essay on ethics and professionalism

The Link Between Professionalism and Ethics Essay

Professionalism and ethics are key factors in a job setting. These two aspects work hand in hand. Engineering is no different case. Ethics seeks to evaluate deeply on moral aspects. It entails the practices that the staff carries out in an establishment. It incorporates; good value, code of conduct, moral value, principles and virtues. The ethics enable one to outlay professionalism in undertaking his engineering career.

Professional ethics helps a lot in proficiency and comprehending problems encountered in this field. Ethics assists one to know the good and bad sides of a person in a work setting. Engineering ethics are the codes of standard applied in the field of engineering. These ethics portray good conducts in professional engineers.

In accordance with the innovation in science and technology one needs to uphold high moral standard in terms of principle and practices. It concentrates on doing the right action with out inconveniencing other parties. In engineering one needs guidelines that propel him or her to success in this field. The guidelines are set values that give the ability to make correct choices, decisions and action. Not all values are equal.

It all depends with the perception of a person and his/her experience. One can modify and create beliefs that define his identity. Thus he may hold characters such as social skills, peace among co-workers, truth and honesty. Perseverance, discernment and accuracy are also values that one needs to have in order to relay services professionally. This boosts his moral behavior and upholds professional skills.

In addition to values and morals a professional needs work ethics. These ethics ought to be principled and easy to interpret. Employing attitudes of work value will need a lot of motivation in order to succeed. This goes along way to increase the productivity and overall performance in engineering.

In the work place the relationship among co-workers and employees in the organization, depends heavily on the ethics. The engineers tactfully apply the code of ethics to tackle problems encountered in the field. The engineer should offer high standard of service to the client. He should work towards achieving set objectives as part of strengthening his skills in the profession (Naagarazan 41).

Moral issues may arise at certain times in an organization. This will require one to apply professionalism to tackle such issues. Issues such as resource crouch may lead one to be manipulated and unethical termination of projects. Another issue is applying double standards in making decisions and selection of projects.

The management may seek to fulfill their interest more than the employees. The employees may develop poor attitude to providing services to the consumers.

These issues can be sorted through normative inquiry where norms are used to guide the employees and the management to run the organization. The management should come in strongly to offer a neutral field for implementation of these norms.

Another way of curbing moral issues is by conceptual inquiry where all the employees are directed and informed of the concepts and principles. Factual or descriptive inquiry is another way to solve the moral issues arising in an organization. This inquiry provides information about practices and effectiveness of the system.

When one upholds professionalism he or she expects to be loyal to the organization, have high level of integrity, be knowledgeable and applies tact in undertaking tasks of the organization. He should be a social catalyst and serve the management and other employees without biasness.

The professional conduct helps to gain trust in the public and improve professional development (Naagarazan 39). Professionalism in the public domain determines how resources and other activities are carried out. A professional will bear responsibility of his work in the sense that he becomes liable and accountable for action he takes in the organization. By carrying out his duty well, he gets appraisal from the management due to his success.

A competent professional will strive to meet the requirement of the client. It is highly recommended that clients confidentiality to be observed. This is also part of professionalism since the client builds trust in the employee.

Other attributes of a competent professional is to respect the management and other employees as well as the client. Courtesy when communicating to client will boost confidence in the engineer from the client perspective. They should also be ready to offer services to a diverse population.

The employee should avoid fraud and misuse of resources at all times. Above all discipline is very important. In a sum up professionalism is the equality of being honest and faithful to the profession. Always honor the law and observe rules and regulation of the State.

Professionalism may be hindered by a number of factors such as poverty levels and high level for illiteracy in the society. Most engineers may take advantage of these situations in the society and offer substantial services to them. To curb this situation the engineers should be given adequate remuneration to refrain them from exploiting the less fortunate (Philip 74). Professionalism and ethics work hand in hand.

For one to be a successful professional he or she needs to have all the ethics values and virtues. Successful engineers are as a result of the moral behaviors and work ethics they endorse in their day to day undertaking. If these ethics are advocated world wide then the world will absolutely have more engineers who are professionally fit.

Naagarazan, Ramayan. Textbook on Professional Ethics and Human Values. New Delhi: New Age International, 2006. Print.

Philip, Sadler. Management consultancy: a handbook for best practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2002. Print.

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Essay on Work Ethics and Professionalism

Students are often asked to write an essay on Work Ethics and Professionalism in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Work Ethics and Professionalism

Introduction.

Work ethics and professionalism are essential in any job. They help maintain a positive environment and ensure success.

Work Ethics

Work ethics refer to the moral principles that guide our actions at work. They include honesty, responsibility, and respect.

Professionalism

Professionalism means conducting oneself with responsibility, integrity, and competence. It’s about doing your job effectively and respectfully.

Good work ethics and professionalism lead to job satisfaction and success. They build trust and respect among colleagues.

In conclusion, work ethics and professionalism are vital for a successful career. They ensure a positive and productive work environment.

Also check:

10 Lines on Work Ethics and Professionalism

250 Words Essay on Work Ethics and Professionalism

Introduction to work ethics and professionalism.

Work ethics and professionalism are fundamental principles that govern the conduct of individuals in a professional setting. These principles are quintessential in defining an individual’s character, commitment, and integrity within the workplace.

Understanding Work Ethics

Work ethics encompass a set of values based on hard work and diligence. It involves a belief in the moral benefit and importance of work and its inherent ability to strengthen character. A strong work ethic emanates from an individual’s inner drive and perseverance to achieve success. It includes attributes like reliability, responsibility, quality, discipline, and teamwork.

Professionalism: A Vital Component

Professionalism, on the other hand, is the conduct, behavior, and attitude of an individual in a work or business environment. It involves maintaining a level of etiquette, exhibiting a positive attitude, showing respect to others, and demonstrating a high level of competence and efficiency. Professionalism is about conducting oneself in a manner that enhances one’s image and the image of the organization one represents.

The Intersection of Work Ethics and Professionalism

Work ethics and professionalism are intertwined. A professional with strong work ethics is likely to be more successful because they are dependable, respectful, and competent. They value their work, respect their obligations, and strive for excellence.

In conclusion, the importance of work ethics and professionalism cannot be overstated. They are the bedrock of any successful career and organization. Cultivating these qualities is vital for personal growth and professional advancement.

500 Words Essay on Work Ethics and Professionalism

Work ethics and professionalism are two integral elements that define the caliber and value of an individual in a professional setting. Work ethics refer to a set of moral principles that guide a person’s actions in the workplace, while professionalism is the conduct, behavior, and attitude of someone in a work or business environment.

Work ethics are a set of values centered on the notions of hard work and diligence. It involves a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character. An individual with a robust work ethic exhibits qualities such as integrity, responsibility, quality, and discipline. These values are not inherent; they are cultivated through experiences and societal interactions.

Work ethics play a crucial role in determining the efficiency and quality of work. It influences an individual’s productivity and commitment, which in turn affects the overall performance of the organization. Moreover, it fosters a sense of respect and trust among colleagues, creating a conducive environment for collaboration and teamwork.

The Essence of Professionalism

Professionalism, on the other hand, is the practical application of work ethics. It is reflected in an individual’s conduct, behavior, and attitude in the workplace. Professionalism involves maintaining an appropriate level of etiquette, demonstrating a high degree of competence, and showing respect for others in the workplace.

Professionalism is not just about following a set of rules; it’s about embodying a professional identity. This includes being reliable, respectful, and accountable. It also means being able to handle criticism constructively, communicate effectively, and maintain a positive attitude, even in challenging situations.

The Interplay between Work Ethics and Professionalism

Work ethics and professionalism are intertwined. A strong work ethic fuels professionalism, and a high degree of professionalism reflects a solid work ethic. While work ethics is the moral compass guiding an individual’s actions, professionalism is the manifestation of these ethical considerations in a work setting.

The presence of work ethics and professionalism in an individual can significantly enhance their career growth. Employers value these traits as they contribute to a positive work culture, improved productivity, and a better reputation for the company.

In conclusion, work ethics and professionalism are not just desirable traits but essential for anyone seeking to excel in their professional life. They are the pillars upon which successful careers and organizations are built. By fostering these values, individuals can not only enrich their professional journey but also contribute to creating a healthy and productive work environment. The cultivation of work ethics and professionalism is a continuous process, one that demands conscious effort and commitment. But the rewards, both personal and professional, are well worth the effort.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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How to Write an Ethics Paper: Guide & Ethical Essay Examples

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An ethics essay is a type of academic writing that explores ethical issues and dilemmas. Students should evaluates them in terms of moral principles and values. The purpose of an ethics essay is to examine the moral implications of a particular issue, and provide a reasoned argument in support of an ethical perspective.

Writing an essay about ethics is a tough task for most students. The process involves creating an outline to guide your arguments about a topic and planning your ideas to convince the reader of your feelings about a difficult issue. If you still need assistance putting together your thoughts in composing a good paper, you have come to the right place. We have provided a series of steps and tips to show how you can achieve success in writing. This guide will tell you how to write an ethics paper using ethical essay examples to understand every step it takes to be proficient. In case you don’t have time for writing, get in touch with our professional essay writers for hire . Our experts work hard to supply students with excellent essays.

