Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper

Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper

Values are a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that are meaningful to a person or organization (Posner). Whether they are personal, organizational, or cultural values, these values not only define ethically acceptable boundaries for the decision-making process, but also steer the individual towards the most socially accepted decision (Finegan). Values are commonly understood as preferences or indicators for what we believe. These values are quite interesting to describe.

Personal Values

Personal values are important. They define a person's character and they develop a person's personality. Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, every individual has a core set of personal values. Personal values can range from the commonplace, such as the belief in hard work and punctuality, to the more psychological, such as self-reliance, concern for others, and harmony of purpose (Posner). Personal values are those values you take for yourself. These values are apparent in attitudes, beliefs, and actions. They may be prioritizes, such as honesty, responsibility, loyalty and so on. Our personal values dictate the majority of the decisions and ultimately the outcomes of those decisions we make. When dealing with personal values, they may interfere with decisions you make in life or within an organization.

Organizational Values

Just as individuals agree to there personal values, so do organizations. In fact, if we were to examine any organization, we would discover that one or more organizational values were the key to the organization's success. The important aspect of all organizations is that they usually have a set of rules and ethics intended to control and direct personal values.

Finegan (2000) investigated the relationship between organizational and personal values and how these affected the decision-making process as well as organizational commitment. Both employees and organizations share one fundamental characteristic, Ð''values'. These evaluative standards are used to discern between Ð''right' and Ð''wrong' or to assess the importance of preferences. Knowing the organization's values, an employee would be more comfortable working in an environment that is consistent and supportive or his or her own personal values. And, as anticipated, through the use of hierarchical multiple regression analyses, Finegan found that an employees' perception or organizational values positively affected their commitment level.

Cultural Values

The roles individuals play in decision-making vary widely from culture to culture (Axner & Dupraw). Be aware that individuals' expectations about their own roles in shaping a decision may be influenced by the cultural frame of reference (Hasan).

Learning about people's cultures decision-making has the potential to give us a mirror image of our own. We have the opportunity to challenge our assumptions about the "right" way to doing things, and consider a variety of approaches. We have a chance to learn new ways to solve problems that we and previously given up on, accepting the difficulties as Ð''just the way things are (Axner & Dupraw)."

Every one of us, at some point in our lives, make perfectly non-logical decisions that do not turn out as we expect. As we are learning, culture plays a big part in our lives. Talking with people different from ourselves gives us hope and energizes us to take on the challenge of improving our communities and worlds (Axner & Dupraw). Ethical standards on the other hand, sometimes need to be addressed when advising these learning situations so ethical dilemmas can be avoided.

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