I am currently enrolled in the M.A. Organizational Leadership program at George Fox University and just began a new class called Ethical and Legal Responsibility. Our class professor, Chris Meade, Ph.D., posed the question "What moral qualities do you look for in other people as well as yourself?" I thought this would be a great question to post on the BYP Blog to hear your thoughts.First of all, what is morality? My definition refers to acting, thinking, and doing the right thing. A few other definitions can be found online at Dictionary.com
So, what qualities do you look for in others and yourself in regard to morals? Personally, I respect others, and myself, more when doing the right thing is the hard choice to make. Consistently sticking to your "moral guns" can be difficult to accomplish, but when accomplished, it is something that I greatly respect in others and myself.
Some of the qualities I look for in others (and strive to live by myself) include:
- Treats everyone with respect
- Honest
- Trustworthy
- Compassionate/Forgiving
- Puts others first
- Ex: #1) You receive your paycheck and notice that you were paid an extra $1,721 more than usual (knowing that you didn't work overtime, get a bonus, or earn more commission). Do you report the difference to your accounting department/supervisor or do you let it go saying, "they made an error and it's not my job to correct them." The honest/trustworthy action would bring this up to the right person. This would be the morally right thing to do.
- Ex: #2) You are having lunch with a potential new partner and he treats you like gold (or platinum if you will). You begin to think of him as a friendly, intelligent, and trustworthy new business partner. However, you begin to notice how he speaks rudely to his administrative staff on the phone during lunch and watch as he constantly verbally abuses the wait staff at the restaurant. How does this affect your judgement of this potential new business associate? Do you feel he is a morally sound individual? Would he treat you differently if you were not going to benefit him in some way? How will he treat others in your circle of influence, customers, and other people in contact with your business?
- Ex: #3) You are working in a team to accomplish a goal and the group decides to move in a direction that produces tremendous results. A few weeks later your company's CEO asks you to report to the board on the progress of strategic direction of the group. Knowing you were part of a team where everyone contributed equally to the decisions and ideas of the successful new direction, you arrive at the meeting with two options for sharing the information: 1) You could try to make yourself look good and further your career by claiming all the credit for the group's decision, or 2) do the right thing and express the true movement of the group by stating the group has made excellent suggestions and give credit where credit is due...stressing the team's efforts. The obvious moral answer is option #2.
Moral qualities are the unwritten law or code of ethics that you follow and expect to see in others. It seems that you recognize morality when you see it, as well as when you don't see it.
