MGMT 308 002

March 13, 2016

Part I:
My Personal Code of Ethics has 8 distinct parts, each of which
follows. Always speak and act with honestymean what you say and
say what you mean. Show loyalty to your loved ones, especially in the
face of adversity. Always portray integrity, which means standing up
for what you believe in, and always be courageous, strong and
prepared. Have empathy for your fellow humansunderstand that we
are all on separate paths towards separate missionsjudgment is
worse than useless, its arrogant. Strive for excellence in everything
you do: take pride in the details, go the extra mile, do the extra rep,
take the extra step towards greatness. Be accountable for your
wrongs, and humble in your rightsin other words, be modest in your
wins and responsible in your losses. Define classdress impeccably,
speak with virtue, act with diligence, and most importantly: never
portray anything less than prominence. Finally, optimism is keyand it
always beats pessimismnever bring the room down, constantly be
the one to uplift it.
The process used to conclude on these particular ethical points is
rather straightforward: by envisioning the man I would like to be during
the final days of my life, I could also envision the values and ethical
principles I would imagine this man would possess. Furthermore,

although perfection is not one of my 8 core principles, the man I

envision is truly the closest resemblance to my perfect self as I could
fathom, and with that, I am able to see what mindset it would take to
reach a level of near personal perfection, which ultimately resulted in
my Personal Code of Ethics. While ethical dilemmas will differ from
person to person and from day to day, by at least considering each of
my eight core principles before reacting to a situation, I will honestly
be able to say that my actions and decisions are in line with my own
personal values.

Part II:
Grandpa,
The reason behind this letter is simple: you have been a role
model to me throughout my entire life, and you embody all of the
qualities I strive to have as a man. You optimize honesty, loyalty and
excellence every day of your life, and continually uplift those around
you. For these reasons, and so many more, I would like to present you
with my Personal Code of Ethics, of which I use each and every day to
guide me through life and all of its trials and tribulations. I have
chosen these particular values to emphasize because I believe they are
reflective of the best version of my self, or in other words, these
particular ethical principles are the exact values I believe my best self
would encompass at any time, but especially in the face of an ethical

problem. Essentially, they stem from every experience in my life, but

it is worth mentioning that the vast majority of these experiences were
molded by the people closest to meincluding yourselfmeaning they
are an intentional blend of all of the best values of my friends and
family: the true reasons why I admire them and continue to hold them
close.
The eight core principles I wish to posses are honesty, loyalty,
integrity, empathy, excellency, accountability, positivity, and class. As
mentioned previously, I have adopted these values at different times,
by observing and admiring some of the most influential people in my
life. To begin, honesty, loyalty, empathy and positivity are all values I
have taken directly from my Dad, as each has been emphasized to me
as vital characteristics I must learn to embody during my life. The
reason my dad has been so influential in this sense is because he is a
perfect example of an honest, loyal, empathetic, and positive person.
For as long as I can remember, he stressed the importance of telling
the truth, being trustworthy, showing compassion for everybodynot
just my family or friendsand, in his eyes, most importantly: always
staying positive no matter what situation you face. Likewise, although
my Father also emphasized integrity and accountability, it was only
recently that I truly adopted these as my own personal values. In my
opinion, possessing firm principles and being accountable for your
actions are traits of an adult, and in order to not only survive in this

world, but also to succeed, one must master these two values. On that
same note, excellency and class have also been recent additions to
my set of personal values, but for a very different reason: as I
mentioned previously, in order to succeed in this world, I believe one
must master both integrity and accountability, but in all honesty, I
desire a little more than successI desire greatness. For this reason, I
believe excellencyor the unfaltering drive to be better than the
person I was yesterdayand class are traits of great human beings,
and if I desire to be considered amongst these distinguished people,
then I too must learn to embody these traits. Greatness is not
something that is simply handed out, it must be worked for each and
every day, and I believe these eight core principles help me to do so.
It is worth mentioning, though, that simply adopting these
values is not actually going to beneficial in the long run, which is why
one must go about applying these principles to real world situations.
With this in mind, the process in which I apply these values to real life
ethical dilemmas is taught to nearly everyone at some point
throughout Kindergarten: I treat others the way I would want to be
treated, and I want to be treated with emphasis on each of these
ideals. For example, this past summer I was faced with an ethical
dilemma in which I found out that my boss, at the time, was actually a
twice-convicted sex offender, who had spent nearly 5 years in prison
during the 2000s. Personally I had not had any problems with him up

until that point, and it even came as quite a shock to me that this was
true, but I was ultimately faced with this problem: should I continue to
work throughout the summer as I had agreed upon previously, or
should I remove myself from the situation and go against my word?
Initially I was stuck, the man had done his time and was released on
good behavior according to public records, but he has been convicted,
not once, but twice of inappropriate touching of a minor, which
thoroughly goes against everything I stand for. So, I applied my
personal values to the situation in hopes of concluding on the correct
course of action.
While I knew if I backed out on our arrangement, I would be
violating both my honesty and integrity ideals, I truly believed that if I
stayed, I would be violating nearly all eight of my core values, so I
chose to resign from my position. In hindsight, I know for a fact that I
made the right decision as I would never want to be associated with
such an immoral person, but the process in which I used to go about
deciding which road to take is the real importance here: I assessed how
each action would affect my own personal view of myself, and chose to
go with the decision that least infringed upon my core values. Sadly, in
a situation like this, a process of elimination essentially made the
decision by essentially weighing which choice was least bad, but in
my opinion, most ethical dilemmas will actually come down to which
does the least damage. This is a great example of the way in which I

evaluate my performance of upholding my personal code of values: by

both reflecting on and assessing the decision I made, I can outline the
areas in which I violate my values and the areas in which I uphold my
values, and ultimately, if my decision results in more support of the
code than violations, I know I made the right decision.
With all this being said, Grandpa, I must admit that you have had
such a profound impact on me that I could honestly attribute each of
these core values right back to you, in some form or another, and for
that reason I wanted to outline, in detail, what they mean to me and
why I chose to embody them. Eventually, I would like to reach a point
in my life where I truly believe I embody each and every one of these
principles in every decision I make, but I would be more than delighted
to reach the level of honesty, loyalty, integrity, empathy, excellency,
accountability, positivity, and class that you have reached, and for
that, I thank you.

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