What Is an Ethics Essay?

An ethics essay uses moral theories to build arguments on an issue. You describe a controversial problem and examine it to determine how it affects individuals or society. Ethics papers analyze arguments on both sides of a possible dilemma, focusing on right and wrong. The analysis gained can be used to solve real-life cases. Before embarking on writing an ethical essay, keep in mind that most individuals follow moral principles. From a social context perspective, these rules define how a human behaves or acts towards another. Therefore, your theme essay on ethics needs to demonstrate how a person feels about these moral principles. More specifically, your task is to show how significant that issue is and discuss if you value or discredit it.

Purpose of an Essay on Ethics

The primary purpose of an ethics essay is to initiate an argument on a moral issue using reasoning and critical evidence. Instead of providing general information about a problem, you present solid arguments about how you view the moral concern and how it affects you or society. When writing an ethical paper, you demonstrate philosophical competence, using appropriate moral perspectives and principles.

Things to Write an Essay About Ethics On

Before you start to write ethics essays, consider a topic you can easily address. In most cases, an ethical issues essay analyzes right and wrong. This includes discussing ethics and morals and how they contribute to the right behaviors. You can also talk about work ethic, code of conduct, and how employees promote or disregard the need for change. However, you can explore other areas by asking yourself what ethics mean to you. Think about how a recent game you watched with friends started a controversial argument. Or maybe a newspaper that highlighted a story you felt was misunderstood or blown out of proportion. This way, you can come up with an excellent topic that resonates with your personal ethics and beliefs.

Ethics Paper Outline

Sometimes, you will be asked to submit an outline before writing an ethics paper. Creating an outline for an ethics paper is an essential step in creating a good essay. You can use it to arrange your points and supporting evidence before writing. It also helps organize your thoughts, enabling you to fill any gaps in your ideas. The outline for an essay should contain short and numbered sentences to cover the format and outline. Each section is structured to enable you to plan your work and include all sources in writing an ethics paper. An ethics essay outline is as follows:

Background information
Thesis statement
Restate thesis statement
Summarize key points
Final thoughts on the topic

Using this outline will improve clarity and focus throughout your writing process.

Ethical Essay Structure

Ethics essays are similar to other essays based on their format, outline, and structure. An ethical essay should have a well-defined introduction, body, and conclusion section as its structure. When planning your ideas, make sure that the introduction and conclusion are around 20 percent of the paper, leaving the rest to the body. We will take a detailed look at what each part entails and give examples that are going to help you understand them better. Refer to our essay structure examples to find a fitting way of organizing your writing.

Ethics Paper Introduction

An ethics essay introduction gives a synopsis of your main argument. One step on how to write an introduction for an ethics paper is telling about the topic and describing its background information. This paragraph should be brief and straight to the point. It informs readers what your position is on that issue. Start with an essay hook to generate interest from your audience. It can be a question you will address or a misunderstanding that leads up to your main argument. You can also add more perspectives to be discussed; this will inform readers on what to expect in the paper.

Ethics Essay Introduction Example

You can find many ethics essay introduction examples on the internet. In this guide, we have written an excellent extract to demonstrate how it should be structured. As you read, examine how it begins with a hook and then provides background information on an issue.

Imagine living in a world where people only lie, and honesty is becoming a scarce commodity. Indeed, modern society is facing this reality as truth and deception can no longer be separated. Technology has facilitated a quick transmission of voluminous information, whereas it's hard separating facts from opinions.

In this example, the first sentence of the introduction makes a claim or uses a question to hook the reader.

Ethics Essay Thesis Statement

An ethics paper must contain a thesis statement in the first paragraph. Learning how to write a thesis statement for an ethics paper is necessary as readers often look at it to gauge whether the essay is worth their time.

When you deviate away from the thesis, your whole paper loses meaning. In ethics essays, your thesis statement is a roadmap in writing, stressing your position on the problem and giving reasons for taking that stance. It should focus on a specific element of the issue being discussed. When writing a thesis statement, ensure that you can easily make arguments for or against its stance.

Ethical Paper Thesis Example

Look at this example of an ethics paper thesis statement and examine how well it has been written to state a position and provide reasons for doing so:

The moral implications of dishonesty are far-reaching as they undermine trust, integrity, and other foundations of society, damaging personal and professional relationships.

The above thesis statement example is clear and concise, indicating that this paper will highlight the effects of dishonesty in society. Moreover, it focuses on aspects of personal and professional relationships.

Ethics Essay Body

The body section is the heart of an ethics paper as it presents the author's main points. In an ethical essay, each body paragraph has several elements that should explain your main idea. These include:

A topic sentence that is precise and reiterates your stance on the issue.
Evidence supporting it.
Examples that illustrate your argument.
A thorough analysis showing how the evidence and examples relate to that issue.
A transition sentence that connects one paragraph to another with the help of essay transitions .

When you write an ethics essay, adding relevant examples strengthens your main point and makes it easy for others to understand and comprehend your argument.

Body Paragraph for Ethics Paper Example

A good body paragraph must have a well-defined topic sentence that makes a claim and includes evidence and examples to support it. Look at part of an example of ethics essay body paragraph below and see how its idea has been developed:

Honesty is an essential component of professional integrity. In many fields, trust and credibility are crucial for professionals to build relationships and success. For example, a doctor who is dishonest about a potential side effect of a medication is not only acting unethically but also putting the health and well-being of their patients at risk. Similarly, a dishonest businessman could achieve short-term benefits but will lose their client’s trust.

Ethics Essay Conclusion

A concluding paragraph shares the summary and overview of the author's main arguments. Many students need clarification on what should be included in the essay conclusion and how best to get a reader's attention. When writing an ethics paper conclusion, consider the following:

Restate the thesis statement to emphasize your position.
Summarize its main points and evidence.
Final thoughts on the issue and any other considerations.

You can also reflect on the topic or acknowledge any possible challenges or questions that have not been answered. A closing statement should present a call to action on the problem based on your position.

Sample Ethics Paper Conclusion

The conclusion paragraph restates the thesis statement and summarizes the arguments presented in that paper. The sample conclusion for an ethical essay example below demonstrates how you should write a concluding statement.

In conclusion, the implications of dishonesty and the importance of honesty in our lives cannot be overstated. Honesty builds solid relationships, effective communication, and better decision-making. This essay has explored how dishonesty impacts people and that we should value honesty. We hope this essay will help readers assess their behavior and work towards being more honest in their lives.

In the above extract, the writer gives final thoughts on the topic, urging readers to adopt honest behavior.

How to Write an Ethics Paper?

As you learn how to write an ethics essay, it is not advised to immediately choose a topic and begin writing. When you follow this method, you will get stuck or fail to present concrete ideas. A good writer understands the importance of planning. As a fact, you should organize your work and ensure it captures key elements that shed more light on your arguments. Hence, following the essay structure and creating an outline to guide your writing process is the best approach. In the following segment, we have highlighted step-by-step techniques on how to write a good ethics paper.

1. Pick a Topic

Before writing ethical papers, brainstorm to find ideal topics that can be easily debated. For starters, make a list, then select a title that presents a moral issue that may be explained and addressed from opposing sides. Make sure you choose one that interests you. Here are a few ideas to help you search for topics:

Review current trends affecting people.
Think about your personal experiences.
Study different moral theories and principles.
Examine classical moral dilemmas.

Once you find a suitable topic and are ready, start to write your ethics essay, conduct preliminary research, and ascertain that there are enough sources to support it.

2. Conduct In-Depth Research

Once you choose a topic for your essay, the next step is gathering sufficient information about it. Conducting in-depth research entails looking through scholarly journals to find credible material. Ensure you note down all sources you found helpful to assist you on how to write your ethics paper. Use the following steps to help you conduct your research:

Clearly state and define a problem you want to discuss.
This will guide your research process.
Develop keywords that match the topic.
Begin searching from a wide perspective. This will allow you to collect more information, then narrow it down by using the identified words above.

3. Develop an Ethics Essay Outline

An outline will ease up your writing process when developing an ethic essay. As you develop a paper on ethics, jot down factual ideas that will build your paragraphs for each section. Include the following steps in your process:

Review the topic and information gathered to write a thesis statement.
Identify the main arguments you want to discuss and include their evidence.
Group them into sections, each presenting a new idea that supports the thesis.
Write an outline.
Review and refine it.

Examples can also be included to support your main arguments. The structure should be sequential, coherent, and with a good flow from beginning to end. When you follow all steps, you can create an engaging and organized outline that will help you write a good essay.

