Question

Are personal and professional ethics the same? Can they be different without internal conflict? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

The term ethics refers to the sense of judgement between right and wrong. Ethics makes a man perfect. A person's morals and values determines his character.
Personal & professional ethics are not same. Personal ethics are individuals' own morals and values which are reflected in a person since childhood. A child learns these morals from his parents, relatives and friends which helps him/her to become a good humanbeing. For exa,

1) Honesty: From the very beginning of our childhood we learn how to be honest in all our activities. Whatever may be the situation we always dare to speak truth which make us feel happy and raises our confidence level to face any type of awkward situation.

2) Paying respect to our elders: Our parents teach us how to pay respect to our elders and we follow that moral throughout our lives. By following this we get blessings of our elders which brings success in our life.

3) Always be careful and sympathetic : We learn from our parents that helping and caring for others means you are getting the blessings of god. It gives us immense pleasure when we help someone who is in problem.

Professional Ethics means the ethics which are set by the companies at the workplace and the employees are bound to follow that. If somebody is not following the codes of conduct set by the company then it will hamper his reputation as your behaviour will immediately be taken as unprofessional. In a workplace your professional morals and values matters a lot than your personal one.
Examples:
1) Punctuality : Punctuality is the first and best quality of a person based on which an employer can take decision whether the particular person is suitable for the company or not. No employer can tolerate when his employees are not punctual.

2) Time Management: To go up in a corporate ladder, everybody needs to manage time. All should perform their duties within a stipulated period of time.

3) Maintaining Company Privacy Policy : Maintaining privacy policy of a company means you are honest to your company. You have to follow all rules relating to the privacy of the company, otherwise you will be terminated from your job.

Differences:
Personal ethics are individuals own morals and values which are developed since childhood, whereas professional ethics are set of conducts defined by the companies that are strictly followed by the employees.

Secondly,Personal ethics are set by the parents, family members and friends whereas professional ethics are framed by the employers for their employees. Examples of personal ethics are honesty, care and sincerity whereas the examples of professional ethics are punctuality, time management and confidentiality.

Thirdly, if you are not following personal ethics then it will hurt your parents and others whereas noncompliance to professional ethics may hurt your professional reputation.

Finally, if you are adhering to personal ethics then you will feel satisfied personally whereas if you are following professional ethics then it will fulfill all your professional needs.

Sometimes there is some internal conflict between these two types of ethics. For exa, a police officer may personally feel that a law which is needed to enforce is wrong but according to the code of law of a country that law is right and he is bound to follow that otherwise his professional reputation will be hampered.