Ethics: Professional Behavior a Sense

Ethics: Professional Behavior

A sense of personal responsibility is what man must possess in order to act in an ethically sound manner in various situations. Without this sense, it is very easy to go astray in personal and professional lives. Countless examples of corporate fraud recently and in the last one decade has shown that CEOs can adopt cause harm to millions of stakeholders for their own profits simply because they lack a sense of responsibility to themselves and others. This lack of responsibility emerges from their larger than life image in the world which offers them impunity and it takes a great deal of investigation, years of following leads and finally a major insider disclosure to set the record straight. The reason many CEOs need government involvement to correct their behavior is because they do not feel accountable to anyone. If a person understands that he is accountable to someone and in many cases, more than one person, they would keep a close eye on their own behavior and actions.

When I read about all the fraud and accident cases where companies either deliberately fooled their investors into believing that company was profitable or where companies caused serious damage to lives of millions through their own careless actions, I wonder what kind of professional would I want to be? Despite the temptation of wealth and status, I believe that it is the personal values and beliefs of a person that should be a priority in life. We all love success but that doesn't need to come at the cost of our personal values and good behavior. Why can't a person amass wealth and success and still stay true to his core values? The answer is not simple but yet worth discovering. People behave in the most outrageous manner when it comes to success and money because it has become a dog eat dog world where no one wants to be left behind in the rat race. When a professional chooses to act in a morally sound manner, he may often find himself left behind by those who couldn't care less about ethics and then others are also tempted to cheat, steal and rob.

What they fail to see is the long-term impact of their actions. Both the ethically upright person and the crook need to see that their actions involve a long-term impact. The repercussions of their actions may not become apparent immediately but eventually they will unless they correct their behavior before public disclosure. I would always want to be a person who can keep the long-term picture in view. This is easier said than done but that is the only way I can be the kind of professional who believes in doing the right thing for the right reasons.