| Course | BUS 560 Business Ethics |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Personal values statement |
| Length | About 1,054 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 560 Module 1
What I Will Not Trade for a Quota: A Personal Values Statement From a Credit Union Lending Manager
Student Name
MBA Program, Aspen University
BUS 560: Business Ethics
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
What I Will Not Trade for a Quota: A Personal Values Statement From a Credit Union Lending Manager
I manage the consumer lending team at a regional credit union in Dayton, Ohio, which is a composite for this paper. Eleven loan officers report to me. They help members finance cars, consolidate debts and cover emergencies. This year, the credit union introduced a quota of 40 auto and personal loans per officer per month, with bonuses for meeting it and coaching plans for missing it. Within weeks, I saw the quota begin to change how my team talked about members. This statement sets out my values, how I know they are mine and how I intend to keep them when they cost something.
A Vocabulary for Values
I needed language more precise than good intentions. Schwartz (1992), studying people in many countries, identified ten basic values that appeared across cultures, including benevolence, universalism, conformity, security, achievement and self-direction. He arranged them in a circle in which neighboring values are compatible and opposite values are in tension; achievement, for example, sits across from benevolence. The structure helped me see that my discomfort with the quota was not confusion but a real tension between achievement, which I value, and benevolence toward members, which I value more.
Rokeach (1973) offered a second distinction. Terminal values are end states a person wants, such as financial security for one's family or a sense of accomplishment. Instrumental values are ways of behaving, such as honesty, responsibility and fairness. My strongest values turned out to be instrumental: how I do the work matters to me more than any single outcome it produces.
My Values, Ranked
Ranking matters because values collide. When honesty and achievement conflict, honesty wins for me, even when it costs a loan.
| Rank | Value | Evidence from my own decisions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honesty with members | I told a member last spring that a loan she qualified for would strain her budget, and she chose a smaller one |
| 2 | Fairness to members | I review declined applications weekly to check that similar members receive similar answers |
| 3 | Responsibility to my team | I defended an officer whose numbers dropped while she cared for a sick parent |
| 4 | Achievement | I set and met a goal of cutting loan decision times from three days to one |
| 5 | Loyalty to the credit union | I stayed through a difficult merger when other managers left |
Where My Values Came From
My ranking did not come from a textbook. I grew up in a family that ran a small hardware store, where my father extended credit to farmers in bad years and told customers when a cheaper part would do. I learned early that a business could make money and still tell the truth. My first job in banking, at a lender that pushed credit cards on students, taught me the opposite lesson about what happens when incentives reward volume over judgment. Both experiences shaped the values I hold now and explain why honesty with members sits above achievement in my list.
Values in the Credit Union's Mission
Credit unions describe themselves as cooperatives that exist to serve their members, not outside shareholders. That mission supports my top values: honesty and fairness toward members are not only personal commitments but the reason the institution exists. When I raise concerns about the quota, I can appeal to the credit union's own stated purpose rather than to my preferences alone, which makes the conversation with my director about our shared values rather than my objections.
A Defining Moment
Badaracco (1997) described defining moments as decisions in which a manager must choose between two courses that both seem right. Such choices reveal what a person values, test whether those values are truly held and shape character going forward. Mine came in March. An experienced officer proposed a campaign to call members with auto loans at other lenders and offer refinancing, even where the savings would be small and the new loan would extend their payments by a year or more. It would have produced dozens of loans and put the whole team over quota. Loyalty to the credit union's goals and responsibility to my team pulled toward yes. Honesty and fairness to members pulled toward no.
I decided we would call only members for whom refinancing would lower their total cost, and that we would show each member both the monthly savings and the total interest over the life of the loan. The team made fewer loans than the campaign would have produced and missed quota that month by six. I explained my reasoning to my director, who agreed to review how the quota treated refinancing.
What I Learned About Pressure
The episode taught me that values are easiest to state and hardest to apply when an incentive points the other way. The officer who proposed the campaign was not dishonest; the quota made a borderline practice look like good performance. My values did not prevent the temptation. They gave me a reason to look at it closely.
What I Owe My Team
My values also shape how I treat the officers who report to me. Holding them to a standard of honesty with members means I must also be honest with them about how the quota affects their reviews and pay, and I must not ask them to absorb the cost of my choices alone. When we missed quota in March, I made sure the miss was attributed to my decision, not to their effort.
