Essay - Cultural Values and Personal Ethics the Role of Values in...

Cultural Values and Personal Ethics

The Role of ***** in Decision Making

We live in a highly interdependent and interconnected world, which is able to function in relative harmony because it is governed by mutually, agreed codes of conduct. Indeed, without the prevalence ***** such codes of conduct, human civilization would probably degenerate into being ruled ***** the law of the jungle or the "survival ***** the fittest." Thus, it is evident that human ***** is both a function of *****nd dependent on dec*****ions and actions that are guided by established ethical standards. This observation holds true for all aspects ***** life, be it personal or professional.

***** fact that ***** civilization is grounded in ethical behavi***** also explains why social un*****s such as the family, educational and religious institutions, organizations ***** government devote so much attention and energy towards inculcating individual citizens in widely accepted tenets of ***** behavior. For, by doing so, human ********** can ensure that the personal, organizational, and cultural values learned will lead to ethical behavior or "those rules of ***** that direct us to act in a manner consistent with the values we profess." (Mattison, cited Lewis, 2000)

Yet, ***** Mattison (*****) points out, it is virtually impossible to pick up a newspaper, magazine, ***** *****ional journal today and not find attention being drawn to present controversies ab***** moral or ***** *****sues. These controversies arise ***** the ethical dimensions of decisions ***** often complex (Sims, 1994, p. 39), involving ***** just a straightforward distinction between right and wrong but a choice of *****lternatives that may give rise to conflicting values or ethical dilemmas (Mattison, 2000). Such ***** dilemmas occur because an ********** ethical behavior is influenced by his or her *****, personal, and organizational values (Sims, *****, p. 3), which may conflict with each other in any given situation or differ from that ***** other individuals.

Thus, it is evident that while ethics refers ***** the rules or principles that define ***** and wrong conduct, ***** is not always ***** easy to identify the right answer. However, ********** are ethical positions such as the utilitarian, rights or the justice view that can help provide guidance in evaluating ***** moral consequences of decisions (Sims, 1994, p. 5-6). *****, my own ***** worldview that ***** should be guided by the principles of social justice has, I believe, helped resolve some ***** ***** ethical ***** that ***** have so far faced in my professional and per*****nal *****.

In the first instance, my personal worldview has facilitated the resolution of any conflict between my cultural background ***** that ***** others. ***** is because I hold the view that universal values such as peace, goodwill, comp*****sion, understanding, *****lerance, liberty, equality, and human individuality supercede any ***** all o*****r considerations. Thus, th***** worldview has led to *****e development of a ***** value system, ***** embraces the concept of world citizenship and encompasses all cultures and religions.

The ethics view of ***** that I hold ***** also particularly come in handy