4. Write an Ethics Essay

Once you have selected a topic, conducted research, and outlined your main points, you can begin writing an essay . Ensure you adhere to the ethics paper format you have chosen. Start an ethics paper with an overview of your topic to capture the readers' attention. Build upon your paper by avoiding ambiguous arguments and using the outline to help you write your essay on ethics. Finish the introduction paragraph with a thesis statement that explains your main position. Expand on your thesis statement in all essay paragraphs. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence and provide evidence plus an example to solidify your argument, strengthen the main point, and let readers see the reasoning behind your stance. Finally, conclude the essay by restating your thesis statement and summarizing all key ideas. Your conclusion should engage the reader, posing questions or urging them to reflect on the issue and how it will impact them.

5. Proofread Your Ethics Essay

Proofreading your essay is the last step as you countercheck any grammatical or structural errors in your essay. When writing your ethic paper, typical mistakes you could encounter include the following:

Spelling errors: e.g., there, they’re, their.
Homophone words: such as new vs. knew.
Inconsistencies: like mixing British and American words, e.g., color vs. color.
Formatting issues: e.g., double spacing, different font types.

While proofreading your ethical issue essay, read it aloud to detect lexical errors or ambiguous phrases that distort its meaning. Verify your information and ensure it is relevant and up-to-date. You can ask your fellow student to read the essay and give feedback on its structure and quality.

Ethics Essay Examples

Writing an essay is challenging without the right steps. There are so many ethics paper examples on the internet, however, we have provided a list of free ethics essay examples below that are well-structured and have a solid argument to help you write your paper. Click on them and see how each writing step has been integrated. Ethics essay example 1

Ethics essay example 2

Ethics essay example 3

Ethics essay example 4

College ethics essay example 5

Ethics Essay Writing Tips

When writing papers on ethics, here are several tips to help you complete an excellent essay:

Choose a narrow topic and avoid broad subjects, as it is easy to cover the topic in detail.
Ensure you have background information. A good understanding of a topic can make it easy to apply all necessary moral theories and principles in writing your paper.
State your position clearly. It is important to be sure about your stance as it will allow you to draft your arguments accordingly.
When writing ethics essays, be mindful of your audience. Provide arguments that they can understand.
Integrate solid examples into your essay. Morality can be hard to understand; therefore, using them will help a reader grasp these concepts.

Bottom Line on Writing an Ethics Paper

Creating this essay is a common exercise in academics that allows students to build critical skills. When you begin writing, state your stance on an issue and provide arguments to support your position. This guide gives information on how to write an ethics essay as well as examples of ethics papers. Remember to follow these points in your writing:

Create an outline highlighting your main points.
Write an effective introduction and provide background information on an issue.
Include a thesis statement.
Develop concrete arguments and their counterarguments, and use examples.
Sum up all your key points in your conclusion and restate your thesis statement.

Contact our academic writing platform and have your challenge solved. Here, you can order essays and papers on any topic and enjoy top quality.

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

How to Develop a Strong Work Ethic

Tutti Taygerly

Hiring managers want to see your motivation, can-do attitude, and dedication.

In our early career years, it can be challenging to figure out what behaviors are and are not acceptable in different professional environments. Employers are now expecting more of entry-level workers and they want to see that you have good work ethic. So what is work ethic?

Work ethic refers to a set of moral principles, values, and attitudes around how to act at work. It often surrounds what behaviors are commonly acceptable and appropriate (or not).
Qualities like reliability, productivity, ownership and team support all demonstrate professional integrity, or a strong commitment to ethical behavior at work. In contrast, low-quality work, tardiness, or lack of attention to details demonstrates bad work ethic.
If you’re new to the workplace, a good way to start is by observing. Pay attention to how your coworkers behave in meetings to gain a better understanding of their “etiquette,” as well as the communication styles of different people and teams. Another essential part of building good work ethic is adopting a “do it like you own it” attitude. You can do this by being proactive in small, but powerful, ways.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Have you ever wondered about how to behave appropriately at work? Throughout your career, and especially in the early years, it’s challenging to figure out what behaviors and attitudes are and are not acceptable in different professional environments. The more you traverse companies and industries, the clearer your understanding will become. When you’re just starting out, though, it can be hard to pin down these behaviors.

Tutti Taygerly is an executive coach and speaker with 20+ years of product design experience in Silicon Valley. Her book Make Space to Lead: Break Patterns to Find Flow and Focus on What Matters Most (Taygerly Labs, 2021) shows high achievers how to reframe their relationship to work.

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How to Write a Personal Ethics Statement—And Why Every Professional Should

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What is a Personal Ethics Statement?

Personal ethics are your guidelines for forming relationships, overcoming challenges, and decision- making. A personal ethics statement is a one-page essay that gives a picture of your core values and what potential supervisors, colleagues, or clients can expect from working with you. It can be useful when you’re applying for school , just starting out in your career, looking for a new job, trying to expand your client base, or advancing your career.

In this article we will discuss personal ethics—which should not be mistaken for professional ethics. Personal ethics relate to the values you hold in personal relationships and daily life, an whereas professional ethics relate to how you conduct yourself in business settings, deals, and professional relationships.

An important part of your personal ethics statement is identifying your personal beliefs and personal values. Some code of ethics examples include integrity, selflessness, honesty, loyalty, equality, fairness, empathy, respect, and self-respect. This article is a complete resource for forming your personal ethics and transforming them into a compelling personal ethics statement.

Professional Impacts of Personal Ethics

There are many occasions your personal ethics will play a role in your behavior in professional settings. No matter your line of work, it’s important that you maintain unshakable personal ethics in your professional relationships and how you interact in the workplace.

Business Ethics

Business ethics are the practices and policies put into place to ensure people and resources are treated ethically in business dealings. While you’re making decisions in business to benefit a company, you must consider the impact of those decisions on others. Developing your personal code of conduct will help support you in upholding your company policies in the workplace, which will help you maintain personal integrity, as well as avoid potential business scandals . Learn about how to be an ethical leader in a business setting.

With a career in information technology, part of your job involves having access to private or confidential information. Your moral compass plays a significant role in keeping this type of information safe, especially since cyber-attacks—which happen every 39 seconds on average—are so prevalent in modern society. Having a career in IT immerses you in the world of cyber security , where ethical behavior and policy adherence are essential.

Healthcare Ethics

In the healthcare field, you’re responsible for human lives, so it’s no wonder that strong professional competence and integrity are important in how you carry yourself at work. There are plenty of complex issues, regulations, and compliance policies that you’ll encounter in a hospital or care facility, which demands that you seek the guidance of your personal ethics.

Teaching Ethics

Strong moral values are a necessary component of being a teacher. When your job is to sculpt young minds, you have must take responsibility for setting a strong example for them. Part of this is keeping students safe, part of this is treating all students equally and without discrimination. Part of this is creating healthy boundaries between your students and your personal life . If you build a personal ethics statement, you have a north star to look towards in this professional setting as you encounter ethical dilemmas. If you’re planning to become a teacher, you should also consider writing a teaching philosophy statement.

How Do I Write a Personal Ethics Statement?

There are five essential steps to writing—and perfecting—your personal ethics statement:

1. Know your audience.

The first step to writing an effective personal ethics statement is knowing and understanding the audience you’re writing for. This one-page piece of writing is supposed to influence the reader, so keeping the motivations and sentiments of your audience in mind while writing is important to completing your goal. Once you know your audience, whether it be an admissions counselor or a potential employer, then you can choose words and reference practices and policies that resonate with them and meet any guidelines in place.

2. Choose your goals.

There are two important types of goals to think about when building your personal ethics statement: your short-term and long-term goals. For example, your short-term goal may be getting into college, while your long-term goal is becoming a software engineer. Once you identify these, then you can phrase your personal ethics in terms of how they relate to your desired career path. To build off the previous example, if you aspire to be a software engineer, you can talk about personal ethics that relate to cyber security or the hard work required to get to your desired goal.

3. Determine your influences.

What influences the decisions you make? This is an essential step in determining your code of ethics because every choice you make is influenced by internal and external factors. One factor that affects everyone is personal traits. Your personality plays a crucial role in the decisions you make and how you carry yourself with others. Another factor is the people in your life who have helped in shaping who you are today. A third example is momentous events. Everyone experiences wonderful, pivotal moments in their life, as well as tragic and traumatic moments. All these factors play a role in your personal ethics, and they should be included in your personal ethics statement.

4. Identify your beliefs and practices.

This step is about writing down examples of how you move through the world and the core beliefs you live by. Compelling stories elicit emotional reactions from your audience and prove that you put your personal ethics into daily practice. Examples are essential to creating a strong personal ethics statement.

5. Name your “why.”

Why did you choose the ethical principles that you did? Confidently answering this question and providing details is essential to the authenticity of the statement. Decide why your personal ethics are important to you, how your life experiences brought you to those ethics, and how you’ll continue to keep them at the center of your decisions going forward. This step is important to making sure your audience walks away with a clear understanding of what ethical standards are important to you and why.

What Should I Include in a Personal Ethics Statement?

