Business Ethics (Term 4, 2014-2015) Written Assignment: Personal Code of

Ethics
Michael Korver
Your major written assignment for this course is to prepare a personal code of
ethics. According to "Developing a Personal Code of Ethics," by M. Alagappan,
ethics "tries to define a pattern of behavior that is either desirable or undesirable,
and outcomes that are either right or wrong."
This code should serve as a practical guide regulating specific behavior in both
your personal and professional (i.e., work-related) lives in such a way that
accurately reflects your mission, vision and values. The length is up to you
because I want you to cover all situations that are important to you, but please
remember that conciseness is always appreciated.
This document should contain three (3) parts as follows:
1. Background
Who and what experiences (e.g., educational, occupational, religious and social)
have influenced your personal code of ethics? How did these people or
experiences influence your thinking regarding ethics or behavior in specific
situations or toward different people? You may include references to books or
other sources of information that may have guided your personal beliefs or
spiritual development.
2. Mission, Vision and Values
Please provide a concise statement regarding your personal mission, vision and
values.

Your mission is essentially your goal in life what you want to accomplish in
your professional and personal life.

Your vision is of the world or your more immediate environment (including

your personal and professional relationships, your position or reputation in
society, etc.) should you accomplish your goal set forth in your mission. In
other words, how you expect things to turn out.

Your values are those that are most important to you and serve as a guide
for your code of ethics.
3. Annotated Code of Ethics
You should not only list the guidelines (rule, principles) by which you hope to
live your life and pursue your career consistent with your MVV, you should also
provide an explanation (regarding why, what for, how), giving examples, if
helpful, of how those guidelines might be applied in practice or translate into
professional behaviors. If one of your guidelines is I will treat people as I want
to be treated myself, you might provide as an example, for instance: If I am
required to fire one of my employees, I will deliver the news to the person face-toface, rather than through some impersonal medium such as e-mail.
These guidelines should be designed primarily to inform the reader how you
would identify and resolve ethical issues in the workplace (or your professional
life) and to achieve your goals and realize your visions consistent with the
values you hold and, secondarily, in your private life. Therefore, in completing
this assignment, please make sure that the emphasis be on how your personal
code of ethics will be used in your professional life. For example, family is no
1

doubt important for many of you. But how will you handle a conflict between
family and professional obligations? Also, how will your personal code of ethics
assist you in achieving your professional goals and mission?
Evaluation of the personal code of ethics will be based on the following
parameters: thoughtfulness (how much time, effort and thought does it reflect),
clarity, practicality (is it in form and content a practical document?),
thoroughness (does it cover all major contingencies encountered in business?),
and consistency (both internally and with your MVV). Please be assured that
you will NOT be evaluated on the basis of how ethical you are.