Ethical Behavior: A Key Factor for Success in Life and Workplace

This essay delves into the critical role of ethical behavior in achieving both personal and professional success. It defines ethics and highlights its significance in guiding right actions, particularly in the workplace where unethical practices are increasingly prevalent. The essay emphasizes how ethical conduct fosters a positive environment, encourages employee motivation, and aligns with governmental regulations. It explores the interplay between personal and professional ethics, acknowledging that ethical behavior is essential for societal acceptance and long-term success. The essay also discusses the impact of organizational, individual, and legal factors on ethical decision-making. Furthermore, it touches upon the development of ethical principles and the competitive advantages that ethical business practices can offer. In conclusion, the essay underscores the importance of ethical behavior as a fundamental quality for personal and professional advancement, supported by research and references.

Management
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Table of Contents
“It is essential to behave ethically in order to be personally and professionally successful”..........3
Reference list...................................................................................................................................5
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“It is essential to behave ethically in order to be personally and professionally
successful”
Ethics are defined as set of principles that shows what is right and what is wrong. For an
individual, ethical behavior is very essential because unethical actions always results in
disastrous situations. However, it cannot be said that behaving ethically will lead to success or
not because success cannot not be achieved by only behaving ethically along with ethical
behavior, one has to have interpersonal skills for to be successful in life. Ethical behavior is very
necessary for an individual to live cordially with the society. Behaving ethically at workplace
nowadays has become mandate because of the growing incidents unethical practices within
organizations across the globe1. Owing to the increasing incidents of unethical issues government
of almost all countries have imposed certain rules and regulations upon the organizations, which
specially addresses the safety of employees within the organization2.
At workplace employees come to nurture their skills, utilize their knowledge and at the same
time earn the money value of putting their labor in particular work, however if an employee
faces unethical behavior at workplace then he/she will be demotivated and may resign from job.
Thus it is direct loss of the employees and the organization, thus to foster peace within the
organizational purview, code of ethics are adopted by the organizations. Researchers have
observed that ethical behavior plays significant role behind an individual because this behavior
shows the basic etiquettes of an individual3. In personal life, ethical behavior is important as well
as in professional life too.
1 Barsky, Allan Edward. Ethics and values in social work: An integrated approach for a comprehensive curriculum.
Oxford University Press, 2019.
2Scholl, Jessica A., Helen L. Mederer, and Richard W. Scholl. "Motivating Ethical Behavior." Global Encyclopedia
of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance (2016): 1-15
3 Xu, Angela J., Raymond Loi, and Hang-yue Ngo. "Ethical leadership behavior and employee justice
perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization."Journal of Business Ethics 134.3 (2016): 493-504.
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Several studies have shown that individuals act ethically at the workplace but in personal life,
most of the individuals at some point of time behave unethically4. Thus, here it can be said that
behaving ethically professionally does not always assures that in personal life also ethical
behaviors are maintained. Individuals behave unethically due to some factors and these can be
listed as the organizational factors, individual factors and the legal interpretations. Ethics which
is moral principals primarily can be developed from within an individual in two stages one at the
adulthood stage and the other in minor stage.
Implementing business ethics at the purview of the organization aids the organization to gain
competitive advantage. However, in this perspective it has been argued by studies that business
ethics affects company negatively because company’s freedom to maximize profit is reduced5.
The same logic can be imposed upon the individuals, but here it can be said that to live in a
society one has to abide by the rules and regulations otherwise that individual will blacklisted
from the society. Hence, it can be said that for achieving success in one’s professional and
personal life ethical behavior is very significant. In professional life, this ethical behavior can be
added to the list of the individuals’ quality and in personal life, this ethical behavior makes the
individual to be accepted by the society.
4 De Clercq, Dirk, Zahid Rahman, and Inam Ul Haq. "Explaining helping behavior in the workplace: The
interactive effect of family-to-work conflict and Islamic work ethic."Journal of Business Ethics 155.4 (2019): 1167-
1177.
5 Gorman, C. Allen, and Jason Gamble. "Leader behavior and follower work behavior: the influence of
follower characteristics." (2016).
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Reference list
Xu, Angela J., Raymond Loi, and Hang-yue Ngo. "Ethical leadership behavior and employee
justice perceptions: The mediating role of trust in organization." Journal of Business
Ethics 134.3 (2016): 493-504.
De Clercq, Dirk, Zahid Rahman, and Inam Ul Haq. "Explaining helping behavior in the
workplace: The interactive effect of family-to-work conflict and Islamic work ethic." Journal of
Business Ethics 155.4 (2019): 1167-1177.
Gorman, C. Allen, and Jason Gamble. "Leader behavior and follower work behavior: the
influence of follower characteristics." (2016).
Barsky, Allan Edward. Ethics and values in social work: An integrated approach for a
comprehensive curriculum. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Scholl, Jessica A., Helen L. Mederer, and Richard W. Scholl. "Motivating Ethical
Behavior." Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and
Governance (2016): 1-15.
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