Cultural Values and Personal Ethics

Cultural Values and Personal Ethics

How personal, organizational, and cultural values affect decision making in my personal and professional life is the basis of this paper. This is a vast topic to be covered that requires much reflection and research. We frequently talk about ethics and values in our life, but what are these values and ethics, and how do they affect our lives?

According to author David Peters, (2003) "Personal ethics have been defined as principles of good behavior, a moral code of conduct, or a system to decide between competing options. But simply stated, personal ethics are nothing more than the rules we impose on ourselves that govern our daily actions." David, Peters. (2003). Your Personal Ethics-Is it time for a check up? National Jeweler. (P. 30), Vol.97, issue 7. Personal ethics and values are codes of conduct that help us live in this society. Who helps us take on these values? They stem from our interactions with our family, friends, school, and society?

When we are born into a family, our daily interaction with our family and friends helps in defining the rules that we follow. We adopt new values as we grow. Values such as love and respect for our elders, respect for other's property, punctuality, and following orders are just a few that we start carrying with us throughout our lives. Going to school and making friends introduces us to yet more values such as honesty, trust, achievement, and competition. Some of these values are a reflection of my ability to do my work efficiently. According to an article on "The Power of Personnel Values" mentioned on the website "http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Topics/Values.htm", some common values are:

Common personal values

Accomplishment

Accountability

Accuracy

Achievement

Adventure

All for one & one for all

Beauty

Calm

Challenge

Change

Cleanliness

Commitment

Communication

Community

Competence

Competition

Concern for others

Content over form C

Cooperation

Coordination

Country

Creativity

Customer satisfaction

Decisiveness

Delight of being

Democracy

Discipline

Discovery

Efficiency

Equality

Excellence

Fairness

Faith

Family

Family

Feeling

Flair

Freedom

Friendship

Fun

Global view

Gratitude

Hard work

Harmony

Honesty

Honor

Inner peace

Innovation

Integrity

Joy

Justice

Knowledge

Leadership

Love

Loyalty

Maximum utilization (of time resources)

Meaning

Merit

Money

Non-violence

Continuous improvement

Openness

Orderliness

Patriotism

Peace

Peace

Perfection (e.g. of details)

Personal Growth

Pleasure

Positive attitude

Power

Practicality

Preservation

Privacy

Progress

Prosperity

Punctuality

Quality of work

Quietude

Regularity

Resourcefulness

Respect for individual

Responsiveness

Results-oriented

Romance

Rule of Law

Safety

Satisfying others

Security

Self-givingness

Self-reliance

Service (to others society)

Simplicity

Skill

Speed

Spirit in life (using)

Stability

Standardization

Status

Strength

Success

Systemization

Teamwork