Human Values and Professional Ethics

Human Values and Professional Ethics

“Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein.

A person’s behaviour is a consequence of specific rules and/or the beliefs he has faith in. Similar to an individual, our society also runs based on the common beliefs of its people.

Societies also come together to trade, meet, and discuss various subjects related to their people.

Somewhere at the core of all this, there have to be guiding or ruling principles that direct the right and wrong course of action for the individuals. 

In this article, we shed more light on the significance of values in human life and ethics in businesses.

1. What are values?

2. What are Ethics?

3. The Origin of Ethics

4. What are morals? How are they different from Values?

5. Where do we learn values and ethics?

6. What is Professional Ethics?

7. Characteristics of Professional Ethics

8. Types of Professional Ethics

9. How are values related to Ethics?

10. What are Human Values?

What are values?

Value means worth. A value is a socially acceptable concept of what is important and to what degree.

Values define how we treat others in any association. The effect of good values lasts lifelong in dealing with difficult or unfortunate or adverse situations that come along the way of life. 

What are Ethics?

Ethics are a set of code of moral principles that decide what is right and wrong. 

Ethos in Greek means characters. Ethics are like value standards in society around us. ‘Ethical’ refers to the morally correct behaviour of a person or group. Ethics are applied, rather, are the foundation of every field.

There are three branches of ethics as per philosophy:

Meta-Ethics: This branch of ethical studies focuses on the theoretical aspect. Answering questions like why, when, how to do a thing, how a situation originated, etc. is meta-ethics.

Normative Ethics: It is also known as Prescriptive ethics. It includes questions that answer why an action can be right or wrong. The judgment of a situation is the key aspect of normative ethics. 

Applied Ethics: These ethics apply in specific fields like animal ethics, business ethics, bioethics, etc.

The Origin of Ethics

Ethics and ideals can be inter-related to gaining inspiration from each other. Rather, ideal examples of good people who did great deeds often motivate us to take their actions and conduct as role models in society. Ethics also arises from the religious beliefs of people.

There is a saying that goes like, “Always do the right thing because someone is watching you” is an example of just that. At yet other times, ideal demands are created by people to select the best out from of crowd. 

What are morals? How are they different from Values? 

A Moral is something we learn as a lesson from our actions. Values are different than morals since the former is the basis of any action and the latter the consequence of it. A moral is a message, while good practices cultivate a value. 

If we take the example of the good old Aesop’s fable of the Hare and the Tortoise, the values we learn through these are determination, avoiding overconfidence, appreciating teamwork, etc. while the moral we have been learning is ‘slow and steady wins the race’. 

Where do we learn values and ethics?

In kindergarten, our teachers, and parents did teach us the use of ‘golden words’ that are Thank you, Sorry and Excuse me. That was a step towards making us realize the value of our actions. 

Values and Ethics are like our mother tongue—these don’t need to be separately taught. A child learns values and ethics as a part of his growth and development, in which its family, school, and neighbourhood play an important role. As children grow up, their peers, teachers, influence, and shape their values. In adulthood, people are inspired by workplace environments. In other words, the values a person has and the ethics he follows is moulded by the culture, type of people he is in contact with. 

What is Professional Ethics?

A Profession is when many people follow the same kind of occupation and are related to each other as a part of an organized team or company. These professionals are bound to their professions and colleagues by moral principles. It is usually studied under applied ethics.

The set of guiding principles of what is right and wrong at our workplaces, followed by us, can be said to be Professional ethics. 

Professional ethics are characterized by the individual responsibilities, obligations of the employees and owners, and related professionals of any organization. They are accountable for their actions to their colleagues, clients, and customers as well as society. 

Why Ethics are required in workplaces?

As we said, workplace or professional ethics drive the entire organization towards enhancement. Good ethical practices lead to increased transparency, productivity. This further leads to increased customer satisfaction and establishes trust. 

Negligence, misconduct, unlawful activities in the organization cause these things to fall apart. But if ethics are followed voluntarily by people, if ethics cause better governing of the organization, these events can be prevented, and a bigger loss of the society can be prevented.

Characteristics of Professional Ethics

Organizations usually issue specialized Codes of Conduct for its employees, which include a list of Professional Standards to be followed. 

An ethical code of conduct lays down certain rules for employees in the form of their responsibilities, guidelines of colleagues, and clients relationship.

They state appropriate performances and manners towards others, which will benefit the organization. 

These ethics also state the responsibility of professionals towards the company/organization and the common public. 

Integrity: Business integrity of any person plays a big role in defining their professional character. 

Right to Privacy: The professionals cannot disclose any private or confidential information to the company or others outside it. The Right to privacy of every customer must be protected. Personal data of customers and clients is to be kept confidential. 

The Loyalty of an employee towards his organization and occupation.

Bias: Professionals cannot work for selfish needs by having biased or objective judgments. Decisions to be taken have to comply with just and fair practices.

Types of Professional Ethics

Professions include Doctors, Lawyers, engineers, corporate, and many such organized professional services. 

1. Medical Ethics: These are issued by the National Medical Associations of respective countries. The Medical fraternity is responsible for mannered behaviour with the patients, respect their confidentiality. There are specialized laws for Euthanasia (ending the patients’ life in case he/she is terminally ill and does not wish to suffer). 

2. Judicial Ethics: Ethics are applied at every stage of any judiciary and legal action. Truth, Loyalty, the right decision, equality to everyone for the basis of judicial ethical principles.

Lawyers, while defending their clients shall not make any degrading remarks at others

3. Media Ethics: We all know how media bodies report false or twisted news to sensationalize it.

Honest, reliable news reporting is what is needed. For example, Journaling about an issue in the society with an unbiased view is the demand for ethics, but some journalists might directly claim unproved facts or false claims.

4. Other organizations like almost every corporate, educational institute, governmental institutes have their own Code of Conduct for managing their professional ethics. 

How are values related to Ethics?

Values can be called as subsets of Ethics, a wider subject. Values are the backbone of any ethical code. Values are the ones which reflect a person or group’s upbringing, mentality, his goals, etc. These factors influence the formation of societies, communities or organizations, and their ethical sets. 

What are Human Values?

A human being in his life learns numerous values like sharing and cooperation, equality, social justice, dignity, freedom, secularism, etc. We, as humans, are a part of many social organizations like schools, workplaces, markets, businesses, etc. Read more about Secularism in Indian constitution here.

Before that, we are a part of an environment formed by nature. Humans ought to abide by environmental values as well. 

These values are very important for the holistic development of humans, their families, and communities. We apply these values all our lives but don’t even come to know about it…it’s that deeply restored in our memories. Values and ethics are key factors in the personality development of human beings. Many a time, these values add to our mental and spiritual well being. 

Ignorance of values causes a person to drift away from the path to his goals, and such people often commit wrongdoings. Traditionally, this has been a common notion. However, if we say a person’s values and ethics are shaped according to his upbringing and immediate surroundings, aren’t we blaming society?

In simple words, human values and ethics have a role in building society as we see it and vice versa.

Conclusion

The Indian Constitution, or any democratic constitution for that matter, is built on a system of values and ethical principles like freedom, equality, sovereignty, justice, transparency, etc. that allow the citizens of a democracy to trust its government and judiciary. Hence we can call democracy to be a system built on a strong ethical foundation studded with human values. 

✍️ Prachi Hajare

Thanks to PSCNOTES.IN