Ethical Issues in Social Work Practice The social work profession and its Code of Ethics dictate that social workers must act in the best interest of the client, even when those actions challenge the practitioner’s personal, cultural and religious values. In practice; however, ethical decision-making is more complex than in theory. As helping professionals, social workers are constantly faced with ethical decision-making or ethical dilemmas. As noted by Banks (2005), an ethical dilemma occurs “when a worker is faced with a choice between two equally unwelcome alternatives that may involve a conflict of moral principles, and it is not clear what choice will be the right one” (as cited in McAuliffe & Chenoweth, 2008, p. 43). In addition, ethical decision-making is a process that encompasses a great use of self-awareness and critical thinking by the practitioner.
In simple words, a moral theory is an effort at outlining what an individual ought to do in accord to an intrinsic good. It can take many aspects, each with it’s own strength and weaknesses, and each appealing in it’s own way. In this paper I will focus on two normative ethical theories, consequentialism and deontology. I will respectively describe each one, and will then proceed to list their corresponding benefits and shortcomings. I will conclude by siding with consequentialism for various reasons that I will try my best to explain.
Often, values are ideas that we want to achieve, like equality and social justice. Morals describe a behavioral code of conduct to which an individual ascribes. In this report, I will discuss an ethical dilemma (cheating) that I have been faced, then I will talk about it in
In nutshell, the authors’ main aim of the research article was to examined the antecedents and the path forward of ethical leadership. Therein, they want to understand why there has been a positive and negative organizational process of ethical leadership. The authors came up with three points of terminology as a way to understand the ethical leadership. They term these as personality traits. These traits defined and are as follow: a. Conscientiousness is related to high degree of moral obligation.
There are ways in which managers may encourage ethical behaviour, for instance by guiding subordinates, by setting targets which are so challenging that they can only be achieved through cutting unethical actions. Bureaucracy supports the authority and reward system and may have various effects on individual's responses to moral basic leadership where individual moral convictions have a tendency to be abrogated by the principles and roles of the bureaucracy. Additionally, factors such as working roles, organisational field or national and cultural context also affect the decision making
Rather, it is based on standards at which we guide our behaviors and determine what should be done and what shouldn’t. Kant, one of the greatest philosophers who have discussed ethics, argues that acting in an ethical way requires differentiating between, “right” and “wrong” and then performing the right option. It is all about every individual’s view for a condition and the morality. Morality has a concern when it comes to norms, values, and beliefs that are embedded in social process. This defines right and wrong for an individual or a community.
Ethical dilemma as outlined by Kinicki (2017, p.106), “is a situation in which you have to decide whether to pursue a course of action that may benefit you or your organization but that is unethical or even illegal”. However, there are various ethical approaches that can be used when making ethical decisions. The Utilitarian approach as outlined by Kinicki (2017, p.107), “helps managers to consider the effects of making decisions by deciding how their action would affect others”. For example: in the military the leaders of the reserve often meets with the boss and make decisions based on certain things they would like the reserve to do or hope to achieve but there is never a time where they would meet with the soldiers when making these decisions so that we can have any input. This shows that the boss and his immediate leaders /supervisors are unethical.
According to Coghlan and Brannick (2014) is particularly the insider action researcher also confronted with political issues. Thus, an insider action researcher has to think further how ethics and political power are linked with each other. As echoed by Cunliffe (2004) the researcher has to build up good relationships with all relevant stakeholders for achieving ethical objectives. This includes that the (insider) action researcher must have the willingness to trust relevant stakeholders and to accept contrasting viewpoints (Holt, 2006). Moreover, Holt (2006) points out; that rhetoric is a valuable tool for developing the moral character of managers and from my point of view helpful in strengthening relationships and trust while conducting action
Ethics are inherited from a young age and also depends on education, peers and social activities. To emphasize on this fact, our education, society and people who we idolize are very important. There are many situations where our intentions are questioned in a work environment. How much will ethics play a role in one’s personal and professional development, is the biggest question, the issue of unethical behavior and decision making is a concerning issue which needs to be handled with proper