Journal Entry #1

Session 3 - May 28, 2014

As an Applied Corporate Management student, the concept of business and ethics into one context is no new notion to me.  I’ve already taken in two major subjects where the importance of ethics in businesses has been considerably emphasized.  However, our 3^rd session in CSRGOVE was a nice refresher of the topic at hand and more importantly, I found new even more new information about an already familiar concept to me.

Part of the lesson was the breakdown of percentages of what being ethical mean to a number of businessmen. Now, this was a new thing for me because we were always taught a certain description of what being ethical means.  While the figures weren’t a shock to me, it was great to find out that 50% of those who participated the study felt doing what their conscience tell them to do; 25% do what is in accord to their religious belief; and only 18% conforms to the golden rule.  That gave me a chance to reflect on my own definition of “being ethical”.  Having grown into a religious family, it would be logical for me to be part of that 25%. However, looking back to situations I have experienced before where I have to make an ethical choice, I am actually part of that 50%--like most, I, too, use my conscience most of the time when making such decisions.   

I think the majority of us consider our consciences first and foremost because conscience is a natural part of our being.  Unlike religion and the belief of such golden rule, everybody has conscience, which I believe is the reason why 50% of those who participated in the study base their ethical decisions on conscience. Still, I am no one to judge other’s preference because at the end of the day, there is no perfect basis on making ethical decisions. As discussed in our class, our consciences do not always coincide with our religion or with the golden role. The same goes with religion and the golden rule.