Human Values and Professional Ethics

Whereas human values convey personal conviction, ethics describe the accepted principles and standards of conduct about moral duties and virtues as applied to an organization. Codes of professional ethics guide the stakeholders of an organization about the desirable and undesirable acts related to the profession.

Human values refer to the basic inherent moral inclinations towards kindness, honesty, loyalty, love, peace, sympathy, truth, etc. that enhance the fundamental goodness of human beings and society at large. They are the values that human beings cherish and hold in common, consciously and otherwise, in most places and times and practices. Human values help in understanding attitude, motivation, behavior, and also influence one’s perception of the world. They enable the interpretation of “right and wrong” and provide ways to understand humans and organizations.

Human values and professional ethics are complementary to each other. Whereas human values convey personal conviction, ethics describe the accepted principles and standards of conduct about moral duties and virtues as applied to an organization. Codes of professional ethics guide the stakeholders of an organization about the desirable and undesirable acts related to the profession.

The underlying philosophy of having professional ethics is to make people follow a sound uniform ethical conduct. The success of an institution’s mission and vision is driven by the value-based ethical behavior of its committed faculty members, officers, staff, and students. Following are some of the vital components of professional ethics that professional organizations necessarily include in their code of conduct.