Sincerity and professional ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Sincerity and professional ethics - Essay Example The aspect of sincerity assigns this kinetic force to professional ethics. The kinetic essence of sincerity lies in the fact that it embodies the feature of truth of word and action. This means that it must be seen in terms of the driving motive and the action that follows the motive. In some sense, sincerity might be seen in terms of the motion that makes manifest the philosophies underpinning professional ethics. These philosophies are tied around the essence of human or the willing desire to serve humanity in truth and in action. The element of humanism has often been regarded in light of the different factors that relate to virtuous service. Understanding the place of sincerity in professional ethics ought to begin from the moral grounds behind the development of professional ethics. Partly, professional ethics arose out of the awareness of the possible excesses of the pursuit of profits and personal gains. Professional ethics have been considered in terms of the building blocks that underpin the pursuit of personal gain. In usual cases, work provides the means for self-sustenance and progress to the worker. In the course of pursuing the objectives of work, it is possible for individuals to be blinded by their private gains in a manner that compromises the general good. Workers and professionals are part of the commonwealth. Their efforts must necessarily trickle back to the commonwealth. It was within this understanding that professional ethics were created with the task of safeguarding the commonwealth from the possible greed of the workers. Over the times, professional ethics has been understood within the context of sincerity. Sincerity entails the aspect of selflessness. In involves placing the welfare of the majority above personal gains on the ladder of social importance. Sincerity provides the mechanics that run the engine of professional ethics. It is important to consider the fact that some elements of sincerity are derived from the concepts of gl obal citizenship. The capacity to empathize and fulfill the needs of others often brings about some form of fulfillment that actualizes the essence of humanity. Perceived within the sense of professional ethics, the application of sincerity should enable the provision of services in a manner that gratifies the needs of the seeker. For instance, a businessman should serve his clients in a manner that would eventually add value to their lives. The transaction between the businessman and the client should carry an element of mutual benefit to both parties if it has to embrace the aspect of sincerity. Kantian Sincerity and Professional Ethics In broad terms, Emmanuel Kant perceived the aspect of sincerity within the framework of good will and virtue (Wood, 2008). Kant assigned the qualities of good and autonomy to the aspect of sincerity. According to him, the element of goodwill as embodied within the aspect of sincerity is complete and does not require any causative agent in order to manifest. Kant developed an understanding of the aspect of sincerity as a function of the moral law, which must emanate from within the person. This would imply that a corporate executive who exhibits these aspects of sincerity is basically driven by inner personal qualities of goodness. According to Kant, virtue is the overarching principle that enables the pursuit of the moral good (Wood, 2008). Within this underst

A literature review on Environmental Reporting Coursework

A literature review on Environmental Reporting - Coursework Example Basically, there are three types of environmental reporting that include involuntary disclosures, mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure (Porritt, 2005). Involuntary disclosure is whereby a company’s information about its environmental activities is disclosed without its consent and against its will. A good example of these kinds of disclosures is press and media exposes. Mandatory disclosure is whereby companies are required by law to disclose information concerning their environmental activities. Finally, voluntary disclosure is whereby a company voluntarily avails information concerning its environmental activities to the general public (Gray, 2000). There are two forms of voluntary disclosures including confidential and non-confidential disclosures. The former are the disclosures which are required by consumers, banks and insurers that are not available to the general public while the latter comprise of all environmental information a business organization voluntari ly avails to the general public. History of environmental reporting Even though voluntary disclosure of environment information by businesses has possibly existed as long as there have been companies, it is only in the last two decades we have seen significance in this direction. As more and more businesses become producers of informative environmental reports, so have the development embodied in the reporting continued to uphold an understanding of the relationships between the company, society and the environment (Gray, 2000). For almost 20 years of such voluntary initiatives have demonstrated clearly the possibilities of voluntary disclosure and appropriately attracted substantial admiration for those within the corporations who have initiated this progress (Patten, 2002). Organizational innovation has grown around the development of reporting and the effect of, for instance the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines among other approaches which ensured a helpful and inventive environment within which both emerging and existing environmental reporters can grow and develop (Porritt, 2005). Porritt (2005) observes that the substantial growth in this direction is not the whole story. This is because studies have not provided credible explanations of why companies would perform voluntarily such dangerous duty as environmental reporting (Porritt, 2005). More challenging than this, perhaps, is the rising recognition that if individuals know little about why companies report, they practically know comparatively little about why companies do report whereas majority do not. Probably that is why only few companies report either entirely or reliably. Stand-Alone Environmental Reporting Traditionally, much of formal environmental reporting and research is based on organization’s yearly report. Although disclosing some aspects of the organization’s environmental activities might appear in marketing, correspondences to work ers and so on the diversity and evenness of this reporting has only rarely attracted interest in the literature (Thompson and Bebbington, 2003). Even though the birth of stand-alone reporting is of importance in itself, the studies have not treated this shift as one that is basically different in form of yearly report disclosures. Stand-alone reporting can be regarded as an extension of the social and environmental