A recurring theme from the participants in the study was how their personal ethical cognition affects their professional choices. Some participants spoke of their personal ethics in terms of outcome related decisions or consequentialism, ethics of duty to the organization or association or non-consequentialism, and ethical decision-making in relation to what was good or value ethics. In close correlation to the social change theories of Tönnies (2001) of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, some participants spoke of how upbringing, family, and close personal relationships affect their professional behavior.
The participants for this study, in many cases, related that their personal ethical and social upbringing influenced professional and personal conduct. Several participants said that it was important to them to maintain their reputation in both their personal and professional lives. Many felt that once trust was lost, it was almost impossible to regain
and that the risk of that was untenable. Beyond personal reputation, several participants relayed that they felt a responsibility to represent their company in an honest way.
• P01: What I've learned is honesty is a lot better than anything else even if it's tough say it.
• P02: So, I'm a very, just, I was taught from my parents to be extremely ethical that you only had your name. So, that trumps everything for me. I wouldn't let somebody else's decisions or mandates affect my ethical decisions.
• P04: If your grandmother wouldn't want you to do it you should be doing it.
• P05: Basically, the ethics you have brought with you personally up through when you've been raised basically carry over into your professional ethics codes. So, for me it's very easy, I was raised by a Catholic or Pentecostal minister and ethics was always top of the line. Whereas, other people, maybe if they're raised differently, won't have the same ethics and need to be
reinforced by the company's ethic codes. But I would think if you were raised to ethics was a top priority to you in the first place then the codes are great to be written, but as long as you're following what you think is right in the first place, the rest of it falls pretty much the line.
• P06: One of the keys to ethics is, to me, is having a stewardship or
mentorship, your ethics and my ethics. OK? They came from where? From your upbringing, from your parents. Right? OK. Your parents, if they've done their job right, have taught you to be ethical. OK. And you carry that into your trade. And that's where you decide if you can stay with the company that
you're with or not based on the ethics that they allow you to put forward. You have your own standards.
• P06: It's private principles that we guide ourselves with, whether it be life, whether it be the job, OK? I tell everybody I run my jobs like I run my family . . . I run the jobs the same way. Everybody makes it so difficult.
Management. It's not. If you effectively run a family, you can effectively run a job and vice versa. Really. It's very little. Mentorship. Everything. It's all the same. Ethics. OK. The, how much you apply yourself, the pride that you put into it. It's all tied together.
• P07: I feel I push more ethics on people than the code pushes back
• P10: No, well, I would say one thing in my life, I went to a service academy and one of the things that is ingrained to you from the day you walk through the doors is you don’t lie, cheat, steal, or attempt to deceive
• P13: It’s personal ethics. It’s personal morals. You know if it doesn’t feel right, it’s probably not right. That’s my way.
• P13: They are just like get this done. I can’t see it from my house. Favorite saying in the field. I can’t see it from my house. You will hear that
everywhere.
• P14: So, we are really not trying to hire people, we are trying to find people who have integrity, who are tough minded, who care, and who have those core values that the company shares, a family owned business and they really push that into our employees. So, I think, while you might not necessarily refer to
the document always, you are referring back to those values and saying what am I basing my decision on and what am I doing. I skipped ahead and read the questions earlier but one of the things that is usually always on my mind is an early lesson that I got from a boss is do you want to see yourself on the front page of the New York Times doing that, right?
• P15: I would be more likely to break my personal ethical code than my professional one. I think because the ramification of breaking your personal ethical code is yours; the consequence is yours. Whereas, if you break a professional one, now you are exposing your company to the consequence and not you as a person.
• P16: I think the easy thing is it is just not worth making . . . if your gut tells you it is slightly on the border out of bounds, it’s not worth making the wrong decision. You’d be much better off by just saying no and staying the line as true as you can. A short-term gain is not worth the long-term potential negative. You also feel much better about what you do when you don’t.
• P17: Everyone is in it to do the right thing. I think a lot of that has to do with upbringing and family. That’s when I say I refer back to the culture of the company, it’s kind of like we have this family culture. There have been people that didn’t fit that category and they have been weeded out.
• P18: There may not be somebody watching at all times but, you are representing the company, you are representing yourself.
• P19: If you are not a person that has a written ethical policy stick to your gut and hopefully your gut will lead you on the right way. Feel free to raise an issue if you ever see one occurring you don’t necessarily need to address it but feel free to call it up the ladder.