values partnership and power 9social work ) - self determination

Ethics and Values in the Workplace

According to Moore and Bruder (2003 , ethics , or moral philosophy , is the philosophical study of moral judgments value judgments about what is virtuous or base , just or unjust , morally right or wrong , morally good or bad or evil , morally proper or improper . As professionals , there are many ethical choices that are clear-cut enough for us to be able to decide what to do rather quickly because they pit right ' against wrong . The search for organisational statements of right and wrong behaviour is not difficult to conceive

. Virtually every sizable corporation has a carefully framed code of ethics and the same is true of virtually every professional organisation

In connection , values represent basic convictions that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence (Chen , 4 September 2000 . These values contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individual 's ideas as to what is right good , or desirable . Values have both content and intensity attributes The content attribute says that a mode of conduct or end-state of existence is important . The intensity attribute specifies how important it is . When we rank an individual 's values in terms of their intensity we obtain that person 's value system . All of us have a hierarchy of values that forms our value system . This system is identified by the relative importance we assign to values such as freedom , pleasure self-respect , honesty , obedience , and equality

The values system contains all the values held by individuals , including their cultural values and work values . Cultural values have been identified through research as being those typically held by certain cultural groups (Carter , 1991 . They include values regarding Human nature - human beings are good , bad , or neither Person-nature relationship - nature dominates people people dominate nature living in harmony with nature is important Time orientation - past , past-future , present , or circular , that is oriented to changes that recur in nature , as opposed to time as measured by watches and calendars Activity - (being ) spontaneous self-expression is important (being-in-becoming ) controlled self-expression is important (doing action-oriented self-expression is important

In this view , values are important to the study of organisational behaviour because these are precedents of the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation . Also , these values influence our perceptions . Individuals enter an organisation with preconceived notions of what ought ' and what ought not ' to be . Of course , these notions are not value free . On the contrary , they contain interpretations of right and wrong . Furthermore , these values imply that certain behaviours or outcomes are over others . As a result values could sometimes affect objectivity and rationality

In fact , Scarborough (1998 ,

. 5 ) considered that our values shape our attitudes and beliefs about work , success , wealth , authority , equity competition , and many other such components of the content and context of the work environment . These govern how we wish to be treated and how we treat others how...