Cultural values personal ethics assignment

Cultural Values As noted by Ludwig and Silva, “ Cultural values refer to enduring ideals or life systems to which a person or a society is committed. The values of nursing in the States are, for example, embedded in the values of the U. S. American culture with its emphasis on self-reliance and individualism. Basic to the value placed on individualism are the beliefs that Dinosaurs have the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps’ and that an individual’s rights are more important than a society’s” (Ludwig & Silva, 2000, Para 3).

Ethical Dilemmas An employee faces an ethical dilemma if their personal values are opposite their employer’s organizational values. An excellent example of this type of ethical dilemma was evident when Sharron Watkins, as the Enron Corporation’s vice president wrote a letter to the company’s chief executive office, Kenneth Lay, to advise him that the company’s accounting practices were improper (Stranger, 2003). Watkins’ decision-making process in this case undoubtedly called upon her personal values because she was driven to expose what was ultimately uncovered as gross negligence and fraud.