Your personal ethics statement should consist of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

Start your personal ethics statement with a one- to two-paragraph introduction. Use the introduction to talk about the life experiences that helped form your ethical background. Maybe you had a major injury in your childhood that resulted in lifelong ability differences, and this made you an advocate for accessibility. Find a personal story that will engage your reader and provide a foundation for your statement.

In the body of your personal ethics statement—about two or three paragraphs—you should list each of the ethical principles that are central in your life. This is your opportunity to make sure the reader knows your core beliefs. If you have a personal mantra, include it here. In this section, true life examples are your friend.

What Should I not Include in a Personal Ethics Statement?

Since a personal ethics statement is a deeply personal piece of writing, it’s important to be honest and authentic. The last thing you want to do is include fake life experiences just to make a point. This also isn’t an opportunity to profess all your life’s mistakes. You are human and your personal ethics statement should reflect that, but in a positive and inspiring light.

How to Conclude

Every personal ethics statement should have a strong conclusion. Sum it all up in a final paragraph where you explain how your core values make you a great person to have in a professional organization or an excellent candidate for an academic program.

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Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, professionalism & work ethic.

Understand the importance of professionalism and work ethic to success in professional contexts.
Learn to work and compose smarter.

Professionalism and Work Ethic refers to a cluster of traits that people use to describe a person’s character and behavior.

a cluster of competencies that experts possess. For instance, a mathematician can work with mathematical formulae to solve real-world problems while a tennis pro can hit the ball from anywhere on the court.
a cluster of general competencies needed to achieve in the workforce. The Department of Labor defines Professionalism as “conducting oneself with responsibility, integrity, accountability, and excellence. It means communicating effectively and appropriately and always finding a way to be productive.”
a moral code or code of ethics. These codes may include explicit rules of conduct codified by a community or professional society. For instance, the American Medical Association or the American Bar Association have ethical codes that doctors and lawyers are expected to follow when working with clients.
Work Ethic refers to a person’s commitment to self-discipline and commitment to the daily grind. Examples of Work Ethic traits are attributes like showing up for work, being punctual, meeting deadlines, focusing on the process while also being aware of the end goal (winning a sports championship, getting a client’s business, evolving as a person).

Professionalism and Work Ethic are obviously tied to success in the workplace. They also play leading roles in our personal lives and sports. In the psychological literature, Professionalism and Work Ethic are associated with the personality construct called Conscientiousness , a cluster of traits related to competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation.

Standards of Professionalism and Work Ethic are constantly evolving as a result of changes in society, globalization, and technology. For instance, in the U.S. there has been a general move toward more informal attire in business settings. Now it’s common place for a business to allow for casual dress unless you are seeing clients regularly.

Yet there are a few behaviors that are persistently tied to success in the workplace. Promptness is a big one. Employers expect you to show up on time. And of course they expect you to have good hygiene, to listen, and to be respectful to colleagues. Employers also value people who assume responsibility, people who do what it takes to get the task completed.

Having a strong work ethic–in personality life, sports, and work settings–doesn’t necessarily equate with incessant hard work. While every culture needs worker bees, ideally Worth Ethic involves more than effort, dedication, and a focus on hard work. Rather, a sound work ethic invokes worker smarter and not necessarily harder.

Professionalism & Work Ethic in the Work Place

Not surprisingly, perhaps, intrapersonal competencies, which employers often call “soft skills,” are crucial to professional success in work contexts.

Each year, NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) conducts a survey of its members to explore what prospective employers are looking for from recent college graduates. In its annual survey of the most prized workforce readiness competencies, NACE found U.S. employers rank Professionalism/Work Ethic as the third most important workforce competency (after Critical Thinking and Collaboration) for years 2015 through 2018.

While employers clearly prize Intrapersonal skills, in 2019 they gave college graduates low scores (3.49) for their mastery of professionalism/work ethic (NACE 2019):

While employers clearly prize Intrapersonal skills, in 2009 they gave college graduates low scores (3.49) for their mastery of professionalism/work ethic (NACE 2019):

Professionalism,Work Ethic & Writing Processes

Like other highly demanding cognitive tasks, writing well requires deep declarative knowledge regarding communication and writing processes . Professionalism requires knowledge of Collaboration , Genre , Information Literacy , Invention , Mindset , Organization , Research , Rhetoric , Style , and Editing .

Beyond understanding the values, practices, and aesthetics of successful writers, aspiring writers need loads and loads of practice : Procedural (Tacit) Knowledge.

Ultimately, other people cannot make you a better writer. Rather, you need to invest in yourself. This requires a strong work ethic and professionalism. In a word, conscientiousness . Particularly when the document is important, you may need to write dozens and dozens of drafts.

At Writing Commons , we are eager to publish research and theory as well as pedagogical exercises that help students better develop their professionalism and work ethic. Please see Contribute to learn about how you can collaborate with us and help students along the way.

Department of Labor. Professionalism. https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/youth/softskills/Professionalism.pdf. 12/5/19.

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Citation - Definition - Introduction to Citation in Academic & Professional Writing

Joseph M. Moxley

Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.

Collaboration - What is the Role of Collaboration in Academic & Professional Writing?

Collaboration refers to the act of working with others or AI to solve problems, coauthor texts, and develop products and services. Collaboration is a highly prized workplace competency in academic...

Genre may reference a type of writing, art, or musical composition; socially-agreed upon expectations about how writers and speakers should respond to particular rhetorical situations; the cultural values; the epistemological assumptions...

Grammar refers to the rules that inform how people and discourse communities use language (e.g., written or spoken English, body language, or visual language) to communicate. Learn about the rhetorical...

Information Literacy - Discerning Quality Information from Noise

Information Literacy refers to the competencies associated with locating, evaluating, using, and archiving information. In order to thrive, much less survive in a global information economy — an economy where information functions as a...

Mindset refers to a person or community’s way of feeling, thinking, and acting about a topic. The mindsets you hold, consciously or subconsciously, shape how you feel, think, and act–and...

Rhetoric: Exploring Its Definition and Impact on Modern Communication

Learn about rhetoric and rhetorical practices (e.g., rhetorical analysis, rhetorical reasoning, rhetorical situation, and rhetorical stance) so that you can strategically manage how you compose and subsequently produce a text...

Style, most simply, refers to how you say something as opposed to what you say. The style of your writing matters because audiences are unlikely to read your work or...

The Writing Process - Research on Composing

The writing process refers to everything you do in order to complete a writing project. Over the last six decades, researchers have studied and theorized about how writers go about...

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The Oxford Handbook of Professional Service Firms

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6 Professional Ethics: Origins, Applications, and Developments

Hugh Gunz, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sally Gunz is Professor of Business Law and Professional Ethics in the School of Accounting and Finance, University of Waterloo, Canada. Her primary research interests centre around the legal and ethical responsibilities of professionals and, increasingly, how professionals make ethical decisions, and what factors impact those decisions. She has studied professionals in both employed and private practice settings. She is the author of The New Corporate Counsel (Carswell: 1991) and several academic studies relating to in-house lawyers, lawyers in private practice, accountants and actuaries. She is a past-President of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business and the former director of the Centre for Accounting Ethics.

Ronit Dinovitzer is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, where she is cross appointed to the Institute for Management and Innovation. She is also a Faculty Fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago, where she is Co-Director of the Research Group on Legal Diversity, and she is an Affiliated Faculty in Harvard’s Program on the Legal Profession. As a sociologist of the professions her research focuses on the social organization of lawyers, the role of labor markets, and the effects of culture on professional work. Recent projects include the “After the JD” study, the first national longitudinal study of law graduates in the US, the “Law and Beyond” Study, the first national study of law graduates in Canada, and a Canadian study on Ethics, the Professional Service Firm and Corporate Governance (with Hugh and Sally Gunz).

Published: 05 October 2015
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This chapter introduces professional ethics as a specific example of applied or practical ethics. The authors provide a short review of the literature on theoretical and applied ethics in order to give context for the subsequent discussion. They examine three foundational concepts of professional ethics: codes adopted by professional bodies, professional autonomy, and the contested role of gatekeeper. Next, the authors consider ethical pressures experienced by professionals in the non-professional organization (NPO), and then the Professional Service Firm (PSF). Here the authors compare the pressure exerted by employer and clients and examine how so-called “client capture” can become a complex phenomenon when both client and professional are corporate entities. Finally, the chapter considers the challenges for the study of ethics in the PSF highlighted by this account.

