Importance Of Ethics In Social Work Practice

Introduction
Nowadays, it is not easy to describe professional work and never talk about ethical principles and values that guide it (Guttmann, 2006). Social work because it is a profession it has its own principles and values that guide its ethical conduct. In addition, Guttmann (2006) argues that the knowledge and skills we have acquired as social workers cannot guarantee an ethical conduct in practice alone. Ethical conduct is an important aspect of social work practice. It involves following and respecting the rules or standards for right conduct, especially the standards of a profession. A professional social worker who has a good ethical conduct must act in ways consistent with what the profession, society and individuals typically think are good values. Ethical behaviour in social work tends to involve demonstrating respect for key principles that the profession upholds. This paper seeks to critically discuss the importance of ethical conduct in professional social work practice. In doing so, I will explain the philosophical principles that guide ethical conduct in social work. Examples will be used to illustrate this.
What is social work?
Globally social work definition

Since social workers work with a variety of populations, they experience some dilemmas during delivering their services to clients, hence the need for ethical conduct. According to Barker (2003) an ethical dilemma refers to a situation that occurs when two or more moral values seem to be equally legal but contradictory and the practitioner is required to make the best possible choice from among them. So it is important to have ethics that will help in taking ethical decisions. Barker (2003) defines ethics as a system of moral principles and perceptions about right versus wrong and the resulting philosophy of conduct that is practiced by a