Personal Values Development

October 3, 2011
Abstract

In this paper the subject analyzed is the personal development of values by examining personal values and ground rules. Focusing on the aspect of development this paper defines my values, the sources that help to shaped those values, and the criteria used to revise values in the decision-making process and the impact that values have on the performance in the workplace.

Personal Value Development The personal core values, which are my driving force influence both action and reaction started developing during my early teenage years. The core value I have today has taken a lifetime of experiences to develop and subsequently does not change much. I have inherited some of my values. I have learned some values from my parents, teachers, and other influential people throughout my life. Research, reading, and television have also influenced my values to a certain extend. However, I believe strongly that my core values weigh heavily from my life’s experiences.
Defining my Values

The core values I speak of are my integrity, hard work and valiant and honest effort, telling the truth, and doing the next right thing. I value my life, my children, my loved ones, and the integrity in which I live my life. My core values are aspects of my life, which I believe are my strengths. My core values are important to me as they guide me through my life. I hold myself accountable for whom I am and how I conduct myself in my personal and business life. I believe in my values enough to trust my own judgment. I believe I am a well grounded individual who believes in my own values enough that I have confidence and placing those values as the drivers in my life. I do not know who I would be without them. The values in my life motivate me and set my priorities.

Developmental Aspect of Values

My values took a life time to structure and are reinforced and strengthened with each of my experiences. Everyday experiences do play a key role in my values, but much of my values have been developed by my own external awareness. Throughout my life I have experienced, witnessed, and encountered specific situations that have structured my beliefs making me the person I am today. My values are the base of whom I am and are present in every day of my life.

Providing a little background, I was 16 when my parents separated. Forced to move out of the family house and live with my father, I had to grow up fast. For the next year I lived with my father who suffered with the disease of alcoholism. During this time I experienced a conundrum of events causing many emotions which allowed me to see a side of life I did not see while living at home. I learned a lot about myself and the disease of alcoholism. This was one of my first life-changing events. Even though I grew up with alcoholism in the household, living alone with my father was completely different. I became my mother, feeling her pain, dealing with what she had dealt with. Life was suddenly different. I had to adapt to the current situation. I was able t to see my father, whom I love, suffer at the hands of his own addiction. When I think back about those days, I believe it was then, at the age of 16, that I felt I had grown up. I was making decisions for both of us. My father returned home. I was hurt, confused, and angry. I remember feeling that I did not want to go back to the dysfunction of my family. Therefore, I had two choices; stay in the apartment or go home. I stayed.

The decision I made that day was the beginning of the person I would eventually become and the kind of values I would develop. I was 16 when my father and I lived together and 18, when I signed my first lease. I worked a full-time job after school to pay the rent, bills, and provide for myself until I graduated from high school. In those couple of years, I grew up. I had gone through a period of my own addiction, trials, and tribulations which developed a new set of values. I had been making some adult decision since I was 16 and I made my share of mistakes and poor decisions. I survived that period of my life and essentially had to put my life back together on my own. I believe that this life experience and impact sharpened my beliefs of whom I was and who I needed to be. Shortly thereafter I became pregnant with my first son and instinctively knew I had to make some changes if I intended to bring another life into this world. I wanted to be the perfect mother. I wanted to be someone whom my children could look up to and respect. I wanted to provide a life for my child that was safe and nurturing. My unborn child at that time was my driving force. This was when I developed principles of integrity.

I began to see clearly who I was and who I wanted to be. I surrounded myself with people, places, and things that appeared to be good for me and for my baby. When decided to live according to principles of integrity, I chose to do the right thing all the time not just when someone else can see what I was doing. I learned that it is the principle of doing the right thing that matters, not necessarily whether anyone else knows about it or not. I attended church to be closer to God and be at peace with myself for everything I was trying to accomplish. I continue to travel down the same path today. My life has changed by my values of ethics have remained the same (Haidt, 2003).

Potential impact of my values and my performance in my workplace

Identifying and focusing on my personal values helps me become successful. By clarifying and applying my values, I have come to realize that I can achieve an enhanced self-awareness, more effective time management, greater integrity, and greater credibility as coworker and manager. When I act in accordance with my core values, I am doing the "right things" for the purpose of integrity, and find I have more influence on others in a good way. I found that people in general are more receptive to someone who can appeal persuasively as a principled leader. Principled leaders have more credibility and engender a higher level of trust. Applying my values to my performance at work helps me to be more ethically compliant (May & Pauli, 2002).

Criteria used to revise values in the decision-making process

Acquiring clarification of my values and what is important to me, it is essential that I take the next step and act on my values. Failure to act in accord with my values in a principled way would only be a disservice to me and my company. The only challenge is resisting influences at work, social pressures and self gratification because they may cause me to deviate from what I believe to be important. There would be no revisions to my values only strengthening as I do my best to apply my values to every decision I am make (Best of Time Management, 2011).

Conclusion My values reflect where I have lived, my generation, and my life’s experience. Values last a lifetime. While they may undergo some change through the years, they're fairly stable. I have experienced many events in my life time and pride myself on trying to do the next right thing. I behave the same whether at home or at work. My beliefs do not change and my values are firm. I believe I have the capabilities it takes to ethically manage my life, my children, people, and any situation that comes between.

Reference
Best of Time Management (2011). Why you Should Know Your Personal Values; Retrieved on October 1, 2011 from: http://www.best-of-time-management.com/values.htm. May, D. R., & Pauli, K. P. (2002). The role of moral intensity in ethical decision-making: A review and investigation of moral recognition, evaluation, and intention. Business & Society, 41, 84–117.
Haidt, J. (2003). The moral emotions. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 852–870). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.