtues, which themselves are derived from principles of right and wrong (eHow, Inc., 2009). The difference between ethics and professional values is that ethics is based on a person’s behavior whereas values are beliefs and attitudes that determine how a person actually behaves. Ethics are what a person may use as a guideline to how they live their lives and how to run a business. Some examples of professional ethics are religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and harassment. Religion is a very sensitive to many people in the workplace, but it differs in many ways. One has to be able to be non-offensive to one’s beliefs. It can be taboo for people to have open discussions about religion in the work place because so many people have many views concerning religion. In today’s workplace ones sexual orientation is expressed much more openly then in the past. Which can be very different then some of the more traditional ways of expressing ones sexual orientation. Many professions have relied on sexual sensitivity workshops to help them in this area. Harassment to any person be it their race, disability, or sexuality has no place in the work environment. This can limit anyone’s advancement professionally if they cannot be objective to diversity. In conclusion, adapting a personal and professional code of conduct that is consistent with universal values and ethics will help a person go a long way in your career success. There will be times when professional ethics are going be tested in ones career path and it is up to them and the knowledge that they have learn to follow a code of ethics to keep the work environment a safe place to work. Without ethics in the business world, there would be definite chaos in workplace. So why is ethics needed to keep structure in the workplace' To have a process in hiring and training of applicants, helps benefit the company’s revenue, and to have respect from clients and the employees. Reference EHow, Inc. (2009). Definition of professional values. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_5048393_definition-professional-values.html. McCoy, B. H. (2007). Living into leadership, A journey in ethics. Stanford, California: Stanford Business Books.