6.1 Introduction

The professions and ethics have had an ambiguous relationship with each other since professions were acknowledged as an identifiable occupational group ( Carr-Saunders and Wilson 1933 ). In this chapter we shall review the arguments and evidence surrounding professions and ethics, with particular reference to Professional Service Firms (PSFs). Research on ethics in the professions highlights a long-standing tension between formal and popular understandings of professionals. On the one hand, what we shall describe below as the classical model of the professions is premised on the concept of ethical codes of behavior that are used to reassure the professions’ clients that the arcane (to the layperson) arts of professionals are exercised in the public interest ( Carr-Saunders and Wilson 1933 ; Smigel 1964 ). On the other hand, there is abundant evidence that the public views the concept of the ethical behavior of professionals and their professional bodies with great skepticism; take for example the large body of lawyer jokes that focus on lawyers’ unethical behavior ( Galanter 2005 ). Professionals, in this latter view, are seen as no different from any other occupation, subject to the same self-serving pressures as anyone else, and as likely as anyone else to give in to them ( Heinz and Laumann 1982 ; Leicht and Fennell 2001 ). Of course ethical failures are, for the layperson, easier to identify than other failures in professional practice because professional work typically depends on a lengthy education and a certification process. So while it may be hard to know whether, for example, a lawyer has drafted a contract competently, it may be easier to observe that a lawyer has failed to inform a client adequately of risk, breached confidentiality inappropriately, acted in a conflict of interest, or lacked independence.

The ethical behavior of professionals demands even more attention when the scale of the problem is larger, as in the case of major economic failures or crises. Questions are asked about the behavior of the management of the organizations that play key roles in these crises ( Langevoort 2012 ). This was the case, for example, following the 2008 financial crisis when the financial service industries of the Western economies were held up to close scrutiny. But executives do not develop final versions of formal business agreements, nor do they prepare reports mandated by authorities. Any examination of corporate misbehavior inevitably turns to the role of the professionals and asks: “where were the accountants [or lawyers, or actuaries]?” ( Langevoort 2012 ). The audit opinion may only be provided by an accountant. Lawyers draft securities compliance documents. The actuary certifies the adequacy of pension funds to cover future liabilities. Managers in these situations are unable to undertake any significant action, proper or improper, without the work of the professional advisor who is mandated by law, or has the requisite skill set, to document the action. The focus thus turns to the ethical role of the professional when asked to facilitate actions that are illegal, border-line illegal (“gray”), or simply questionable in the sense that no laws are being broken, but the actions transgress the profession’s ethical code. The discipline of ethics, and applied ethics in particular, asks the questions that go beyond the bounds of what the law might prescribe.

It is useful to expand upon the distinction between legal and ethical obligations. Professionals at times act with willful negligence or actual fraud, actions that may have criminal or civil consequences. 1 The auditor for Madoff was charged with (and subsequently pleaded guilty to) securities fraud for his failure to apply any due diligence to the audits he provided ( US Securities and Exchange Commission 2009 ). While these events undoubtedly raise ethical questions, they are primarily concerned with the factors that might lead a highly skilled professional to turn, quite simply, “bad.” We focus here on the more subtle questions of unethical behavior; behavior where professionals comply with the technical constraints of the law, but for reasons that are not immediately obvious, ignore their broader ethical responsibilities.

As a first step in our analysis of ethics as applied to the PSF we turn to the literature on theoretical and applied ethics for some basic concepts, in order to trace the origins of the area of applied ethics known as professional ethics. We then consider three practical aspects of professional ethics: ethical codes, the significance of professional autonomy to the ability of the professional to behave in accord with ethical codes, and the controversial role of professional as gatekeeper. Next, we examine the ethical pressures faced by professionals first in the context of non-professional organizations, and then in professional service organizations. Finally, we consider the implications of these observations for future research on professional ethics.

6.2 Theoretical and Applied Ethics

The study of ethical theory is largely beyond the scope of this chapter. It would be disrespectful to perhaps the most ancient of intellectual disciplines to summarize millennia of thought in a matter of two to three pages. Nonetheless, it is important to place current debates within the framework of ethical theory so that we may then understand how ethics in the PSF relates to the broader context of ethical thought.

To begin, we distinguish between two fields of ethics: metaethics and normative ethics. Metaethics examines the nature of ethics, asking questions such as what is it actually to be good? In contrast, normative ethical theories are about how people ought to act. Another description of metaethics helps clarify the distinction:

the range of issues, puzzles and questions that fall within metaethics’ purview are consistently abstract. They reflect the fact that metaethics involves an attempt to step back from particular substantive debates within morality to ask about the views, assumptions, and commitments that are shared by those who engage in the debate. By and large, the metaethical issues that emerge as a result of this process of stepping back can be addressed without taking a particular stand on substantive moral issues that started the process. In fact, metaethics has seemed to many to offer a crucial neutral background against which competing moral views need to be seen if they are to be assessed properly. ( Sayre-McCord 2012 )

The three best-known normative ethics theories are virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism ( Chappell 2012 ; Moore 1903 ; Rawls 1971 ). Virtue ethics has ancient roots in Western culture going back to Plato and Aristotle and focuses upon moral character (virtues). Virtues are entrenched in a person’s character. Most people do not possess perfect virtues (e.g., courage, honesty) but tend towards them. The study of virtue ethics declined in comparison to the other forms of normative ethics from the nineteenth century until the 1950s ( Hursthouse 2013 ). While all three theories remain important to the study of professional ethics (see Cheffers and Pakaluk 2005 ), virtue ethics became a particularly popular basis for examining professional ethical obligations from at least the 1980s (e.g., Libby and Thorne 2004 ).

Deontology emphasizes duties or rules and owes much of its origins to the works of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). In its most general sense it describes morally good behavior in terms of compliance with good moral norms. Again, very generally, deontological theories can be divided between those that are (a) agent-centered (the norms or rules which relate to each individual agent) or (b) victim- or patient-centered (theories presuming individuals’ rights) ( Alexander and Moore 2013 ).

If deontology assesses moral choices by compliance with prior established norms, consequentialist theories evaluate them in terms of, as the name suggests, outcomes or consequences of action ( Simnott-Armstrong 2013 ). Indeed, it is argued that the consequences or outcomes are the only measure by which the morality of choices should be assessed. While there are various forms of consequentialism, the classic presentation takes the form of utilitarianism as derived from the work of Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill. Generally, utilitarianism talks in terms of assessing choices by what yields the greater good or pleasure over bad or pain (“the greatest good for the greatest number”).

A summary of the three approaches can be expressed in this manner:

[Virtue ethics] may, initially, be identified as the one that emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach which emphasizes duties or rules (deontology) or that which emphasizes the consequences of actions (consequentialism). Suppose it is obvious that someone in need should be helped. A utilitarian [one consequentialist approach] will point to the fact that the consequences of doing so will maximize well-being, a deontologist to the fact that, in doing so the agent will be acting in accordance with a moral rule such as “Do unto others as you would be done by” and a virtue ethicist to the fact that helping the person would be charitable or benevolent. ( Hursthouse 2013 )

Within the practical context of professional ethics, take the example of a lawyer who is assessing whether she should step down from an engagement because she believes that the client is not making adequate public disclosure of what she considers to be a material event even though the issue is not clear-cut (a “gray” area). A virtue ethics approach might have the lawyer assess her choice in terms of the qualities of her self-perception as a “good” lawyer. A deontological approach might seek guidance from general principles for the profession such as refusing to be associated with misleading reports. A utilitarian approach could include an assessment of the outcomes or consequences of staying versus stepping down as lawyer: for example, might greater good be derived from having a cautious lawyer remain in place should more serious challenges arise?

This short discussion introduces the complexity of normative theory. We now turn to applied ethics, or, as it is increasingly becoming known, practical ethics. As we noted above, this approach allows us to examine the practical ethical issues that face professionals and members of PSFs in particular. We have so far used the term “applied ethics” as if it is a subset of normative ethics, although this is subject to debate. Those opposed to its use do so because it implies that this is a sub-discipline that literally applies existing theoretical principles to practical circumstances ( LaFollette 2003 ). “[P]‌hilosophical principles cannot be applied in any straightforward way to particular problems and policies. In the face of concrete dilemmas, we need to revise philosophical principles as much as we rely on them for justification” ( Thompson 2007 ). For pure convenience here we use the more common expression “applied ethics” but we will return to the discussion of the relationship to ethical theory shortly. We first consider the modern origins of applied ethics.

While many philosophers, ancient and modern, have applied ethical thought to practical problems, applied ethics as a distinct field of inquiry owes its modern roots to the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Put formally, “[a]‌pplied ethics is a general field of study that includes all systematic efforts to understand and to resolve moral problems that arise in some domain of practical life” ( Winkler 2012 : 174). Alternatively, applied ethics addresses everyday problems in real-life contexts. It has grown as a field of study around particular areas of interest. While early work in applied ethics dealt with issues such as the Vietnam War or abortion, today, medical/bioethics, business and professional ethics, and environmental ethics are the largest categories of applied ethics. Yet the many monographs or journals about applied (or practical) ethics demonstrate a lengthy collection of social problems or contexts to which ethicists turn their attention.

