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High Ethical Standards and
The 4-Way Test
A primary goal of Vocational Service is to
promote Rotary's high ethical standards. The two tools Rotarians
have to assess such standards are The 4-Way Test and the "Declaration
of Rotarians in Businesses and Professions."
The 4-Way Test
The 4-Way Test was conceived in 1932 by Herbert
J. Taylor, a member of the Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois,
USA, and president of Rotary International in 1954-55. Taylor
had been assigned the task of saving a company from bankruptcy,
and he developed the test as a way to monitor his own actions
in trying to revive the company. Pleased with the results
the test helped him achieve, Taylor began to share it with
others, and by 1943, the RI Board of Directors had decided
to make it an official component of the Vocational Service
ideal. Rather than being a code or creed, the test appears
in the form of questions. It is up to the individual to provide
the answers and use them as a guide toward fostering goodwill
and maintaining ethical business and professional standards.
Declaration of Rotarians
in Businesses and Professions
The Declaration was adopted by the 1989 RI
Council on Legislation as a means of more clearly defining
the high ethical standards called for in the Object of Rotary.
It provides a framework for ethical behavior that all Rotarians
can use, together with the 4-Way Test, as a standard against
which to measure their business and professional activities.
The 4-Way Test
Of the things we think, say, or do:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concerned?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER
FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned
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