Online Reflective Journal: Ethics, Consent, and Professional Skills

This reflective journal assignment delves into the crucial aspects of business ethics, informed consent, and the development of essential professional skills. The student explores the significance of ethics in contemporary business practices, emphasizing its role in decision-making, brand image, and ...Read More

Running Head: ONLINE REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
ONLINE REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

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Answer 1
According to Shaw and Barry (2015) the global competitiveness in the international
market develops a number of new approach that are not considered previous as part of the
business orientation. Ethics is such kind of a concept that many of the business companies are
started following. In a very general manner, it can be stated that ethics can lead towards right
value, behaviour and decision making which are part and parcel of business success. The current
practice of ethics in business is associated with the legal perspective, environmental
consideration, employee interests and operations. Therefore, ethics plays a pivotal role in the
current business practice and entitled to deliver a justified ground for the organisation to continue
sustainable business orientation.
The article of Halinen and Jokela (2016) pointed out that ethics in business is
correspondent to the basic human needs. In other words, it is part of the business orientation that
creates a responsible attitude of the organisation to meet the basic human needs. By fulfilling the
needs of the people and the society, a business organisation can easily create its own brand
image which is a significant sustainable factor. Therefore, the business organisations are always
focusing on the practice of creating better and effective organisational practice that is supplanted
by ethical consideration in order to enhance the brand image.
On the other hand, it is also crucial for the organisation to convince the employees
regarding the ethical business practice. Halinen and Jokela (2016) opined that the ethical values
and goals provide enough credibility to the organisational motives. It is pertinent to engage the
employees with the organisational practice following the path of righteousness. Therefore, ethics
provides such measure to the organisation where the social upright and moral values of the

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organisation will win the confidence of the employees. For example, McDonalds is going to
implement its commitment towards rights of the animals. In respect to this, the organisation
decides to use 100% cage free eggs in its Egg McMuffins (news.mcdonalds.com, 2019).
Decision making is also identified as a crucial part for the business companies in
competitive market. Ethical consideration adds up more reliance and authenticity to the decision
making and create a good brand image in the market. According to Rani (2016), a good decision
making can pave the way for the business organisation to gain strategic advantage in the
competitive market. For instance, McDonalds currently decided to invest on employee skills due
to the labour shortage in United States (Smith, 2018). It is a very optimising initiative that boosts
the confidence of the employees as they get the opportunity to develop their skills in free of cost.
Answer 2
Informed consent is a knowing form of letter that an individual or legally authorised
representative without any inducement or element of force or fraud can provide to an individual
for his or her responses. In the consent form the subject language has to be very clear and to-the-
point so that it will be easier for the people to understand the importance and purpose of the
consent form (Shaw and Barry, 2015). The conscious nature of the form with the presentation of
the key information assists to make the form highly effective and reflect the expectation of the
professional.
For my professional career, it is highly important to acquire knowledge from experienced
people. However, the process needs to follow a right way to ask the experts about their
professional career. No one is willing to share their experience and key success facts without
having any idea about my intention. In response to this, it is very crucial for me to create a legal

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paper that shows my authentic purpose and the expected outcome for my professional
development.
Moreover, Shaw and Barry (2015) stated that the informed consent is a professional
paper filled with important data and information relevant with the objective of the person.
Therefore, in my case the consent form definitely helps to get the key aspects that have
significant role in my career development. In other words, it can be stated that the informed
consent is a guideline for a novice person to follow the right path of development. Therefore, I
can stated that the informed consent will help to shape my career development and guide me to
get the expected outcome that I would like to achieve in near future.
Moreover, it is important to note that the role of the informed consent is also provide
new ideas and innovative concepts that can easily help me in my future career development. It is
not possible for a person to get clear insights into the career development without having
guidance from experts. In respect to this, the informed consent plays the true nature where the
experts can provide their feedbacks on my professional career development and assist me to find
out any gaps that can create challenge in the professional development. It can be argued that a
high optimism of the individual is a very significant characteristics of the informed consent
where the individual can understand the requirements and act accordingly.
Answer 3
There are series of skills that a professional must acquire for success in workplace. First
of all, accountability of the profession is a very important aspect. It is associated with the
responsibility of the professional and a pro-active approach so that the risks or problems can be
mitigated before it gets out of control. Moreover, Halinen and Jokela (2016) advocated that

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accountability helps young and less experienced professionals to learn from the mistakes and the
right approach to mitigate the problem as soon as possible. Furthermore, the ethical
consideration is also blended with accountability where the professionals can take the entire
responsibility of the assignments and set some moral values that guide them to achieve success.
Communication is another most important aspect that the professionals must work on. It
is impossible for anyone to know everything. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the
professional to seek help from other experts through proper communication. The important
aspect of communication strategy is to deliver a positive conversation so that the purpose of the
conversation can be met. In response to this, an ethical consideration is also played in terms of
giving respect to others vision and beliefs and understand the needs of others properly.
Therefore, it can be stated that communication is a very important aspect for professional
development and individuals must have acquired the skills to maintain professional
communication.
Another important aspect of being a good professional is related to the performance of
the person. It can be stated that the efficacy of professionalism can only be measured by the
performance of the professional. Therefore, it is always pertinent for the professionals to
maintain consistency in performance so that it will not be a problem to enhance high
professionalism. True professionals are always considering their performance above all because
only by their performance they can prove their efficacy and skills entirely. Moreover, an ethical
consideration is also there to keep consistent performance. Understanding the values of the work,
set objectives to meet the performance goals are also essential for a profession. Therefore, it can
be stated that consistency of the professional is another essential part to become a good
professional.

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Reference
Halinen, A., & Jokela, P. (2016). Exploring ethics in business networks: Propositions for future
research. In Extending the Business Network Approach (pp. 333-356). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
news.mcdonalds.com. (2019). McDonald’s USA Announces Significant Progress Toward 100%
Cage-Free Egg Sourcing Commitment | McDonald's Corporation. Retrieved 20 March
2020, from https://news.mcdonalds.com/stories/using-our-scale-for-good/cage-free-egg-
progress
Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2015). Moral issues in business. Cengage Learning.
Smith, D. (2018). McDonald’s Takes Aim at Big Labor Problem | QSR magazine. Retrieved 20
March 2020, from https://www.qsrmagazine.com/employee-management/takes-aim-big-
labor-problem