In these essay, written by the [academic poster writing service](https://papers-land.com/best-research-poster-presentation-writing-service/) I address various issues separately including a question of whether or not a business should be concerned with something more than making a profit, what I value most in my career as a professional, and finally what integrity means to me in my career. Throughout the essays, I use personal experiences to illustrate my arguments.

Topic 1: Should Business be Concerned about Something more than Making Profit?

Businesses are entities owned either by individuals or stakeholders. As such, owners of a business have a moral claim on the business because they own shares in the company. In case of an individually owned business, the single shareholder has a moral claim on the business. Ostensibly, businesses are expected to bring profits to their owners. The parties who have interest in any business’ operations include owners like shareholders, corporate managers themselves, the local community, customers, employees, and suppliers. As a legal entity owned by all these people, a business needs to incorporate best practices in its operations to ensure that owners of the business get maximum benefit from it.

However, businesses must not overemphasize the need to maximize their profits at the expense of serving the interest of other parties. Businesses operate in a society that has policies and laws and must adhere to them even as they seek to make profit. As such, in the quest to make profit, it is important for businesses to make decisions that are geared towards supporting the existing laws and regulations through identification of current economic and social standards and opinions. They must thus be able to maximize profits without breaking any law and also without interfering with social cultural norms within the region where it is operating. My experience is that of Nike in Vietnam, where people are exploited to work in shoe-factories and are paid low wages, while the business makes millions in terms of profits. In such case, the business is operating to the expectations of shareholders, but violates the rights of employees. This is unacceptable (Freeman, 1998, p. 27).

However, any business needs to earn a reasonable profit. One of the reasons is that owners have to be appreciated since they are vital to the overall survival and success of the business. Owners of the business should also not cause harm through violation of their rights and denying them the benefit of having invested in the business. Thus, inasmuch as profit making should not be the main concern of a business, there are a number of factors that will require businessmen to focus on making acceptable level of profit. First, it is important that a business is able to serve the purpose for which it was established in terms of owners’ objectives and missions. Similarly, a business must be self-sustainable in that it must generate income that will enable the owners to support programs in the business. The business also needs to expand to serve the greatest number of people, and thus the need to make reasonable profits that will benefit its owners as well as run operations of the business.

Topic 2: What I Value In a Career

Good morals are building blocks in any successful career. One may be having good professional credentials but if ethics are lacking, personal and professional life will be hampered. Personally, I believe that ethics is an important contributor to my personal and professional life and, therefore, my career. I believe it is only this way that I will be able to gain trust in organizations from individuals whom I will ever meet as a professional. However, I have since realized that people cannot have a single personal and professional code of ethics even if such people are from the same profession. One must have a personal code of ethics that provides guidelines on how he or she interacts with the working environment.

There is a professional code of ethics that outlines how people in a particular profession such as engineers, doctors, or lawyers carry out their professional business. I believe that a career is supposed to be a lifelong engagement that provides one with financial and moral support. As such, it is necessary that one settles on a career not just because it is well paying, but also because it is satisfying at the end of the day. Thus, as a person I value satisfaction and the overall benefit that my career is going to bring to the society where I will be working. Thus, the career that I pursue must enable me to serve the greatest number of people. It must be a career that will require me to be a honest person of high integrity so that all activities I do are authentic and honest.

My experience was that with my high school teacher, who apparently did not value the concept of commitment to professional ethics. He would come to class late, and when he comes, he would spend almost an entire lesson quarreling and calling names. In the end, students complained to school administration about the behaviors of the teacher. The school then scheduled a school board meeting where the teacher was found to lack commitment to his work. He was fired from the school even though it was his sole source of income to his family. He lost his source of livelihood because school administration wrote to the commission for teachers concerning his behavior and he never got any teaching job in the country and was forced to change his career.

Topic 3: What Integrity Means to Me

As a professional, I am expected by my clients to maintain high standards of integrity in my professional undertaking. To me, integrity is the extent to which I am able to ensure that all my undertakings are justified when measured against business as well as social standards and ethics. Ethical issues are those that relate to the acceptable and universal standards of practice. For instance, professionals who are working in a hospital must maintain high level of integrity in their work. This is because they are always expected to ensure that they follow through what they have promised to their clients. Keeping promises will also involve observing datelines. In case of any changes in the promises made to the client, a written explanation will be given to the client presenting reasons why they will not be able to deliver on the agreed promise. In addition, physicians are always expected to present an alternative plan to the client in advance to compensate for the delay in delivering on the promises (Somerville, 2009, p. 220).

Another integrity issue is that of honesty when dealing with patients in hospitals. As professional practitioners, society expects us to ensure that integrity defines all relationships that we make with people. For instance, I should not engage in deals that are going to hurt or escalate the cost of services to my clients or other persons. In this case, for example, physicians should not recommend products or services that are irrelevant for their clients. They must ensure that charges they make for the services they have offered to the patient equal the costs involved in delivering those services.

However, if professional is aware that the course of action the customer suggests is not the proper one, it will be upon them to tell their customers the truth or even refrain from performing the procedure that was to be done. Telling truth is a part of being honest and reliable as a professional. As a professional, I have an ethical responsibility to refuse to attend to a client or customer upon discovering that I do not have prerequisite skills to deal with cases of certain patients. In so doing, I will be able to avoid future negligence in case of defections in services which I provide to the client. It is a part of maintaining my integrity that I will not offer services which I am not licensed or qualified to offer. This is an ethical issue because the fact that a physician underwent professional training does not mean that they have necessary skills to deal with all medical conditions that are presented to them. I have determined these two issues of honesty and keeping of promises to be ethical issues because they are issues that are universally acceptable in their application and also do not require any legal intervention to interpret. For instance, we cannot claim that in certain circumstance, a physician can negate his or her duty to be honest with the patient for whatever reason.

Reference List

Freeman, RE 1998[1984], A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation’ in Hartman, LB (ed), Perspectives in Business Ethics, McGraw-Hill, Chicago IL, pp. 171-181.

Somerville, M 2009, The ethical imagination: journeys of the human spirit, London: McGill-Queen's Press.