Ethical issues have become important in recent times. The rising wave in developments of personal ‘liberty’ rights aside the fundamental human rights has turned more arguments towards the question of what is right or wrong. This paradigm shift has enjoyed more attention because of moral relativism prevalent in this generation; it is one that recognizes individuality over the common essence of community. There is increased emphasis on ‘mine’ and ‘my’, and what as an individual become claimable rights backed up by the State. It is in vein that issues of ethics become pertinent for every career, and chosen field of human endeavor.
The essence of this is to understand human beings as free moral agents in informal and corporate settings of daily human interactions. This understanding becomes useful as an instrument of effective communication and transaction between people when ethical issues are cleared. As a result, every profession needs to create the aware ness of this current paradigm so that it would not suddenly be caught in the muddy water of ethics. This is the focus of the article. WHAT ARE ETHICS? ETHICS, as defined by the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary, are ‘moral beliefs and rules about right and wrong’.
Every individual is different from the rest, as such his belief in what is right and wrong would also differ from the others. This is an important issue in this age of moral relativism; a situation where moral beliefs become individualized as opposed to public rights. This implies that an individual can decide to start enjoying some rights, and also chose what is wrong or right from his perspectives irrespective of others’ opinion. One would have noticed this particular trend of ethical matters in medical practice. Here, ethical matters are taken seriously.
As a result, there has been heated debate on what medical intervention should inculcate on abortion, euthanasia [mercy killing], and infanticide and patient-doctor interactions. The aforementioned issues have raised enormous questions in relation to ethics, and the argument is still on. However, in all of these, the medical profession has consistently taken a beneficial stand on the matter so that medical practitioners have options for making decisions as situations permit. This has helped in a substantial way to drowse the tension over such to a reasonable extent. CAREER ETHICS
The term “Career Ethics” was coined by Rosemary Sainty. This was as a result of an increased demand by clients to incorporate ethics into their career decisions – in choice of employer, seeking a career matching personal values or the desire to make work more meaningful. It ahs become a hot topic both in the choices made by employers with respect to work place, location ans enviornment. It has finds credible application in relationships between clients and employers; here, a code of conducts or ethics is in place. It recognises the human differences that exist as touching moral beliefs.
It thus includes conduct measures through which buisness ralations become more productive. The importance of having a good ethical fondation inany carrer can not be overempphasized. For any successful organisation, it is an inevitable tool. For individuals as well, a strong ethical foundation makes it easier to work; makes changes easier to approach and decisions less herculaen to make even under unfavoravle conditions. Loose and simple human without any ethical orientation usually trapped in the argument, and go into oblivion. ETHICS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Considering the current trend on personal rights and morals, there is need to create the awareness in any chosen career. This is because every career is fundamental human relations. Irrespective of the details involved, human are involved and their moral beliefs have a strong emotional influence on choices and decisions. It therefore becomes a necessity first to be aware of this trend. Then, creating schemes through which it can be structured for optimal productivity between interacting parties. Mistakes are part of everyday interactions. Reactions to such and even successes are colored by the waters of morals and personal beliefs.
This further underscores the place of ethics in any chosen profession. In science and technology, projects can become individualized suiting the peculiar needs of a person. This is reinforced by dutifully taking into consideration the ethical background of the client or company. ETHICAL REALITIES There are real-life situations where ethical issues come to bear in client-manufacturer relationship. In working hard to establish and reach the pinnacle of a planned, there is need to present personal details and simple and sincere forms that everyone can easily appreciate.
This sets the pace for other on-job challenges and appointments. With a strong moral compass calibrated with honesty, integrity, truthfulness, a sense of responsibility even to mistakes as well as positive human relations, the planned career is up on the way to being firmly built. There would be leaders in such field, due respect and unreserved to such people is important, as one would only be great when you stand on the shoulders of the great people who are before you. Albert Einstein understood it, and that’s why he made the statement.
This is also applicable to every profession. In the face of challenges, decisions become difficult to make. With a deep conviction in personal values, decisions would emerge with limited stress. As Robert Schuler puts it in his book, Tough Times Never last but tough people do ‘When there are no contradictions in your value system, decisions become easier to make’: this is the essence of ethics in any planned career. It becomes obvious to employers and customers that this person is different and the trust builds a wall of confidence around the person.
There is no profession without financial inputs. A good moral inclination would create a forum where it is easier to budget and accurately record expenditure without exaggerations. Great leaders have been marred in this regard because of incompetence with respect to fund; this can be easily resolved by taking time-bound records of financial transactions with specific details, whether for personal purpose or on behalf on the Company. I have seen this work for many people: and they earn the respect of others for such unusual initiative.
CONCLUSION There is a paradigm shift virtually all over the world, with increasing emphasis on moral relativism and personal ethics. This has generated serious debates in a number of professions like medicine. For others, it is only a matter of time; ethical issues would become equally important. An aware ness now and incorporation of it into corporate career relations would be of immense benefit in the future. This can be achieved by code of ethics or by an ethic unit and consultant.
