Ethics and Values in a Global Setting
Jason Bokesch
CMGT530
March 22, 2010
John Zupan
Ethics and Values in a Global Setting This week we were asked to write a paper examining how we reconcile our personal, professional, and cultural values, and our ethics in a global setting. Personal values are individual beliefs that determine individual decision making. These values are not only inherited from our parents, but we also modify them as we experience different events in life. Personal values affect our attitudes toward people, cultures, and society. Professional values are our attitudes toward work, our conduct at work, how we are rewarded, and expectations of our employers. These values ultimately determine who will work for, how hard we will work for them, what we will work for and how we interact with our coworkers. Each group, society, and culture has their own set of beliefs and norms about what is right and wrong, just, or unjust. Ethics are defined as a set of values that determines an individual’s conduct when it comes to making sound decisions regarding what is right and what is wrong. Now that we have looked at how each term is defined, we need to examine today’s global setting in three different terms: cultural differences, economic conditions, and family backgrounds. Now more than ever, there are greater cultural differences in all areas of life. It used to be that cultures were divided by things such as sections of a town, positions in a company, type of company worked for, and religion. Today these boundaries are crossed. When I was growing up in Youngstown, OH there were certain sections of the town where certain cultures and nationalities lived. There was one area where mainly Italians lived, another where African Americans lived, and still another where the Polish community lived. Today these subdivisions are not nearly as numerous. I have especially noticed this here in Oklahoma City. Every one of my neighbors is of a different cultural background and varying nationalities. Today’s economic conditions around the world are dramatically different than they were even five years ago. No longer is the United States the top economic power in the world. No longer is the dollar the currency everything is based off of. Unemployment is at an all time here and this affects how we are viewed as a country. I can attest to the unemployment firsthand. Five years ago things were dramatically different for me. We had just had our second child and I was working as a manager for one of the biggest mortgage companies in the world. Now I am in the unemployment line along with millions of other Americans. Much like cultural difference, family backgrounds have changed quite a bit since I was younger. It seems as though families attitudes towards things such as interracial dating/marriage, homosexuality, and cultural differences have evolved and families have become more tolerant of them whereas in the past they would not accept such things. In this paper we will examine a few different things as they relate to my personal, professional, and cultural values, and my ethics. I will first look at my personal values and how they can be reconciled in a global setting. Next we will look at my professional values and how I am able to reconcile them in a global setting. Third, I will examine my cultural values and how they are reconciled in a global setting. Last, we will look at my ethics and how they relate to a global setting.
Personal Values As was stated earlier in the paper, personal values are a set of beliefs and norms that governs an individual’s views on what is right, what is wrong, what is fair and what is just. Our personal values determine such things as how we will react in certain situations, our views towards a particular culture, nationality, or race, and our overall behavior. “People’s values play an important role in their behaviors because they influence their choices” (Giraldi & Ikeda, 2008). My personal beliefs and personal value system play out in a great deal of the decisions I make. For instance, my personal values guide me in how I treat my children, how I discipline them, how I choose to educate them and how I bring them up religiously. My personal beliefs are learned and formed from a variety of sources such as my family and my personal experiences. These personal beliefs play a vital role in shaping my personal value system. My family background is another key component in the make-up of my personal value system. Where one comes from determines a great deal about how they make decisions and how they determine the difference between right and wrong. For instance I came from a middle class, working family that went to church every Sunday. My parents wanted my brother and I to have a better lot in life than they did so they worked as hard as possible to put us both through college. This is the same type of value system that my wife’s parents had and this is something we are trying to provide for our children. Family background also can shape an individual’s beliefs on people. For instance my family was a strong believer in treating everyone the same. It is a value that I have tried to instill in my children. Lastly, how an individual is disciplined by their parents can shape their beliefs about how to discipline their own children. My father for instance, believed in spanking my brother and I. While I am not against it, this is not something I believe in doing to my own children. I have just developed the value system and belief that there are other, more effective ways to discipline my children. There is no one set way. A person’s economic background is another factor that shapes their overall belief system. An individual’s economic background doesn’t always determine, at least in most cultures, their lot in life. Some cultures, even today, a person is stuck in the same class no matter what. That is just the way life works out. I know coming from personal experience, that coming from a lower to middle class family you learn to appreciate things a great deal more. That is not to say that upper class families don’t appreciate things in life as much, but I do believe the middle class values working hard a great deal more and they never take anything for granted. That is the way I grew up and I still live my life with those values.
