Ethics

The Ethics Type places high value on attention to ethical concerns as their primary manifestation of the integration of faith/religion/spirituality and work. Depending on the individual and the work environment, the Ethics Type arises from different motivations and manifests itself in different ways. There are three motivators: one’s faith/religion/spirituality can guide, compel, or inspire to ethical action. Ethics Types are shaped in their decisions and actions by historical scriptural teachings, commandments, and narratives, as well as clerical teachings and guidance. Two primary manifestations of the Ethics Types are the Community orientation and the Self orientation. These orientations, while distinct, can exist in the same person, as both orientations see faith/religion/spirituality as a source for moral standards and a guide for ethical behavior. Additionally, atheists and agnostics can also be Ethics Types. Though they respond to the three ethical motivators without reference to God or a higher power, they draw on non-theistic resources and disciplines for their ethical underpinnings and accents.

The Ethics Type with a Community orientation places emphasis on larger organizational, social, and structural concerns. These might include internal business ethics issues concerning employees and the company itself (e.g., product and worker safety, benefits, compensation, discrimination), as well as external ethics concerns that impact a wider set of public stakeholders (e.g., the environment, corporate social responsibility, corruption).

The Ethics Type with a Self orientation focuses on maintaining high personal ethical standards and emphasizes personal virtues of integrity, character, honesty, loyalty, and respect for others. It also focuses on avoiding personal misconduct issues such as sexual impropriety, disrespectful behavior towards others, expense report mishandling, conflict of interest, and misuse of power.

The community and self orientations of the Ethics Types, while distinct, can exist in the same person. Though the community and self orientations may overlap, they do reflect distinct modalities of the Ethics manifestation. Moreover, a tension can arise when one's self ethical orientation conflicts with or fails to resolve a community ethical issue and vice-versa. However, both orientations of the Ethics Type share in common the understanding that the primary way to live out their tradition and personal beliefs at work is to focus on ethical behaviors, policies, and concerns.