If you care about your career or the success of your organisation, then you should care about professional ethics. Research reveals that around 41% of American workers observe unethical conduct in the workplace. Interestingly, most of those involved in such practices hold managerial positions.
Failure to adhere strictly to professional ethics – leading to accusations relating to unprofessional, immoral or illegal practices – has ruined careers and tarnished the reputations of professionals, brands and entrepreneurs globally.
On the other hand, observing professional ethics nourishes businesses and careers. In this article, we look at the importance of professional ethics in the workplace in general.
What is ethics?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with issues of vice and virtue, or morality and immorality. Simply put, ethics is concerned with the moral implications of human conduct.
Ethics is meant to guide human conduct in such a way that actions that cause harm or pain to fellow humans are avoided while those that promote their happiness are encouraged.
Meaning of professional ethics
A branch of ethics, professional ethics is commonly understood in two senses: general and profession-based. In the general sense, professional ethics is the adoption of a moral perspective in addressing issues in the professional environment. In other words, actions and behaviour in the workplace are permitted only if they are morally and socially acceptable.
The other sense of the concept refers to the code of conduct of a specific profession.
Importance of Professional Ethics
1. Growth
Professional ethics puts both employees and employers on the path of growth. When a company and its personnel observe professional ethics, jobs will be delivered as and when promised. As a result, they will gain the confidence and trust of clients and partners, leading to renewed contracts and referrals.
Employees that uphold professional ethics need little or no supervision to do their jobs. And they can easily be entrusted with leadership positions.
2. Good reputation
Acting professionally helps you to build an exquisite personal brand that will be observed and admired by colleagues, superiors and clients. How others perceive your actions, attitude and decisions can shape your career progression. You will win the respect of others if you always act morally and professionally and are associated with key values like honesty, respect, loyalty, integrity and diligence.
3. Collaboration and relationships
Commitment to professional ethics helps to encourage and strengthen the team spirit and social interaction among employees by promoting a healthy atmosphere. This reduces the incidence of conflicts and misunderstandings. It also bolsters productivity as employees are more likely to be emotionally and mentally focused and work without being perturbed.
4. Employee retention
Companies that are committed to ethical practices attract talent and have great employee retention rates. Ethical workplace culture creates an appealing environment that promotes trust and loyalty in employees toward the organisation.
On the contrary, where the corporate culture contradicts the values of employees, there is bound to be a poor record of employee retention.
Final thoughts
Committing to ethical workplace practices is remarkably profitable. Such a commitment is as helpful to employers as it is to employees. Conversely, failure to observe an ethical corporate culture will negatively affect the performance of organisations and the professional development of employees.