Professional Values As we examined earlier, an individual’s professional values are their beliefs and norms with regards to employment, how hard they work, how they expect to be compensated and their overall expectations of their employer. Professional values determine the types of choices we make in our career. In other words, “where choice is not prescribed nor proscribed by law, it will likely therefore be guided by professional values. Professional values, then, are crucial to an understanding of the exercise of administration discretion” (Hoggett, Mayo, and Miller, 2006). An individual’s education and level of education can go a long way towards shaping one’s professional values. Some people have only high school education, some have a bachelor’s, and some have a master’s or even a doctorate. Each level affects how individuals make decisions and how they view those decisions. I can honestly say that as my education has progressed I have viewed things a little differently. I have become to see just how my decisions affect not only me, but those co-workers around me. What might be right or just for me as an individual might not be what is best for the company as whole or my fellow co-workers. I think company sponsored training goes hand in hand with education. Your professional values are further enhanced by discovering more of what the company expects and how your decisions will affect them. A person’s career experiences are another factor in determining their professional values. Things such as previous bosses, companies worked for, how a person’s management style has evolved are all factors. Previous bosses can either give you a sense of what to do or what not to do, what is right and ethical or what is wrong and immoral. I have seen bosses make decisions that have left me scratching my head as to how they lawfully got away with what they did. A perfect example of that occurred at my previous job. I was actually let go for being sick. I have epilepsy, had been working 80-90 hours a week, and finally had two seizures. A week later I received a letter from the company saying they were terminating my employment because of it. While it may seem to make sense to them from a business standpoint, they took another manager and made him the head of two departments saving money, it seems to me to not only be immoral but unlawful as well. Only time will tell though.
Cultural Values As we looked at earlier each culture has their own set of beliefs and norms as to what is wrong and right and how to make decisions regarding each. These values are the “beliefs, practices, symbols, specific norms, and personal values that we share as a society. What one perceives is then shaped by his or her experiences and the cultural values to which his society adheres” (McFeeters, 2009). Cultural values can be influenced by a couple of factors: cultural or ethnic background and where you live or come from. Cultural or ethnic, which could also include religious background, dramatically affects your values. For instance, I come from a German background with a Lutheran religious background. Many people where I was born and raised were Italian and Catholic. I would say overall values and morals were pretty close but when it came to customs and cultural values things were a little different. For instance as a Catholics my friends had certain guidelines that they had to abide by (like Mass every Saturday or Sunday). As Italian Americans they participated in celebrations and festivals that were not the norm among my culture. I think, however, that these differences are trumped by geographic location. Even though we came from different religious background were still linked together by where we came from. Youngstown, at one time, was a booming steel mill town. My grandfathers both worked for still mills and their father before them. Many families were like this. If they didn’t work for a steel mill they worked for the local GM plant. Once the steel mills shut down and the GM plant cut back on jobs, Youngstown became a bit of a depressed town. It is something that tends to bond people together that are from the area. A person’s ethical belief system is the system the use to determine right and wrong actions in their lives. Ethics must be independent of feelings, religion, law, or doing what is the norm. It is simply doing what is just and right. For instance, I ran into a situation as a manger where one of my employees was going through a rough patch personally. She was in the middle of a going through a divorce and her work had fallen off a little. My manager demanded I fire her. In my mind it was not ethical, moral, or just to do so. I stated so and he ended up letting her go. She ended up suing the company and won.
Tying Them All Together Now that we have examined all of the different values that and individual has to reconcile in a global setting we look at how they all tie together. A person needs to balance out each of them in order to make the best decisions about what is right and wrong, just and unjust. For instance when making a professional decision, I can not allow my cultural values or personal values to always enter into the situation. I have to take a step back and see what is best for everyone involved. What I may feel is right may not be right for the particular situation. This is especially true in today’s global marketplace. Nowadays companies are conducting business in multiple companies and this means that multiple culture values are involved. What might be right or just in one culture may not be that way in another culture. It is finding that balance that is the key to reconciling values and ethics in a global setting.
Conclusion
After writing this paper it was interesting to see all of the different value systems that go into making me the person I am. It is also interesting to note how they need to be tied together to make the right decisions in a global setting. Personal, professional, and cultural values and ethics must be balanced in order to make the right decisions in life. In this day and age where everyone in the world is a fingertip away, making the right decisions is now more important than ever.
References
Giraldi, de Moura Engracia, Ikeda, Janaina, & Akemi, Ana (2008). Personal Values Dimensions: A Study on Brazilian Executives. Latin American Business Review, 9(2), 169-187.
Hoggett, Paul, Mayo, Marjorie, & Miller, Chris (2006, December). Private Passions, the Public Good and Public Service Reform. Social Policy & Administration, 40(7), 758-773.
McFeeters, Belinda Bennett (2009, September). Cultural Values & Their Impact on Education. Research Starters Education, 1-6.