Professional ethics.

Professional ethics include the personal, organizational, and corporate standards of behavior expected of professionals. To ensure that employees properly represent themselves and the companies for which they work, most institutions have a set of ethics to which all employees must adhere—this is especially true for university employees, medical workers, police and other public service officers, military personnel, and corporate employees. Many professional societies also have ethical declarations or codes of conduct. Because organizational credibility is based on reputation, penalties for violating an ethics code are often steep and can include demotion, suspension, firing, and at times, imprisonment.