THE 4-WAY TEST
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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