As applied ethics evolved so too did the debate about its connection to ethical theory. Initially it was popular to reject traditional theory ( Winkler 2012 ), which is perhaps not surprising given the modern origins of applied ethics in a time of social turbulence. Increasingly, however, it became an accepted position that it would be improbable that a generalized normative theory could provide the basis for more applied discussion ( Winkler and Coombs 1993 ). Instead, LaFollette (2003) talks of its theoretical basis in a different manner: how thinking about practical issues leads to reflection that “reveals the connections between particular cases, isolates the contrasts between competing theoretical perspectives, and [makes us become] aware of tensions between what we were taught and what experience and reflection reveal. These require us to step back from our preconceptions to examine an issue more abstractly” ( LaFollette 2003 : 8). Included among the examples he gives are those of corporate responsibility and whistle blowing, evaluation of which also require thinking about the “moral status of corporations” ( LaFollette 2003 : 8). In the context of the professions, medical and bioethics have attracted the most attention. In accounting or law, issues of independence and conflict of interest have also generated considerable debate.

Professional ethics is one form of applied ethics. Within the scope of professional ethics is the further application of ethics in the context of the PSF. The organizational context of the professional matters, of course, because it sets up a particular type of relationship between professionals and those with whom they interact, with resulting implications for their ethical behavior.

6.3 Professional Ethics: Codes, Autonomy, and Gatekeepers

Professional ethics—“the ethics of the professionals who are members of a given profession” ( Airaksinen 2012 : 616)—is a form of applied or practical ethics. In Thompson’s (2007) view, “[p]‌ractical ethics tries to relate professional rules and clinical experience to the broader social context in which professionals practice, and to the deeper moral assumptions on which professions depend.” Further, professional ethics must be considered not only in terms of individual professional–client/patient relationships but also the institution in which decisions are made: “the moral life that dwells among the structures of society” (ibid.). The discussion of professional ethics that follows is centered on three key interrelated concepts: codes, autonomy, and gatekeepers. As the discussion will show, codes are an expression of the profession’s own values; autonomy underlies many of the assumptions regarding ethics in practice; and the role of gatekeeper challenges the extent of the ethical responsibility.

Koehn (1994) provides a helpful starting point to this discussion by focusing on the notion of the trust that users of professional services are required to place in the individual members of the profession:

We should not forget that professions represent the only mechanism we have for collectively providing ourselves with the goods of health, legal justice, and spiritual peace. If professionals are not trustworthy, whom should we trust? This question must be confronted. We cannot simply hope that the sick, the accused or the injured, and the spiritually needy will provide adequately for themselves. Clients grant, or at least permit, professionals access to something of value (e.g., their bodies) precisely because they are unable to secure or promote a desired state of affairs (e.g., a return to health) by themselves or are better able to do so with assistance. Given that the critics are not proposing any alternative source of help, we will be left without recourse if we cease to believe that professionals merit trust under some conditions. ( Koehn 1994 : 5–6)

This is a familiar description. Suddaby and Muzio (Chapter 2 , this volume) introduce the historic significance of ethics both to how the term “profession” is defined and to the role of professions in society. In seeking a definition of profession that captures its unique qualities vis-à-vis occupations in general, the trait or attribute approach—identifying the unique characteristics of a profession—typically included some sense of a higher calling or unique talent and identified the code of ethics as a common feature across professions ( Greenwood 1957 ). The social bargain (Suddaby and Muzio, Chapter 2 , this volume) implicit in professions being given monopoly power over their activities, as often happens for professions in Anglo-Saxon societies, typically results in obligations being imposed on them to act in the manner described above by Koehn: “The rationale behind such an arrangement is that if it is a good bargain, then both society and those in the occupation will benefit from it; society, by obtaining expert service in these learned occupations, and the practitioners by gaining status, control, and some protection against political scrutiny” ( Barker 1992 : 92).

6.3.1 Codes of Ethics

Codes may be interpreted as the means by which the professions themselves define their ideal of professional conduct (or, to return to the earlier metaphor, their “contractual obligations”). It is not that codes equate to professional ethics, but rather that they help explain the common agreement amongst members of professions as to their collective standards of appropriate behavior ( Adler and Kwon 2013 ). If codes reflect the agreed values, from an individual perspective they should ideally encourage self-reflection: “The ethic of the professional is to be found in the dialectical interaction between the conscience of the individual professional and the collective conclusions of the profession as a whole, and the formulations of the ‘Professional Code,’ always provisional and continually being revised, are the medium of that dialectical process” ( Newton 1982 : 40). This is the ideal.

The ethics literature addresses the issues of codes and economic self-interest. For example, “[p]‌rofessional associations serve many functions, but they always look after their power base.” ( Airaksinen 2012 : 617). Codes are certainly the means by which the self-interest of the professions is maintained and boundaries are established against “imposters” ( Fisher et al. 2001 ), a particularly important perspective when considering professions in terms of their power in society ( Newton 1982 ). Barker challenges this position by focusing on the “ethical ideal of service to society” as a means of “curb[ing] their selfish impulses” ( Barker 1992 : 89) and defends this position in normative terms. This is the position to which members of the profession ought to aspire, and that they do not is a matter for self-discipline within the profession and not a reason to throw away such an ethical ideal ( Barker 1992 ). Indeed he goes further by arguing that such an aspiration is a way of understanding professions themselves. Similarly:

At the heart of the career concept is a certain attitude toward work which is peculiarly professional. A career is essentially a calling, a life devoted to “good works.” Professional work is never viewed solely as a means to an end; it is the end itself. ( Greenwood 1957 : 53)

While trait approaches have, for many years, had their critics (e.g., Cogan 1953 ), there remains intact the notion that there is an ethical ideal to which we expect professionals to aspire.

Further, codes are, of course, there to be enforced and there is mixed evidence as to how this process enhances overall ethical standards. Enforcement of ethical obligations is most often in terms of violations of relatively technical provisions in the code (e.g., failure to maintain competence, committing a criminal act, or bringing the profession into disrepute) or neglect of clients ( Levin and Mather 2012 ) and seldom in terms of violations of the more aspirational goals such as placing client or public interest ahead of that of the individual professional. Large firm lawyers often escape disciplinary sanctions ( Wilkins 1992 ). Rarely, if ever, is there serious examination by the professions of the more subtle ethical issues that will be the focus later in this chapter. It turns out that it takes particularly egregious behavior for a case to be made, such as that against David Duncan of the accounting firm, Arthur Andersen.

This approach to enforcement is not a new phenomenon. Abel (1989 : Chapter 7 ) examines a broad range of research on the way that the American legal profession regulates itself. He demonstrates that the profession has proven itself over the years to be reluctant to take complaints against its members seriously. First, lawyers themselves demonstrate remarkably poor understanding of their profession’s ethical code. For example, Abel (2008 : 349) recounts the case of a lawyer who did not have a written retainer agreement with his client, even though written agreements are part of the rules of professional conduct. The lawyer in question retained a client’s tax refund as payment for his services. While the lawyer was indeed entitled to substantial fees he was ultimately suspended. Had he only understood the rules and implemented a retainer agreement, he would have received his fees and avoided suspension. Second, “[d]‌isciplinary procedures still dismiss more than 90% of complaints with little or no investigation. There is reason to believe that this expresses the solicitude practicing lawyers feel for each other” ( Abel 1989 : 147). Abel also finds prosecution uneven across types of practitioners. For example, complaints against inexperienced solo practitioners were significantly more likely than others to be prosecuted ( Arnold and Hagan 1992 ). The lawyers and judges dealing with these cases were “extremely solicitous of excuses for misbehavior” ( Abel 1989 : 148), and those who were convicted were typically dealt with leniently. Finally, of the very small proportion of those who were actually disbarred, most were subsequently readmitted either to the bar that sanctioned them or to another one ( Abel 1989 ). A similar pattern is found within accounting. Fisher et al. (2001) identify instances of enforcement apparently solely in defense of the private interests of the (accounting) profession and not the more expected interests of both the profession and the public interest.

A discussion of codes of ethics must also reference their relationship with the fiduciary, a key quality of all professions (Suddaby and Muzio, Chapter 2 , this volume) The legal concept of the fiduciary in common law jurisdictions, “[t]‌he relationship of one person to another, where the former is bound to exercise rights and powers in good faith for the benefit of the latter” ( Osborn 1964 ), imposes broad responsibilities that might also generally be described as ethical and which exist over and above the strictly contractual (in civil law jurisdictions equivalent provisions for specific contexts may be found in the Code). Generally, fiduciary duties cannot be avoided and arise in all cases where a member of a specific profession is acting in that capacity in exchanges with others. The duties require the professional to put client interests ahead of their own; they must avoid conflicts of interest, avoid abuse of power, not use confidential information for personal advancement, etc. In practical terms, this is perhaps the closest example of the law imposing ethical responsibilities on the professional (Suddaby and Muzio, Chapter 2 , this volume) and in interpreting the requisite standards to which individual professions must adhere in order to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities, courts are most commonly influenced by the rules of the profession itself as expressed in its particular code of ethics (e.g., Hodgkinson v. Simms , 1994).