Commitments
I commit to four practices. I will show members the total cost of any loan, not only the monthly payment. I will not count a refinancing toward a quota unless it lowers the member's total cost. I will raise concerns about incentives with my director in writing, as I did in March. And I will ask my team monthly whether any target is pushing them toward something they would not explain to a member's face.
Conclusion
My values are honesty and fairness toward members first, responsibility to my team next, then achievement and loyalty to the institution. Research gave me words for them and showed why they conflict. A real decision showed me that I hold them, even at a cost. The commitments above are how anyone, including me, can check whether I keep holding them.
References
Badaracco, J. L., Jr. (1997). Defining moments: When managers must choose between right and right. Harvard Business School Press.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. Free Press.
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60281-6
BUS 560 Module 1 instructions, in plain terms
Aspen's catalog states that BUS 560 begins by exploring the values of future managers, and the first module usually asks students to articulate their own values and connect them to business decisions. The classroom's Module 1 directions specify format and length; this example is a reflective values statement in the first person. Identify your values using a recognized framework so they are more than personal preferences. Rank or prioritize them, since values conflict. Support each with evidence from your own decisions, not only intentions. Examine at least one situation in which values pulled in different directions. Explain how your role and organization shape the pressures you face. End with specific commitments that would let someone observe whether you lived your values.
How the BUS 560 Module 1 example is put together
The paper opens with the writer's role leading eleven loan officers and a new quota of 40 auto and personal loans per officer per month. Schwartz's Advances in Experimental Social Psychology chapter supplies ten value types arranged in a circle of compatible and competing motives, such as benevolence and achievement. Rokeach's The Nature of Human Values distinguishes terminal values, desired end states, from instrumental values, modes of conduct. A five-row table ranks honesty, fairness to members, responsibility to the team, achievement and loyalty to the institution, each with a past decision as evidence. Badaracco's Defining Moments describes choices between two rights and how they reveal and shape character. A section recounts an officer's proposal to steer members into refinancing they did not need, and the writer's response. Commitments close the paper.
Reading the BUS 560 Module 1 grading rubric
Personal values papers in an MBA ethics course are evaluated on depth of reflection, use of research to frame values, honest evidence from experience and the specificity of commitments. This statement uses Schwartz's research and Rokeach's typology to give its values a vocabulary beyond everyday words, and it ranks them rather than listing virtues that never conflict. Each value is tied to a decision the writer actually made, which is the evidence graders look for. Badaracco's Defining Moments frames a genuine conflict between two goods, loyalty to the institution's goals and fairness to members, so the reflection deals with difficulty rather than easy cases. Commitments are concrete enough to be checked, which turns the statement into a standard the writer can be held to.
BUS 560 Module 1 help from the desk
Values statements often list admirable words without evidence that the writer lives by them. Tie each value to a specific decision you made. Another weakness is presenting values that never conflict; real values compete, and showing how you decide between them is the heart of the assignment. Use a framework so your values are defined, not just named. Be honest about pressures in your workplace, including incentives that push against your values. Avoid writing about other people's failings; focus on your own choices. Keep commitments specific and observable, such as what you will refuse to do or say, rather than general resolutions. Finally, write in a professional first-person voice that is reflective without becoming a confession.
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BUS 560 Module 1 questions, answered
What does BUS 560 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's BUS 560 begins with managers' personal values, so a reflective statement identifying your values and connecting them to business decisions is typical. Check your classroom prompt.
What are Schwartz's universal values?
Ten basic values, such as benevolence, achievement, security and self-direction, that Schwartz found across cultures and arranged by which motives are compatible or in tension.
What is the difference between terminal and instrumental values?
Rokeach described terminal values as desired end states, such as security or freedom, and instrumental values as preferred ways of behaving, such as honesty or responsibility.
Where can I find a free BUS 560 Module 1 sample paper?
The full paper is posted above: a credit union lending manager's values statement with Schwartz's and Rokeach's frameworks, a ranked values table, a quota conflict and specific commitments.
What is a defining moment in business ethics?
Badaracco's term for a decision between two courses that both seem right, which reveals a person's values and shapes their character.