Kaitlyn Wornath, a senior majoring in accounting, conducted an independent study during fall of 2022. This study focused on four different media sources, which each examined the applicability of business and ethics working together. Read this summary by Kaitlyn to discover the essential messages of those media sources and how the independent study has inspired her to continue the personal development mission and implement ethics into the business world. 

This semester, I conducted an independent study on the connection between personal development and business ethics. Nowadays, many news headlines seem to have an abundance of stories surrounding unethical decisions made in the business world. This is because negative stories and headlines typically attract more attention. Also, ethical decision making in the world of business is often viewed as subjective and uncommon. 

While there is no exact formula for determining ethical actions, personal development can assist in the process of ethical decision making. My goal is to be intentional about further developing myself, so that my conduct in the business world reflects how greatly I value ethical behavior towards myself and others. There are two main aspects I will cover in my independent study: how to further improve oneself, and how that development contributes to ethical decision making in business. 

Personal development is defined as developing and improving one’s skills to enhance quality of life. It consists of five main parts: mental, social, spiritual, emotional, and physical. Furthermore, business ethics is a form of applied ethics that centers around all aspects of business conduct and operations. Through my studies I read two books; Happier Now by Nataly Kogan, and The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. In addition, I watched two TED talks titled “Is Business Ethics an Oxymoron?” and “Yes, Even When Nobody is Watching”. Each book and video focused on different parts of personal development or business ethics. 

Happier Now covers five core practices to help maintain ‘happier skills’; gratitude, intentional kindness, acceptance, the bigger “why”, and self-care. Gratitude includes being thankful for what we have at this moment, or small things throughout your day.  The book emphasizes physically writing down what you are grateful for while still keeping it simple and specific. Intentional kindness involves scheduling acts of kindness and overcoming obstacles to kindness. Acceptance involves understanding the present moment at its face value. Understanding and accepting things for how they are influences what we choose to do next. The bigger “why” is finding what we are really good at and how that gives our lives meaning. Finally, self-care includes nourishing various aspects of our lives such as our mind, body, spirit, friendships, and emotional health. These self-care characteristics Kogan addresses, also coincide with the five main parts of personal development, showing a strong correlation between a person’s happiness, self-care practices, and their ability to have strong ethical decision making. 

The Talent Code focuses on myelin and how it strengthens neural pathways. The book outlines specific ways myelin and other similar tools can make a difference in maximizing the potential in our own lives and the lives of those around us. The book is divided into three parts: deep practice, ignition, and master coaching. It prominently addresses stories of athletes and musicians in the main chapters, but in the book’s epilogue it also touches on how the talent code relates to businesses. For deep practice,   one must realize that making mistakes in one’s job isn’t necessarily a negative thing. Instead, a person must pause and evaluate potential ethical considerations. The more a person encounters and overcomes ethical difficulties, the more myelin a person builds to help reinforce the neural pathways in the brain. In other words, the more a person consistently and adequately practices ethical decision making, the better they become at looking at ethical dilemmas from a variety of viewpoints. Furthermore, practicing and engaging in personal development also aids one in improving their character. Ignition states that talent typically appears in groups. Therefore, the more likely others are to act ethically within an organization, influences and inspires other employees to act in similar ways. Ethical organizations are made of myelin. Specifically, businesses consist of groups of people who are building and honing skill circuits in exactly the same way as athletes or musicians. The more an organization embraces the core principles of the talent code, the more myelin it will build amongst its members, and the more success it will have. 

“Yes, Even When Nobody is Watching” discusses where people’s personal ethics come from. As a CPA, Ware is required to take an ethics course every three years. However, Ware states that while CPAs and other business professionals are often required by law to take certain ethics courses, when it comes to personal ethics, there are no such laws or regulations. This means a person can only rely on their own moral compass to help guide them in ethical decision making. There are different sources we pull our personal ethics from, which can often make it much more difficult to determine the morally right course of action in business. In business decision-making, it is nearly impossible to always please everyone. However, if a person is able to explain their reasoning behind certain ethical decisions to others, this will help people to accept the decision for what it is. Dawn illustrates this by saying, “Is the way I’m handling this, something I can defend to my husband, employees, friends, parents, and children?” Developing one’s personal moral compass through personal development makes it significantly easier to defend one’s actions and be transparent in such decisions. 

“Is Business Ethics an Oxymoron?” dispels common arguments for why business and ethics are not necessarily connected. Mohammad, the speaker, discusses the arguments of how business is comparable to a game of poker according to Albert Carr, Adam Smith’s invisible hand argument, and the economic dogma of how all commercial activity in business is based solely on pure self-interest. Mohammad concludes businesses are a part of society. Therefore,  many common sense moral rules, such as honesty, should direct business. This means that we need to make ethical behavior the norm and realize business and ethics go hand in hand. 

The knowledge gained through examining these media sources have helped me understand business ethics in relation to personal development. In the future, I will continue to improve my knowledge and enhance my skills throughout my life through continued and consistent personal development. After listening and reading these videos and books, I realized  having a strong moral character to fall back on is imperative to making ethical decisions. There isn’t always a “right” or “wrong” answer, which is why looking at factors such as my bigger “why”, intentional kindness, and defending actions to those I respect can aid me in making ethical choices even in the most difficult of times. Practicing these behaviors of personal development can help me grow myelin, which strengthen neural pathways utilized in such ethical decision making. 

Through this study, I realized that continued personal development not only benefits the person improving their character, but it also benefits and inspires those around that person. I feel extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to conduct this independent study. Pursuing the excellence of the mind and the heart, such as Whitworth encourages,  is one of the best ways to serve and benefit our communities. By bettering myself, I am not only encouraging others to do so as well, but I am also discovering how to pursue excellence in other aspects of my life.