Hello World Who is General Failure and why is he reading my drive?

In the early 60’s there was a view of companies that was not all flattering - they were money grubbing greedy and the general public view of them was “pretty untrustworthy”. Companies were essentially lacking corporate integrity. These days companies can see the bigger picture and its worth their while to present a good image to their target audience.

A company’s mission, vision and practical goals all define its corporate integrity, and indicate the quality you can expect to recieve and the processes and system you will be subject to, but this requires involvement of the organisation. Defining these are not simple problems.

A companies Code of Ethics is a promise, a pact, that the company will act in the manner outlined in the code when it comes to ethical decision making.

To discern how a professional is bound by a company’s code of ethics we need to look at the profession it self:

Entrace into professions usually require extended periods of education or training. Typically this training is academic and grounded on theory and acquired through some body of knowledge. Professionals usually possess knowledge and skills vital to the community. Usually professionals in a particular occupation have a monoply in the provision of professional services and posses a degree of autonomy in the workplace (they can do their own thing).

As a professional working for an organisation, you are regulated by the standards of the organisation.

Professional Ethics however, should be distinguished from “personal morality”. Professional ethics are dervied from standards adopted by professionals in their role as professionals. Personal morality is different, its a set of ethical commitments you acquire through out your life from family, religion and are modified by your experiences.

Did you say standards? Why yes I did, because thats what they are - commonly agreed rules of conduct for professionals. They provide a rationale for professionals to adhere to professional standards, even when presumed by others to violate their own personal rules. Don’t get me wrong - just because they are standards doesnt mean they are set in stone. You should adhere to these standards when possible but not enslavishly.

Now, if personal and professional ethics are different we’re obviously going to have conflicts. Consider a doctor who’s examining the husband of a friend, only to find he has contracted an STD under questionable circumstances. A doctor might feel compelled to tell his/her friend but violate professional doctor patient confidentiality.

Similarly, there are going to be times when we are unclear what the right thing to do is - at this point professional codes must be considered. You should look at what the codes say and the direction that the codes give in those circumstances.

But there are a lot of impediments to responsible action: ultimately the onus is on you to be an ethical professional and an ethical person. In either case your duty is to protect the public - you’ll find (in engineering anyway) that this is the main gist of professional ethics.

A key thing to note here is that law is not always the defining line between what is ethical and what isn’t. There are cases which are just legal grey areas. But the bottom line is would you want the same thing done to you?

Other, personal, impediments include:

• Self Interest
• Fear
• Self Deception - intrinsically difficult to discover in oneself
• Ignorance
• Egocentric tendencies
• Microscopic vision
• Uncritical acceptance of authority
• Groupthink - when people get tied to the mentality of a group

Try get past these.