Managing Personal

and Professional
Ethics
Prepared by:
Angela Lagahit Bon
MAM-AS
• For example in a government, one of their professional ethics is
confidentiality and you should respect your colleagues specially
your superior. As a head of Human Resources Office you are
task in hiring employees, but your superior told you to hire the
daughter of her friend with bad credentials unlike the other
applicants who has excellent credentials and skills. And this is
against your personal ethics in which you didn't want to tolerate
nepotism or bias due to one’s personal life. One should hire only
based on the credentials of the applicant. One should always
look at the bottom line. And in this case your personal ethics
will be compromise.
When you find yourself struggling to reconcile your
personal ethics with your professional ethics here are
three things to think about:

• 1. Consider the situation carefully. Gather your facts

and try to understand the situation thoroughly.
Determine if immediate action is needed.
• 2. Speak up! The late President John Kennedy once
said, “One person can make a difference, and everyone
should try.”
• 3. Don’t compromise your personal values. Don’t lie,
steal or cheat. Actions such as these are immoral and
can lead to bigger problems. One small compromise
can seem harmless, but once it is done the next time
you are asked it will be easier to do and the
compromises can get subtly bigger and bigger.
• Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India once
said on 30th June 2001 and stated “To make India the
most developed nation, 500 eminent Engineers have
identified five key areas: Education, Health, Agriculture,
Information & Communication and Critical Technology.”
Listening this, Swamiji spontaneously requested Dr.
Kalam to add the fifth key area and that is Faith in God
and Spiritualism. It reveals that with Para Vidya, Apara
Vidya is equally essential.
• Benjamin Franklin said, “Our humanity is a diseased
humanity. It is not knowledge we need, but humanity
is in need of something spiritual.” Similar are the
words of Thomas Campis as, “the humble knowledge
of thyself is the surer way to God than the deepest
research after science.”
• As said by the philosopher, “An ounce of practice is
more than tones of theories.” Ethics, either Personal or
Professional is to put into practice. This can only lead us
to true peace and quality life. Or else as American
President Lindon Jhonson (1965) says, “The guns, the
bombs, the rockets and warships are the symbols of
humanity’s failures to find the way to true peace.”
 References:
• Azurmendi, J.1998: "The violence and the search for new values" in Euskal
Herria krisian, (Elkar, 1999), pp. 11-116. Blackbun, S. Black (2001).
• Being good: A short introduction to ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Caroline Whitbeck, "Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research" Cambridge
University Press, 1998 page 40
• De Finance, Joseph, An Ethical Inquiry, Rome, Editrice Pontificia Università
Gregoriana, 1991.
• De La Torre, Miguel A., "Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins," Orbis
Books, 2004.