Personal, Cultural And Organizational Values In A Global Setting

An individual must combine the personal, organizational, and cultural values and ethics that they have learned in life to be able to succeed in a global setting.

Values have been subdivided into instrumental values (modes of behavior) and terminal ones (values pursued for their own sake). Whereas terminal values are self-sufficient, and desired states of existence that a person strives to achieve (i.e., wisdom, a comfortable life, knowledge), instrumental values are modes of behaviors used day to day that help people to reach terminal values (i.e., being helpful). (Nonis and Swift, May/June 2001)

Personal ethics/values, tend to guide us as we walk and communicate in the world daily. People often ask what ethics are. There is no one definition. Every society and culture has a different way of interpreting and defining ethics; ethics is the development, understanding, and application by the way their own culture does things or the society norms. According to the Webster's Dictionary, ethics is defined as the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty. I see ethics as the set of rules of conduct that reflects the character and the sentiments of the community. Ethics help us establish standards of honesty, loyalty, and fairness. Expressing one's personal take on ethics and life may not always be understood in the context of the world at large. There are four parts that contribute to an individual's ethics: cognitive development, work ethic, personality and emotion. Cognitive development refers to how a person thinks, perceives, and gains an understanding of his or her world through the interaction and influence of hereditary and academic aspects. Work ethic is devotion to hard work, duty, ...

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