The purpose of this discussion is not to equate fiduciary duties with the ethical responsibilities of the professional; at best there is a partial overlap. Nor is it to suggest that a trait approach allows for an adequate definition of profession or professional ethics. It does not, and its critics abound ( Abbott 1988 ; Macdonald 1995 ). As Koehn (1994) suggests, such an approach is purely descriptive and avoids examination of what the norms of a profession should be:

We must also bear in mind that it is a normative matter to assert that a profession has no inner meaning but rather consists of the sum total of what a majority of its members happen to be doing at a certain time. Taken at its extreme, this position will yield mind-boggling claims of the sort that Adolf Eichmann’s lawyer offered in defense of that war criminal’s actions: Eichmann was innocent of the killings by gas because gassing “was indeed a medical matter, since it was prepared by physicians; it was a matter of killing, and killing too, is a medical matter.” Unless one is willing to say that doctors and mass murderers belong to the same profession and are equally good and worthy of respect, our practice of holding persons responsible for their actions will eventually force us to confront the question with which I propose to begin: what do professionals do, and what, if anything, legitimates their practice? ( Koehn 1994 : 7)

The purpose of the above accounts is instead to raise questions about the appropriateness of the self-regulating nature of professions—that is, professional bodies being assigned the role of protecting clients through enforcement of codes and justifying the trust placed in professionals. Functionalist accounts of the professions argue that such rights are justified because of the need to ensure that clients receive uniformly high levels of service ( Sutton 2001 ). The Weberian view, by contrast, regards professions as occupations that are particularly successful at fending off competition, and sees ethical codes as part of their armory intended to demonstrate to the world that their professional monopoly is being operated in the interests of the clients ( Sutton 2001 ). As Sutton (2001) points out, the evidence that we briefly reviewed above supports the Weberian view; if it were otherwise, then one would expect a great deal more interest in the professions in dealing with transgressors. From this perspective, ethical codes allow a profession to show, so long as nobody inquires too closely into how things happen in practice, that it has a well-constructed code of behavior designed to ensure that its practitioners act in the interests of their clients and the broader public, and that if they do not the profession will protect the client (public).

6.3.2 Autonomy

The self-regulating nature of professions and the enforcement of their ethical codes is in fact one instance of the expression of the broader concept of autonomy (see Empson and Langley, Chapter 8 , this volume) as it relates to professions and professional ethics. Within self-regulating professions, the expression “autonomous” implies that the individual or firm practice their art in a manner that is independent of both self-interest and partisan client interest. It also references the fact that the state (the regulator) has delegated jurisdiction over the rules of practice and the conditions of membership of the profession to the professional body. In order to determine why such a condition may be deemed to be necessary we must return to the notions of service and trust discussed earlier.

For each profession, there exists a broader social responsibility that again varies by context. These responsibilities are a condition of their regulated authority to practice and, using the contractual analogy, the quid pro quo for the monopoly rights provided by self-regulation. For example, in the case of the auditor, the values imposed are expressed as objectivity and independence: “The principle of objectivity imposes the obligation to be impartial, intellectually honest, and free of conflicts of interest. Independence precludes relationships that may appear to impair a member’s objectivity in rendering attestation services” ( American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 2014 ). For the actuary, although most rules of conduct relate directly to the protection of the client, there is also a residual obligation to society: “An actuary shall perform professional services with integrity, skill and care. He [ sic ] shall fulfil his professional responsibility to his client or employer and shall not act against the public interest” ( GCAAPCE 2014 ). For lawyers, there is some version of the following rule that imposes overriding responsibility not to the client but to society: the lawyer must maintain “respect for the rule of law and the fair administration of justice” ( CCBE 2013 ) even where to do so runs counter to the interests of their own client (duty as “officer of the court” or as “minister of justice”).

The notion of the autonomous professional in practical terms is derived from the traditional model of the self-employed professional or the professional in the PSF who might maintain independence through a large portfolio of clients. No one individual client could then be significant enough to compromise the duty of the professional to wider social (professional) obligations. This, of course, is not always a safe assumption for much of professional practice, for example that of corporate law, and we return to it in section 6.4 . Before doing so, we examine the third of the three concepts underpinning professional ethics: the role of the professional as gatekeeper.

6.3.3 Gatekeepers

The legal profession uses the term “gatekeeper” in a sense that is somewhat different from that found in the organizational literature. Coffee (2006 : 2) defines it as “an agent who acts as a reputational intermediary to assure investors as to the quality of the ‘signal’ sent by the corporate issuer. The reputational intermediary does so by lending or ‘pledging’ its reputational capital to the corporation, thus enabling investors or the market to rely on the corporation’s own disclosures or assurances where they otherwise might not.” Coffee is writing post-Enron and the language of this definition clearly fits that of the auditor in particular.

In terms of the ethical duties of professionals, the issue implied by imposing a gatekeeper duty is whether ethical responsibilities extend to intervention when the client is perceived to be acting improperly. From the perspective of users of such services—for example, those who might rely on the audit assurance for investment decisions—it is often assumed that this is the case. If professionals are not responsible for preventing their clients from embarking on a harmful course of action, why are they there? The response from professions has been largely a reluctance to extend responsibility to this territory. The audit profession, for example, once talked of an expectations gap, a divergence between the expectations of the profession and the public as to the responsibility, say, to identify management fraud (e.g., McEnroe and Martens 2001 ). This “gap” is to be narrowed, not by extending the auditor’s responsibility but by better educating the public and lowering its expectations.

In fairness to accountants, these issues were overshadowed by ever-present threats of litigation. Further, the corporate failures of the turn of the century led in the USA to significantly increased responsibilities imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The legal profession has resisted the notion of gatekeeper vigorously. For example, they successfully defended against an extension of responsibility in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that would have required what is known as a “noisy withdrawal” where they were unable to prevent a client from engaging in significant violations of the law; that is, they would have been required not only to resign from the engagement but also report the events to regulators as auditors in the USA are obliged to do ( Kim 2011 ). Kim (2011) explores the arguments against the lawyer-gatekeeper and carefully documents the solid resistance from the profession to such an approach:

Official comments in the SEC administrative rulemaking process complained that the proposed rules could “eviscerate the attorney’s traditional role as advocate, confidant and advisor” and “risk destroying the trust and confidence many issuers have up to now placed in their legal counsel.” They worried that the proposals would “drive a wedge between client and the counsel who advised it on a matter” and decried that “the Commission would be using the attorney as the Commission’s eyes and ears to build a case against the client.” Lawyers maintained that by “requiring attorneys to police and pass judgment on their clients,” lawyers for corporations would slide down the slippery slope from trusted counselor to policeman. ( Kim 2011 : 132–133)

Kim concludes, however, that it is in the best interests both of the profession and public for lawyers to assume such a role.

Coffee (2006 : 3–4) notes that “one problem overshadows all others”: even where the professionals are acting as gatekeeper, they are also paid by the entity that hires them. And the term “pay’’ can be used broadly to include any form of economic dependency. The securities lawyer who allows a generous interpretation of a corporate event being below the threshold for disclosure may be influenced not only by the fees for this particular service but also the promise of a continued revenue stream to come. The logical response to this concern is to return to the concept of autonomy ( Adler and Kwon 2013 : 935–936). It is an ethical obligation to retain independence from client pressure, economic self-interest, or firm revenue demands, and it is that that allows the public to retain trust that the professional will act in its best interests rather than their own.

We have hinted at more than one point in this chapter that there are exigencies in professional practice which affect the way in which professionals interpret their ethical responsibilities. We now examine this issue in greater depth, beginning with situations in which it has been posited that professionals are under inherent stress because of their structural position ( Gunz and Gunz 1994b ), namely where they are employees of non-professional organizations. This section will lay an important foundation for the following discussion of the role of professionals within PSFs.

6.4 The Autonomous Professional in Non-Professional Organizations

If the ideal of the autonomous professional evolved from the notion of the wise counselor operating unfettered by messy commercial pressures, it is one we would be hard pressed to find in today’s society. A very high proportion of professionals are employed in non-professional organizations (NPOs: business or public corporations that are not PSFs; Leicht and Fennell 1997 ). Discussion of employed professionals provides a useful context for introducing influences that affect the way in which ethical matters are handled by professionals, influences that can also, as we show later, be identified in the PSF. More importantly, it may well be that as PSFs have become larger and more bureaucratic, there is more in common between the world of employed professionals in the NPO and that of their counterparts in the PSF than was traditionally assumed.

Suddaby and Muzio (Chapter 2 , this volume) discuss the literature on organizational professional conflict from the perspective of the theory of professions (see also Kirkpatrick and Noordegraaf, Chapter 5 , this volume). There are, however, also important ethical concerns. If, as many researchers have found, there is little evidence amongst professionals of perceived organizational professional conflict ( Adler and Aranya 1984 ; Bamber and Iyer 2002 ; Benson 1973 ; Davies 1983 ; Gunz and Gunz 1994a ; Shafer 2002 ; Wallace 1993 ), what are the inferences that should be drawn about professional ethical decision-making? Several possible explanations suggest themselves ( Gunz and Gunz 1994b ): (1) managers in NPOs may side-step professionals when considering difficult ethical issues; (2) the professional simply does not recognize an ethical conflict when presented with it; or (3) professionals may find a means of resolving issues without great effort thereby, for them, downgrading the intensity of the dilemma ( Zohar 2005 ).

