Ethics form an essential part in any individual, group, or organization, especially if the subject regularly interacts with other parties and organizations in a corporate environment. It is the duty of every individual and / or organization to develop ethical and moral standards to enhance relations with other parties in accordance with international ethical standards.
A code of ethics is a set of personal or organizational values developed according to acceptable ethical standards and approaches to enable the concerned parties to carry themselves out according to the set ethical standards. Normally, individuals and institutions develop codes of ethics for their personal and professional lives to promote harmonious and acceptable behavior within their respective environments. Although a number of approaches to developing codes of ethics are available, the underpinning ruledemands all standards of ethics toensure clarity and objectivity in the values and principles, plainly indicating the implementation and monitoring plan, and a plan for periodical ethical auditing.
Statement of Values
For an individual or organization to succeed in personal or professional world, there is need to put in place a concrete statement that determines the values and principles that party cherishes. These values include personal integrity, responsibility, honesty, excellence, and respect. These values haveproved to be effective as far as both personal and career advancements are concerned (Hatcher & Aragon, 2000).
1. Personal integrity one needs to engage in constructive behavior that has the benefit of enhancing individual or organizations image. In order to ensure personal integrity, an individual should always build their reputation and avoid any behavior that questions ones credibility.
2. Responsibility to conduct ones self in a wise manner that attracts dependence and opportunities. Responsibility calls for accountability in every undertaking.
3. Honesty ensures credibilityand trustworthiness in all endeavors and consequently leading to more opportunities towards honest persons.
4. Excellence This means always aiming for the best quality in productivity and output in school or professional lifestyle in accordance to the prevailing evaluation criteria. Since this is a continuous process, a person can undergo continuous process of perfection, as there is no limit to this principle.
5. Respect it implies obey prevailing regulations, all stakeholders, and third parties. By being respectful at all times, one earns respect and integrity that in turn that helps in boosting their ethical perception.
Through responsible upbringing, most parents have been able to instill these crucial values into the systems of their young ones through constant guidance and correction. This forms the basis of ethical development as high ethical values and good morals begin from as early as during the childhood years of a givenperson.Individuals can acquire ethical principles from learning activities at school or while attending religious teachings where they inculcate a myriad of moral teachings that over the years form their ethical standards. Various approaches through which parents, mentors, teachers, role models, and guardians impart the ethical values exist with the one commonly used by parents at home being the end-based approach. This method involves evaluation the benefits or otherwise consequences of a particular course of to the family members or the public. Through understanding the consequences, individuals especially the children can reconsider their actions thereby shaping their own ethical principles (Hatcher & Aragon, 2000).
While at school or in religious meetings, the teachers employed the rule-based approach that contemplates the evaluation of the motive of n action. In this case, a particular course of action was morally wrong or right depending on its motive. Through this strict approach, children were able to follow only the right ways with good motives while evading ill motivated acts at all costs and by practicing this, they were able to acquire the desired ethical values.In such situations, several approaches existed like the virtue-based approach where the children shared common values like the love for one another, strive for academic excellence, and the general obedience of the general rules governing such institutions. While experiencing learning in various settings, individuals undergo ethical transformation to enable them cope efficiently with the dynamic world(Winstanley& Woodall, 2000).
It is clear that these ethical principles have experienced a significant evolution over time especially considering the fact that both career and personal progression demands some injection of such values. Firstly, the progression of excellence as an ethical principle has been due to the continued advancement in education and constant practice. The theory of continuity supports the advancement and perpetuation of ethical values and principles over time to have a situation of impeccable ethical standards. Such values as responsibility, honesty, and integrity are very crucial when it comes to personal and professional development and indeed, they do develop as one matures provided there is passion and determination (Winstanley& Woodall, 2000).
While developing a code of ethics, various persons or organizations face certain issues of moral philosophy, depending on the approach employed. The commonest one is the normative ethics because people have to grapple with determining whether a particular course of action is bad or good, right or wrong, on a daily basis. This tends to shape their general standards of ethics besides making them choose different approaches as regards ethical values. For example, in the Virtue-end approach, individuals have to face moral issues like differentiating between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in diverse environments (Winstanley& Woodall, 2000).
Training and Communication Plan
