Ethics, Sustainability & Professionalism in Work

This assignment examines the crucial relationship between ethics, sustainability, and professionalism in the workplace. It emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct, commitment to sustainable practices, and personal integrity for achieving professional success. The text highlights the need for leaders to foster a harmonious work environment through qualities like sacrifice and modesty. It also stresses the value of learning from experienced professionals and staying true to one's values.

Running head: ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY AND PROFESSIONALISM
ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY AND PROFESSIONALISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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ETHICS, SUSTAINABILITY AND PROFESSIONALISM
Reflective 2
What ethics means to you as an individual
The term ethics is derived from the Ancient Greek word ‘ethikos’ which has its origins in
the word ‘ethos’ meaning habit, character, disposition or custom. The main concern of ethics is
to answer a number of dilemmas like the ways to lead a fine life, the rights and duties of the
society and the resident of the society (Ciulla, 2014). Ethics, also known as moral philosophy,
refers to a branch of philosophy dedicated towards systematizing, justifying and suggesting the
concepts of correct and incorrect conduct. Ethical studies quest to solve human morality
questions by explaining concepts of good and bad, vice and virtue, wrong and right, crime and
justice. Social sustainability looks forward to identifying the positive as well as negative impacts
of business on people and managing those impacts as well. This essay deals with the work ethics
and sustainability. In this essay I will discuss the consequences of responsible and irresponsible
actions and some insights regarding the issue.
Ethical learnings help us to identify the point of disagreement. According to many
philosophers, there is no single correct solution to most of the ethical issues, but a group of
principles that may be applicable to certain cases in order to provide the involved individuals or
groups with certain choices that would be clearer. We need to identify the challenges to taking
ethically correct decisions. These challenges may cause even the most promising candidate to
overlook, misinterpret or ignore important signs and signals. This may result in the organization
or the individual incurring huge losses on their financial income or they may even have to face
legal actions. Organizational change needs to be sustainable. We have to make these changes
keeping in mind the effects it may have on nature (Benn, Dunphy & Griffiths, 2014; Ehrenfeld &

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Hoffman, 2013). The primary of the challenges is the ambiguities involved in the decision
making. I have a friend who has been working with a leading mattress manufacturing firm for
the past few months and have been through many situations where ambiguous conditions came
up at work. The company managers created a team with a desired goal. The mangers employed
the employees from their day jobs and employed them together in a group. This helped the
employees to put together their ideas and the hard work and execute the idea efficiently and
benefit the clients at large. The essential executive decisions rarely need consideration among
unambiguous and clear options. We may often find that the provided data delivers hints that are
strong enough to suggest that there is something incorrect but it does not give us the concrete
evidence that could be convincing enough. We should be able to enjoy the work that we do and
find ways to make the work meaningful and joyful (Botton, 2010).
We have to overcome the challenge of motivated blindness. If someone has personal
interests vested into an issue, then they fail to find an easy approach to problems (Hartman &
DesJardins, 2008). This explains the partiality we exhibit while we think about providing the best
for our closest ones. Motivated blindness accounts for the failure in reporting of criminal
evidences as well as the failure in investigating a crime that has been reported. I have been
interning at a private concern for the past few months. After spending a certain period of time, at
the office, I came to notice that some of the employees had been involved the unethical practice
of motivated blindness. No one seemed to speak up against the manager who, at times had been
involved into unethical practices. They did not want to speak up against the person who would
be responsible for the employees getting promoted into higher positions with lucrative salary
offers. Thus, in spite of his misdeeds, the manager got away due to the unethical practices of the
employees too.

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Our interpretation of information is influenced by our desires. This condition is found
particularly true when the incentives offered in reality are not unaligned with our responsibilities.
Many times it is seen that the fraudulent activities found in the firm are intentionally committed
by the person concerned for their own gains. We often see that misreporting is done to adjust a
tenure of weak performances of the firm (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2008). Generally, the
involved people plan to correct the performance rate later on but once they are out of their
capabilities, they are found escalating their misreporting instead of working on the improvement
of the weak performance issues. This is seen in practice in the study of Catherine Schrand,
University of Pennsylvania, and Sarah Zechman, University of Chicago. They studied 49 firms
that were sanctioned by SEC citing inappropriate practices involved in the accountings between
the years 1996 and 2003 (Bazerman, 2014). There might be cases here one maybe misled
intentionally by the other party involved in the agreement. It is a majorly committed unethical
deed as is causing indirect harm to a certain business in order to keep up to the promises made to
the customers. In Bangladesh, for example, a garment factory got burnt down killing half of the
child and female employees working there. In this context, even Walmart, may be cited
responsible as they had placed the supplier costs at the lowest level possible in order to cater to
their customers at very low prices.
It may be said in conclusion that, in order to find ethics in life we should respect nature,
have a sense of the sacred, the intellectual joy that comes from having reason, awe, hope,
mystery, wonder, creativity, intuition, curiosity, trust, honesty, love, generosity, compassion,
integrity, kindness, restraint and the sense of humor. These all play different roles in helping us
to find a proper meaning of life.

