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Personal Values

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Submitted By marionjs
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Personal Values The importance of ethics in business has become more apparent throughout the U.S. Corporate scandals, like those of Enron and WorldCom, have attracted global attention to unethical practices and have resulted in a greater concern for, and upholding of, ethical standards (Atchinson, 2004) . According to the Williams Institute Ethics Awareness self-assessment tool, I found that my core belief is mainly inclined towards character; this is the belief that ethics and ethical decision making begins from within. With this tool in mind, I can determine whether or not my values are in agreement with, or in contrast to, the ethical principles followed by Kudler Fine Foods and how it would affect my performance if I were under its employ. My ethical perspective focuses on character traits such as honesty, virtue, integrity, and uprightness. In my opinion, and according to my test results, my belief is that an individual with good moral values will be more likely to make the right decisions for the betterment of the whole, or for the greater amount of people. Mere compliance with rules does not automatically make any person ethical unless it is supported by evidence of the individual’s continued effort to be, or become, a moral person. Part of the role of ethics in general is to help a person achieve a level of excellence; the character is more important than the action. I believe that ethical decision making and meeting social responsibilities would be almost effortless if the person running a company has good moral character to begin with. According to Locke (1991, p.291), a person’s values plays a direct role in their ability to make sound ethical business decisions; that if a person wasn’t pre-equipped with values to begin with, then the individual is more likely to make unethical decisions (Nonis, Swift, 2001). Kathy Kudler, owner of Kudler Fine

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