Thursday, October 25, 2012

Week 9 Reflection



There was more information about how to approach real-life situations and come out an ethical professional.  The most valuable player this week was the ethical decision making process.  The lecture and the reading spent quality time and space on explaining the steps in the process; it was the emphasis this week.  The time spent on the ethical decision making process was well spent because it lays the foundation for ethically operating in any setting.

It also gave me the opportunity to find out where my strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to ethical behavior.  I found that my strength lies in being able to quickly identify the ethical issues in a given situation and that my ethics are clearly defined; my weakness is sometimes spending too much time on the third step and letting the thoughts and possibilities wander.  I like having one main concept to learn and other supporting concepts and applications.    

This week the supporting concepts were the codes of ethics.  One thing that I understand now that I did not before was that at any time a person is operating several different codes, namely their business code, professional code, and code of ethics.  These are definitely important and very practical.  In a job, a person will be interacting with other co-workers, their superiors, and/or clients.  Whenever those exchanges are taking place or being planned or prepared for having a code that you can operate by and/or hold others to makes things so much easier and maintains a healthy, positive atmosphere in the workplace.  

 Knowing that there are regulations and ethical expectations in place creates a confidence and controls conduct, yours and others.  When the times comes to make a decision about how to approach something having the codes give you something to fall back on, knowing that you will have the business’/profession’s support.  Seems so simple but it was good to go over these types of things explicitly this week.     

2 comments:

  1. I agree that having an ethical code provides a foundation for ethical decision making. I too, found the notion that at any given time we're operating under a multitude of ethical codes interesting. While most times these distinctions can be good, they can also be harmful in that it allows for the justification of decisions you wouldn't normally make.

    I am also reminded of the vice-presidential debate, the topic of abortion and the notion of when life begins. The vice president noted that as a christian he personally sides with the Catholic church and believes life begins at conception, however politically he takes a different stance stating he doesn't feel he should push his beliefs onto others. Understanding that our beliefs and ethics change in context is an important consideration.

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  2. I enjoyed reading your reflection Krystina. I'm glad to see you engaged with the lecture and readings and took something away from this week. I agree with you and Rickelle that working around multiple codes of conduct can be tricky!

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