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Reflective 3
How cultural understanding might (or might not) how cultural understanding might (or
might not) help you develop as a professional in a globalized world.
A professional is a person who earns his living from any specified profession. The term
describes the training and the education standards which help us prepare for the job with skills
and knowledge particular to the specific role assigned within the concerned job. In this reflective
we would discuss the ways in which cultural understanding helps a person develop
professionally in this world of progressing globalization.
There exists a difference in moral codes as the cultural backgrounds of the people
practicing the moral code vary. In ethics, the notion of universal truth is considered to be a myth
by many. There exist different customs for different societies. These cannot be classified as
correct or incorrect as that would need an independent criterion for of the judgement of right and
wrong. There exists no such independent criterion of judgement, every judgement criterion is
culture bound. I have friends working in different firms across the country and they agree at a
single point that the work culture in our society promotes diversity of culture. Most of the
employees are of either Indian or Chinese origin.
Ethical ways are not exclusive of the concerned culture. The ethical ideas are born within
a certain culture and are traditional. These do not possess an origin that is different from the area
of their functional culture. Cultural relativism challenges the existence of a universal truth in the
field of ethics (Rachels, 1993). According to cultural relativists, ethics contains a variety of
cultural codes that vary from society to society. No societal code can be judged as there does not
exist any objective standard. We should never attempt to try judging the conduct of people

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belonging to a social culture different from our own; instead a tolerant attitude should be
developed towards the practices and customs of other cultures. Every society has a moral code
which helps in determining whether an action is correct according to the rules of the concerned
society (Sandhu, McKenzie & Harris, 2014). Thus, it would be arrogance on the part of an
individual if he judges the conduct of people. However, all cultures have some common ethical
standards. These common ethical standards ensure the existence of the culturally diverse groups
till present times.
In order to motivate and work in harmony with people belonging to different cultures, we
have to possess a global mindset. We should appreciate cultural diversity in the workplace and
be able to work in a cross-cultural environment. The leaders should be aware of specific cultural
customs. In order to be professionally successful, we have to be competent enough in the usage
of the knowledge of the global work culture as well as the cultural practices unique to a certain
area or country (Steiner & Steiner, 2009). In order to achieve this, we have to be able to modify
ourselves according to our work environment. This may also be known as cultural code-
switching. Psychological challenges arise whenever cultural knowledge is translated to action.
We may be at a conflict with our own selves due to the difference in our behavior and the
ingrained value system. Colleagues at work places also add to the uneasiness of the person
concerned as they judge the person on the ways in which he behaves at workplace. This in turn
makes the person feel all the more uncomfortable. Staying out of the comfort zone makes the
person concerned angry and frustrated thereby hampering a successful cultural code-switching
(Svendsen, 2016). Thus the career of the concerned person as well as the success of the
organization they work for get imperiled.

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However, these problems can be overcome. In order to do so, we have to first identify the
challenges that we face while working. We have to adopt our behaviors to the work environment
provided. We have to find a midway between our ingrained beliefs and values and the culture
specific to the workplace. The selected way of behavior needs to blend well with both the
cultures. The value of code-switching can be fully appreciated by two approaches. We can focus
on the alignment of our own cultural values and the desired end results to appreciate cultural
code switching (Unerman, Bebbington & O'Dwyer, 2007; Molinsky et al, 2012). Viewing the
code-switching from the viewpoint of the other culture rather than our own maybe another way
to view the same approach.
In conclusion to the above discussion, we may say that the only key towards becoming a
successful global leader is to learn to effectively switch codes in cross-cultural environments. A
sense of trust needs to be built among the colleagues and subordinates in order to create a
harmonious workplace. A leader should possess the qualities of sacrifice and modesty. In order
to become a successful professional one needs to follow and imbibe within himself a certain set
of principles. They need to focus on the needs of their profession more than those of their own.
This can be brought about by working alongside those who have been in the field for long. Thus
we may conclude our essay saying that in order to become a successful professional, we need to
be ethical and true to our own self.

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References
Bazerman, M.H., 2014. Becoming a first-class noticer. How to spot and prevent ethical failures
in your organization. Harvard business review, 92(7-8), pp.116-9.
Benn, S, Dunphy, D & Griffiths, A 2014, Organizational change for corporate sustainability,
Routledge, New York.
Botton, AD 2010, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, Penguin, London.
Ciulla, J.B. ed., 2014. Ethics, the heart of leadership. ABC-CLIO.
Crane, A., Matten, D., & Spence, L. J. (Eds.) 2008, Corporate social responsibility: Readings
and cases in a global context, Routledge, Abdingdon .
Ehrenfeld, JR & Hoffman, AJ 2013, Flourishing: A Frank Conversation About Sustainability,
Stanford Business Books, CA
Hartman, LP & DesJardins, J 2008, Business Ethics: Decision-Making for Personal Integrity &
Social Responsibility, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Boston.
Molinsky, A., Davenport, T.H., Iyer, B. and Davidson, C., 2012. Three skills every 21st-century
manager needs. Harvard Business Review, 90(1/2), pp.139-143.
Rachels, J. (1993). The Elements of Moral Philosophy. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp.Ch.
2, pp. 15-29, 202.
Sandhu, S, McKenzie, S & Harris, H (eds) 2014, Linking Local and Global Sustainability,
Springer, New York.

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Steiner, JF & Steiner, GA 2009, Business, Government and Society: A managerial perspective,
text and cases, 12th ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston.
Svendsen, L 2016, Work, 2nd edn, Routledge, Abingdon, UK.
Unerman, J, Bebbington, J & O'Dwyer, B (eds) 2007, Sustainability accounting and
accountability, Routledge, Abdingdon UK.