Wow, more interesting stuff today. In my Management of Information Organizations class (or whatever it's called), we focused on ethics. Heady stuff. What are ethics? Why are they important? What is the difference between ethics and morals? Between ethics and law? We discussed 5 streams of ethics, including deontolgical, utilitarian, social contract, rights-based, and virtue.

We also did an interesting exercise. We were handed a long list of values. Take a look at this list, then cross off 10 that don't really describe you/ don't describe you all the time/ aren't that important to you/ ones you can live without.

 
Fairness          Flexibility           Experimentation
Initiative         Cautiousness      Cooperation
Innovation       Quality             Independence
Hierarchy         Diversity           Broad-mindedness
Democracy       Courtesy          Change
Autonomy         Humor             Forgiveness
Formality         Cost-               Conformity
Control            consciousness   Customer service
Individuality     Creativity          Respect for the individual
Obedience       Openness          Teamwork
Honesty           Adaptability      Changing the status quo
Merit               Community        Consideration
Accountability    Aggressiveness      Logic
Development       Diligence         Social equality
Integrity           Orderliness        Loyalty
Self-discipline    Courage            Professionalism
Compassion       Transparency     Politeness
Precision           Revenge           Accuracy
                    Perfection

Think about yourself and be honest - cross off another 10.
Have you done that?
Now cross off another 10.
This is probably getting difficult and hard to cross things off. But you have to cross off 10 more. You should be left with 4 values.

Do these reflect who you are the most? Are these indeed the most important values to you - the ones you can't live without?
These values probably have a price though. Would you even be willing to give these up in certain situations? What situations? What is the price of these values?

For the record, I was left with integrity, compassion, humor, and adaptability.

I'm still not sure about those - I've been going back and forth all day. Do those really describe me the most? Are those the most important values to me? Are they important but not really the ones I ascribe to all the time, merely what I hope to? Or do they describe me quite well? I'm sure the resulting list also depends on what mood you're in and all those things.

Well, I'm off to read some particularly exciting stuff on globalization. =)