My personal code of ethics
A brief personal and background description
Having been born and brought up in an urban environment, I have come to appreciate the essence of living in a diverse community. Development of personal code of ethics could further be linked to my Christian basement which has been a major platform decision making in our family and the community too. Besides, my profession in healthcare has further demanded that I develop and nurture a special ethical outlook that goes beyond personal demands towards addressing other peoples well being. My profile would perhaps be incomplete without mentioning my role mode, Martin Luther King Junior whose principles I try to incorporate and employ at all times.
My beliefs and obligations to the society
Existence of an individual in the society to agree with Duane (2005) is dependent on how well heshe is able to hold his belief and conduct the expected obligations to improve the communitys well being. In concurrence with John Stuarts utilitarian theory, the demand to achieve the best has remained my central theme in healthcare services provision. In concurrence with Mills assertion that life consists of a myriad of issues where key decisions must be made, I have developed the following beliefs. To begin with, I belief that the society cannot develop unless everybodys well being is achieved. Though this consideration may be hard to articulate as Stephen (2005) argues, I belief that it is possible through application of the correct virtues at all levels. I further belief in human rights adherence and respect as the key stepping stones that only project peoples commitment and hard work, but intrinsically derive their motivation. Consequently, I uphold and belief in beneficence as a concept to create the largest positive impact to my community. The latter has been drawn from the understanding that the community will not always be appreciative my work, but will agree with positive outcomes especially those directed to them such as healthcare.
One of the key ethical concerns in the community is the fast rising drug abuse among the youths and most importantly, lack of enough rehabilitation professionals to address it. According to Regoli, Hewitt and DeLisi (2009), 20 of the students by eighth grade will have tried marijuana while cocaine use increased from 2 to 4 between 1991 and 2001. As Emanuel Kant emphasis on beneficence, my focus sprouts on the demand to have a future for the youths and the nation. In this respect, I have been contributing to youth forums in the following ways. To begin with, I have been assisting in guidance and counseling in schools and community youth initiatives. In addition to that, I have also been involved in counseling and assessing the levels of change for mal-adaptive youths in out-of-school sports programs.
My belief and obligations to other individuals
As indicated earlier, my belief and obligations to other individuals are hooked to my role model Martin Luther King Junior. In his letter from Birmingham jail, King Luther indicated that everybody has a duty to ensure the well being of his neighbor as opposed to fostering oppression (Harry, Earl and Swindal, 2003). It is from this consideration that I belief unity to be an effective tool and a force that people should employ in curving a better future for themselves and latter generations. Therefore, though I agree with Jeremy Bentham on his emphasis that we are governed by pain and pleasure, it is critical that all activities are aligned towards improvement and not necessarily the emphasis of the extreme (Snyder and Lopez, 2009). As a team leader in my workplace, I emphasize on holistic unity that easily focuses on objectivity of the team and the organization as a whole.
How better can my colleagues at the work place be able to achieve the set goals without emphasizing on continued improvement The ethical concern at this point is that many individuals in the society and indeed in my profession do not realize the need to go beyond the established goals and objectives. I therefore belief that at any time there is a room for improving either the bad performance or bettering the good achievements. This belief coheres with moral realists William Davis Ross and Aristotle who emphasized on the duty to improve others, improve ourselves and avoid harm (Duane, 2005). Therefore, my belief for other individuals is that by helping them, I equally improve myself cognitively and accumulate more experience.
It is from this consideration that I have often played a reconciliatory role at my work place. At the onset of year 2008 summer, I played a critical role in resolving the dispute between my colleagues and a new human resources manager who appeared to emphasis on changes rather too fast than most of the individuals cold take up without negatively affecting services delivery. Though I was part of the affected employees, I understood that changes were indeed crucial for improving services delivery, but the mechanisms employed should create a better working environment that is motivating to all individuals. Through my initiative to forge the way forward for the employees, the management and most importantly, the services consumer, a new baseline for respect, commitment and innovativeness emerged.
My beliefs and obligations to myself
While the society and other individuals remain my focus, I must say that personal beliefs and obligations are the main drivers. As indicated earlier, I strongly view Martin Luther king Junior as my role model in that he emphasized on selflessness for other peoples sake (Harry et al, 2003). Therefore, I have come to belief that that self respect and openness in my personal and official duties should create a special niche for my holistic improvement. In this case I agree with George Moores ethical non-naturalness that emphasis on commonsense in addressing the emergent issues in life. Creating a rational outline not only coheres with majority of the communitys demands, but further develops a new model for others in shaping their lives.
To remain a role model and live with other people in harmony, I believe in love and search for more knowledge as the main platform for shaping the society in which we live. Therefore, I feel personally obligated to extend my love to others by contributing to related activities that promote such well being. William Russell calls for continued love, search for knowledge and sympathy to the suffering (Stephen, 2005). In the family, at the community and even in the workplace, I contribute and support initiatives that create knowledge that would build me in performing my professional duties. As a group leader I use my position to learn more about group dynamics, how to relate better with people and most importantly how to relate their demands with the organizations objectives.
One evident contemporary ethical issue at the personal level has been the balance between family and professional work. As Duane (2005) reports, many people are confronted with this dilemma but lack an immediate answer to it. While I agree with the same consideration especially for medical professionals, it is critical that the most effective solution to serve both interests is sought. To address the same situation, I had to shift to a residential place that is near my working place. In this case, I managed to use the time I previously wasted in travelling long distances in improving my own knowledge, providing extra services to my clients and most importantly afford the necessary time with my family. While emphasizing that every cloud has a silver lining, Stephen (2005) explains that people should seek to get the best out of even the hard situations as opposed to responding to them negatively.
Conclusion
It is from the above analysis that I conclude this paper by supporting the thesis statement, maintenance of effective code of ethics by an individual acts as a critical factor in determining hisher ability to cooperate with others in the society, maximize contribution to the community and facilitate their holistic potential realization. Maintaining the correct personal code of ethics turned out to be a crucial facet in creating a holistic community with highly responsible individuals. Besides, my personal beliefs and obligations at the personal and community level came out to be highly intertwined and therefore cannot be executed in isolation. However, I must continue searching for improvement through learning especially from the fast changing lifestyle patterns.
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