Professional Ethics
founded upon specialized high educational training, the purpose of which is to supply objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation.
the personal and corporate
standards of behaviour expected
of professionals.
The Centre for Professional ethics was established at Case Western Reserve University, Canada.
COMPONENTS/QUALITIES
HONESTY
Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft.
“Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I
lose myself.”
-William Shakespeare
INTEGRITY
O Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes.
O Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of
hypocrisy, that it regards internal consistency as a
virtue.
O The word "integrity" derived from the Latin
adjective integer that means “wholeness”.
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and
dreadful.”
- Samuel Johnson
TRANSPARENCY
O Transparency is a general quality.
O It is implemented by a set of policies, practices and
procedures.
O It allow citizens to have accessibility, usability,
utility, understandability, informativeness and auditability of information and process held by centers of authority (society or organizations).
“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.”
-Dalai Lama
ACCOUNTABILITY
O Accountabilityis often used synonymously with
such concepts as
answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account- giving.
O It is the acknowledgment and assumption of
responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies and be answerable for resulting consequences.
O It cannot exist without proper accounting practices.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Fields:
O Political accountability
O Ethical accountability
O Accountability in administration & education.
O Individual accountability
O Constituency relations
O Public/private overlap
“When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.” — Louis Nizer
CONFIDENTIALITY
O Confidentiality is an ethical principle of discretion associated with the professions, such as medicine, law, psychotherapy.
O In law, and mediation, there exist communications between the client and the professional, which are “privileged” communications.
O In business, the confidentiality of information, a
mainstream adaptation of the “need to know”
O In military, it is basic to the security of corporate information.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Confidentiality regarding:
Confidential information of:
Competitor
4.
“In intelligence work, there are limits to the amount of information one can share. Confidentiality is
essential.”
-Gijs de Vries
OBJECTIVITY
O Objectivity is a principle of journalistic professionalism.
O In journalism, objectivity may synonymous with
neutrality.
O Objectivity in journalism enables highly
accelerated news reporting and delivery, which sometimes is at tension with standards of
objectivity.
“The belief in objectivity is a faith in 'facts,' a distrust in 'values,' and a commitment to their segregation.“
-Michael Schudson
RESPECTFULNESS
O Respect gives a positive feeling of esteem for a person
and conduct representative of that esteem.
O Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual
qualities of the one respected.
O Rude conduct is usually considered to indicate a lack of
respect, disrespect, whereas actions that honor somebody or something indicate respect.
O The opposite of respect is contempt.
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage
man or the president of the university.”
-Albert Einstein
RESPECTFULNES
Language:
O Respect is shown in many languages such as:
- An honorific is a word or expression.
- An anti-honorific forms.
- A Style is a legal, official, or recognized.
Hand gesture:
O When a person's foot accidentally touches a book
or any written material (manifestation of the
goddess of knowledge Saraswati)
O This also counts for money, which is considered as
a manifestation of the goddess of wealth Lakshmi.
S
OBEDIENCE TO LAW
O Law is the set of enforced rules under which a society is governed.
O Law is one of the most basic social institutions-and
one of the most necessary.
O The law thus establishes the rules that define a
person's rights and obligations. The law also sets penalties for people who violate these rules.
O In fact, laws frequently are changed to reflect
changes in a society's needs and attitudes.
O Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are
enforced through social institutions to govern behavior.
OBEDIENCE TO LAW
O The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution (written or unwritten)
O The law shapes politics, economics and society in
countless ways and serves as a social mediator of
relations between people.
“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
OBEDIENCE TO LAW
Legal subjects
O International law
O Constitutional and administrative law O Criminal law
O Contract law
O Tort law
O Property law
O Equity and trusts
Legalsystems
O Civil law
O Common law and
equity
O Religious law
CODES OF ETHICS
O The codes of ethics are guidelines for specific group of professionals to help them perform their roles, to know how to conduct themselves, and to know how to resolve various ethical issues.
O The codes of ethics help the professionals to apply
moral and ethical principles to the specific
situations encountered in professional practice.
O These codes convey the rights, duties, and
obligations of the members of the profession.
POSITIVE ROLES OF CODES
OF ETHICS
O Inspiration
O Guidance
O Support for responsible conduct
O Deterring and disciplining unethical professional conduct
O Education and promoting of mutual understanding
O Contributing to a positive public image of the profession
O Protecting the status quo and suppressing dissent within the
profession
O Promoting business interests through restraint of trade
INSPIRATION
O Ethical codes provide a positive inspiration for the professionals to exercise their obligations effectively.
O These codes inspire the
engineers to apply moral principles under the various conflicting situations.
SUPPORT
O The ethical codes offer positive and potential support to engineers to perform their duties in ethical manner.
O At times, the codes can
serve as legal support for those engineers who are tangled in professional obligations and conflicts.
DETERRENCE AND
DISCIPLINE
O The ethical codes can be used for deterring and disciplining unethical professional conduct.
O These codes are also
considered as the formal basis for investigating unethical conduct
CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROFESSION’S PUBLIC
IMAGE
O The ethical codes can confer a positive image to the public of an ethically committed profession.
O The codes enable the
engineers to serve the public
more effectively
PROTECTING THE STATUS
QUO
O The codes institute ethical conventions. These ethical conventions can promote a minimum, acceptable level of ethical conduct.
O The codes can also suppress
the dispute within the
profession.
PROMOTING BUSINESS
INTERESTS
O The codes of ethics promote business interests through restraint of trade.
O They help in facilitating
morally feasible business dealings to the professionals.