Ethical Code: Personal, Organizational, Marketing

Personal Ethical Code 

Section 1: Statement of the Personal Ethical Code 

Distinguishing between doing right and wrong is a crucial aspect for people seeking to make a difference in the society through leadership. I aim at becoming a competent leader in my field, who others can look up to as an example of ideal leadership especially in the face of difficulties. Therefore, I consider it crucial to understand when to take a firm stand, especially when faced with difficult situations. Although I agree that I cannot lead effectively if I am indecisive, it does not mean that I am not open to the input and views of others. However, if I am to demonstrate competent leadership and make a difference, I must set high ethical standards, which others will follow as an example. I, therefore, emphasize maintaining pursuit of excellence through hard work, personal integrity, effective time management, humility, respect, courage, honesty, and acceptance of responsibility. 

Section 2: Analysis of the Personal Code 

The critical commitments outlined in my ethical code mainly emanate from the lessons that I have gathered from education and my family. My parents particularly emphasize on pursuing excellence to live a better life than them. In this context, some of the values that they have imparted to me include hard work, integrity, honesty, respect, courage, humility, and responsibility. Through the education system, I have learned the role of leadership in societal transformation as well as the factors that contribute to leadership competence, including excellent time management skills, personal integrity, respect, and acceptance of responsibility. Hence, education and family have played a critical role in influencing the values that guide both my professional and personal life. The core commitments that I consider essential to living a life of happiness and integrity include: 

A commitment to doing what is right whether under supervision or not 

A commitment to a way of life and performance that produces quality and exceptional results 

A commitment towards valuing the confidence and trust of friends, family, employers, co-workers, the community, and clients 

A commitment towards setting goals and working hard to achieve them, which forms part of my commitment to upholding an ideal personal image 

My values are crucial in ensuring that my core commitments are performed as illustrated below: 

Personal Integrity 

My principal focus on building my reputation on individual merit; hence, I always strive to be honest and sincere in all my endeavors. Therefore, I emphasize maintaining integrity by still being reliable, trustworthy, and dependable by ensuring that I do not bend any rules for personal interest. 

Courage 

Integrity is closely linked to courage, since it takes one to be brave to stand for what is right, especially in stressful situations, such as when the majority is supporting wrong. Fear and peer pressure are the principal threats to the values of courage and integrity. However, I strive to overcome the threats by ensuring that I always support the truth and firmly defend it to avoid getting influenced into doing wrong. 

Humility 

Praise is also a fundamental threat to living my values. However, I am committed to remain grounded and humble by not allowing any form of praise change my attitude towards others, including juniors, superiors, as well as my peers. 

Respect 

I believe that gaining respect from others requires one to be the first to give it; therefore, I work towards treating everyone equally irrespective of one’s status. I always demonstrate immense respect for my peers, leaders, as well as my juniors. 

Responsibility 

Leaders have a great responsibility since they have to work towards their needs as well as those of the people that they serve. Hence, they have to possess adequate knowledge, skills, and experience to perform their tasks. I, therefore, strive towards expanding my intellectual knowledge by attending various training and education programs whenever there is an opportunity, as well as through comprehensive and thorough reading. 

Effective Time Management 

Time management is a critical factor in living a life of happiness and integrity. Excellent time management skills enable one to meet the set goals and objectives within the predetermined period, therefore avoiding the pressure that comes with unmet goals. 

Organizational Ethical Code 

Section 1: Statement of the Organizational Ethical Code 

The primary goal of an organization is to maximize profit. However, organizations are also required to act in a socially responsible manner by protecting the environment, the needs of the employees, the community, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Conducting business in a socially acceptable manner involves carrying out business activities in the right way by acting both ethically and responsibly. Ethical and responsible business practices on compliance with the existing laws and regulations, which seek to protect the environment from harm, as well as to safeguard the rights of critical stakeholders, including shareholders, suppliers, customers, and employees among others. The fundamental values that guide organizations in ensuring that they embrace ethical business practices include responsibility, respect, integrity, confidentiality, and ensuring ethical business conduct by complying with the laws and avoidance of such illegal activities as bribery or theft of organizational resources among others. 

