Personal Development Paper

I was influenced the way I determine different actions or behavior in a particular situation since I was a child. Growing up with a Baptist mother and four brothers made me value different things and behave in a particular way. In addition, this made me a have a particular ethical system that influences the way I work and act as an individual. At the corporation level, ethics is important because they set the rules and policy. In this paper, I will explain the developmental aspects of my ethics as well as my ethical system, the effects of my ethics at my workplace, and importance of ethics in an association to achieve its goals. My ethical system was shaped since I was a child. Growing up with a Baptist mother, definitely influence the way I value my family. In addition, some of my decisions are influenced by this Baptist upbringing. We treated everyone in the neighborhood like relatives, so even if you had one parent the neighbors would help the parent raise you. This was the standard I was use to until middle school, when I started wanting more freedom. My ethical system really started to develop then. The middle school I went to was 97% black 2% Hispanic and 1% white. As kids on the verge of being teens, we would test each other to do things that we knew was wrong just to see if we could get away with it. As dumb as it sounds that was the rules. As a kid, you do not think of what can go wrong. Then in high school things, changed hormones took over and everybody wanted sex. We know at that age that should have been that last thing on our minds but it was the first thing we thought about from sun up to sun down. My ethics would not allow me to take drugs. I saw for myself the effects of drugs and that was a route I could not take. Joining the Army really set in stone my ethical system that I would come to live by. We had so many rules and regulations that govern us that it only took one mistake to ruin your life. My underlying ethical system was in jeopardy every day. Treat people how you wanted to be treated even if they did not. The drill sergeants did not have to treat us like people, so we became a product owned by the US government. I learned honor, duty, respect, selfless service, leadership, and other things. That is when I discovered that the world was bigger that just me. One time in Afghanistan, one of my soldiers was on detail to help fix roads in country. The location that they were at had not been scan for landmines. The people in charge did not know that, so I jumped in a vehicle to find her so she would not be injured. By the time I got there, they were already in the middle of the minefield. I should have waited for the recovery unit to get there but I did not want see anyone be killed. First, I made them stop what they were doing and backtrack all the way out. No one got hurt it was the fact that made feel like I did the right thing for my fellow soldiers. This was a case of a duty-based ethical system. Then along came the marriage and the family. This is where my ethical system changed to a relativistic system. Dealing with a wife and kids there is no black and white, but there are many gray areas. You can never be right unless you agree with your wife even if she is wrong. The kids ask questions that you cannot answer so you tell them something made up just to make them better. The potential effects of my ethics on my performance helps me make the right choices at work most of the time. Shipping parts and items internationally there are a lot regulations you have to follow. Some people try to cheat the system and half way do paperwork thinking we can let them get away with it. Well, if that happens and the item is held up at the docks or on the plane, the company has to pay a fine a big fine now a day. If you are involved in that, you can be fired. One time not too long ago we were helping a customer get their parts shipped to out Hardy facility. After 4:00pm, you cannot ship any big item at that time because of traffic. We told the manger that the item could not ship it will have to go out tomorrow. He stated that the customer wanted the item that day and could not wait. The item went out any way and was damaged because the driver had to take back streets to get to our other facility. The item was so tall that it hit every tree it came in contact with which cost the customer $125,000 dollars to fix. The next time they try to ship anything they have to get permission from more than just the customer. They have to get hand written permission from three different sections so they can get the best service that we can give them even if we do not give what they want all the time. Ethics are need in organizations like mine so people will not take advantage of other co-workers and the customers. People in these companies sometimes treat the worker unfairly and will not pay them for their worth. They work long hours and get no compensation. Some companies like ENRON cheat people and cause problems globally because of the different investors that have invested in the company. The individual loses their job, the organization suffers in the public’s eye and society see the company as a sham. If an organization’s ethics are being held by the employees the company does well and the people know that the organization can be trusted. Most of these organizations have ethics classes and different types of learning programs to help the employees understand the importance of ethics. Conclusion Many different factors guide a person to have the ethical standpoint they have in life. Over time and as that person grows their ethics change and grows with them. There are no black and whites, good and bad, just people for the most part doing what they believe to be right in there point of view.