Section 2: Analysis of the Organizational Ethical Code 

An organization should be responsible for all its key stakeholders, including shareholders, workers, customers, members of the community or public, as well as the environment. The organization's response to each of the actors differs to a great extent. An organization’s responsibility to the shareholders involves profit maximization. Shareholders expect the organization to maximize the value of their investment by operating efficiently to achieve the highest level of returns. The organization’s responsibility to the shareholders emanates from the idea that the shareholders are the owners of the firm, and their investment must be well-managed for maximum value. On the other hand, organizations are responsible for providing employees with an ideal working environment as well as fair compensation. Employees are a crucial aspect of an organization since they work towards ensuring that the organization achieves its profit maximization goal. An organization's response to the employees emanates from the fact that employees are a primary organizational resource and failure to manage them well may lead to poor performance. 

Further, the responsibility of an organization to customers emanates from the fact that customers from the market for a firm's products and services. If there are no customers, then the firm ceases to exist. Hence, organizations are needed to ensure that they provide customers with the products that they require in the right quantity, sizes, prices, and quality. The community, on the other hand, provides organizations with the crucial resources to facilitate their operations, including land, workforce, and raw materials among others. This leaves organizations with a responsibility to give back by providing surrounding communities with the facilities and services that they lack, including health care, education, water as well as jobs. Finally, an organization’s responsibility to the environment emanates from the concept of sustainability, which pertains to the efficient utilization of resources so that the resources can be available for use to both the present and future generations. Organizations, therefore, are responsible for protecting such critical resources as the non-renewable resources, water bodies, as well as the atmosphere from harmful emissions. 

My belief about the mission and obligations of an organization come from culture, personal experiences, as well as interactions with good organizations. The behaviors and characteristics of the leaders at the top of good organizations comprise of integrity in carrying out organizational tasks, demonstrating respect at the workplace, as well as ensuring ethical practices as illustrated through compliance with the laws and regulations as well as meeting the expectations of all the stakeholders. Organizations of this sort might be structured as publicly owned firms since they seek to address the needs of the broader public and they are answerable to a diverse group, including the government, shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, as well as the surrounding communities. 

Marketing Ethical Code 

Section 1: Statement of the Marketing Ethical Code 

The concept of marketing plays a crucial role in building relationships between an organization and the market, mainly through persuading customers to try the products that a firm provides. However, marketing practices should embrace critical ethical values, including fairness, citizenship, transparency, respect, and honest. Marketers should also enhance trust in the marketing system by striving for fair dealing and good faith to promote efficiency in the exchange process and avoid deception regarding communication, pricing, delivery or distribution, and product design. Further, marketing practices should adhere to the existing laws and regulations as well as embodying high ethical standards to avoid omissions or harmful actions. 

Section 2: Analysis of the Marketing Code 

Marketing aims at influencing a potential customer’s decision to purchase or try a given product. Ordinarily, customers rational thinking and logic to make the purchase decision; however, marketers often combine the sensible appeal with the emotional appeal since emotions influence the process of decision-making to a great extent. Emotions affect one's preferences by determining what a person loves or hate. Hence, marketers strive to evoke emotions that influence customers to love a given product. In ethical business practices, advertising should appeal to emotion and reason by seeking to create a sense of familiarity and trust in the brand, by logically illustrating the benefits that the customers will derive from the product, whereby the product information given to the customers should be accurate, easy to understand and seek to influence a positive response from the customers. 

Marketing appeals to people’s sense of belonging, meaning, and significance by demonstrating that a product is capable of solving their problems. Therefore, marketing should ensure accurate representation of the product or service in question rather than providing misleading information about the product since once customers test the product and they fail to derive the expected value based on the provided marketing information, they become dissatisfied with the product and the organization stands to lose. Further, marketers should ensure that they can support the claims that they present to the market regarding a product, including a product’s performance, length or efficiency, and they must not demonstrate statistical, factual, or scientific basis where there is none. In this context, marketers should focus on educating customers about the product (messaging) rather than using misleading methods to get customers to buy the product (manipulating). Honesty plays a crucial role in building customer loyalty, since when customers establish that the marketer’s information is genuine; they tend to continue buying the product, especially if it meets their expectations.