The first option—that managers may routinely avoid involving employed professionals when something occurs about which they know the professionals will raise a problem—is beyond the scope of this chapter. The second and third options imply that the issue either lacks, for the professional, the necessary salience or vividness for it to be recognized as an ethical dilemma ( Jones 1991 ; Rest 1986 ), or, if it is, the judgment process invoked ( May and Pauli 2002 ) does not give the professional great difficulty. Why might these be the case; what might they tell us about how the professional resolves ethical dilemmas?

The proletarianization literature on professionals ( Bourgeault et al. 2011 ; Derber 1982 ; Murphy 1990 ; Oppenheimer 1973 ), based on the precept that “professionals have become subject to new forms of control that are eroding their status as professionals” ( Wallace 1995 : 229), provides a useful entry point. Wallace (1995) shows that professionals’ organizational commitment—an indication of the extent to which this proletarianization might be taking effect—“is highly dependent on perceived opportunities for career advancements and the criteria used in the distribution of rewards” ( Wallace 1995 : 228). The key here is that organizational commitment may in fact have implications for ethical decision-making. Evidence supporting this interpretation comes from a study of Canadian corporate lawyers ( Gunz and Gunz 2007 ), which showed that the more salient an organizational identity was to these counsel, the more likely it was that they would adopt an approach to an ethical dilemma in a manner consistent with that of a non-professional employee, as opposed to that of a lawyer (for a discussion of professional identity conflict see Alvesson et al., Chapter 18 , this volume).

The NPO literature, then, provides evidence to suggest that the orientation of professionals to the organization in which they practice, and consequentially their approach to handling ethical dilemmas, is contingent on the way that the organization rewards and promotes them. PSFs are, of course, different from NPOs in the sense that their dominant cultures tend more to the professional ( Faulconbridge and Muzio 2008 ). But they, too, are subject to strong commercial pressures, and we address the implications for ethical decision-making in such organizations next.

6.5 Professional Ethics in Professional Service Firms

PSFs have, as has been widely observed, increasingly become large bureaucracies, and many authors have commented on the impact of this trend on the manner in which their members practice ( Brock 2006 ; Malhotra and Morris 2009 ; Muzio and Faulconbridge 2013 ). It could be argued that the professional ethos of the PSF ( Faulconbridge and Muzio 2008 ) will be more supportive of an approach to professional ethics aligned with that prescribed by the profession itself. Indeed there is evidence that lawyers working in law firms feel a greater commitment to their profession than do solo practitioners, perhaps because the latter are under greater pressure to run their businesses ( Wallace and Kay 2008 ). Yet many writers have pointed to the commercial pressures faced by professionals ( Brint 1994 ; Hanlon 1998 ; Malhotra and Morris 2009 ; Rittenberg and Covaleski 2001 ). More specifically, recent work on client capture ( Leicht and Fennell 2001 ) suggests that professionals working in PSFs can be subject to pressures that do have implications for ethical decision-making.

The greater the (usually economic) power of clients over professionals, the greater the potential challenge to professional autonomy. Professionals find it harder to defend their ethical position when being pressed by their client to act expediently. Furthermore the shift to expert ( Brint 1994 ) or commercialistic ( Hanlon 1998 ) professionalism implies that professionals with such orientations are more likely to be in sympathy with the client’s aims ( Dinovitzer et al. 2014a ). In the 1990s the key professional services (audit in particular) in the major accounting firms were subsumed to the interests of business interests (e.g., consulting). The argument was made (e.g., Boyd 2004 ; Wyart 2004 ) that as a consequence individuals were not always able or willing to defend their professional values when faced with the enormous economic power of the client and firm. Arguably, that trend continues today at least in some of the very large international professional partnerships. By way of illustration, take the following example from the “About Us” page of one of the largest law firms in the world:

Baker and McKenzie defined the global law firm in the 20th century, and we are redefining it to meet the challenges of the global economy in the 21st … Ours is a passionately collaborative community of 60 nationalities. We have the deep roots and knowledge of the language and culture of business required to address the nuances of local markets worldwide. And our culture of friendship and broad scope of practice enable us to navigate complexity across issues, practices and borders with ease. ( Baker and McKenzie 2015 )

Much as with the major international accounting firms at least in the 1990s, the average reader would be hard pressed to catch that these highly skilled members of a “passionately collaborative community” are actually professionals, let alone autonomous professionals, and indeed lawyers. On the “Our People” page is found: “Every day our more than 4,000 lawyers, economists, tax advisors and other professionals share insights and best practices across borders and practices” ( Baker and McKenzie 2015 ), a practice world far removed from that in which the traditional professional ideal evolved.

Baker and McKenzie appears to have chosen to define itself at one extreme of the range of business-focused law firms. However, all major commercial law practices share common characteristics with major accounting firms: they are large, they have complex bureaucratic structures, their focus is upon the needs of commerce, and individuals usually succeed or fail on their individual ability to generate revenue. So while a partnership’s legal structure retains the focus on the individual for performance measurement purposes, the individual must be influenced by both the structure of the firm and others within it and in a manner not envisaged in Brint’s (1994) model of social trustee professionalism.

How do these pressures towards a commercial approach manifest themselves in the ethical behavior of professionals? At the core of the issue of ethics in PSFs is that of the power of the client. Professionals working in NPOs can be used as a limiting case, in which the power of the client, as the professional’s employer, is perhaps at its greatest. Leicht and Fennell (2001) introduce the label “client capture” in the PSF to describe this:

some professional groups have faced a situation whereby the consumers (clients) or new ways of performing work (technologies) will undermine professional prerogatives and status. We refer to these trends under the heading of professions “captured” by clients or technologies. Under client capture the consumers of professional work gain the ability to control the activities, timing, and costs of professional work. In effect the “consumer becomes sovereign” much as consumers search for (and price) other consumer goods and services. ( Leicht and Fennell 2001 : 105–106)

Evidence for client capture comes from the accounting profession. Macey and his co-authors have persuasively argued that client capture is more commonly found among accounting firms than, for example, legal firms because, although a large firm may have many clients, often individual partners have only one, giving that client great power over the partner in question ( Macey and Sale 2003 ). Furthermore, the size of client firm makes a difference as well. In a sample of large US firms it was shown that the larger the client firm, the more likely it was to restate its financial results (an indication of accounting error), suggesting that larger firms have greater power to persuade their auditors to approve erroneous or misleading financial statements ( Eisenberg and Macey 2004 ). Similar evidence comes from the actuarial profession ( Armstrong et al. 2012 ).

Client capture and its consequent impact on ethical decision-making is complex ( Dinovitzer et al. 2014b ). In its most obvious form it is the direct demand of a client exerting economic power over the professional; arguably the case of Enron pressuring David Duncan, its auditor. It may, however, also be indirect and more subtle. Dinovitzer et al. (2014b) point out that commercial law typically involves a relationship not between two individuals, professional and client, but between two organizations, meaning that client capture may be a far more complex phenomenon than a simple matter of one actor exerting influence over another. Indirect client capture might occur when a powerful member of the PSF (perhaps the partner responsible for the client relationship) imposes pressure on the individual professional to please the client in contravention to their own beliefs. It is also well documented ( Gunz and Gunz 2008 ) that others in the firm with an economic interest in the client may exert pressure in defense of their own economic interests. The professional may have no direct client contact at all—they may, for example, be brought in solely for a specific task (finance or tax expertise)—but the pressure to compromise integrity and satisfy the client may occur through peers. Finally and not uncommonly is what has been described as “misdirected” client capture ( Dinovitzer et al. 2014b ). As noted above, the actual client to which a professional owes their ethical responsibility is, most often, a person in law only; it is a corporation. The professional interacts with, is hired by, paid, and pressured by, a human manager ( Coffee 2006 ). The potential then exists for the professional to meet the desires of that manager at the expense of their ethical responsibilities to the actual client (the corporation). A particularly egregious example of this effect was described by the Enron bankruptcy examiner, referencing the actions of those in the outside law firms. As he noted, Enron’s outside counsel were given instructions from certain Enron officers that “if carried out, constituted a breach of a legal duty to Enron (such as a breach of fiduciary duty) or a violation of law (such as inadequate disclosure)” ( Batson 2003 : 28).

The organizational complexity of PSFs not only leads to varied forms of client capture, it is also related to the ways in which lawyers construct their own identities that in turn impact the manner in which ethical dilemmas might be resolved. As we have seen in the previous section, much of this work has been conducted in the context of the NPO, although recently there have been extensions to the PSF (e.g., Dinovitzer et al. 2014a ). The Dinovitzer et al. study found evidence not only of distinct identities, but also some evidence of the impact of certain of those identities on the way ethical dilemmas are resolved. For example, lawyers whose identity was more strongly influenced by the law than by their personal experience and who showed little tendency to regard themselves as members of a collectivity (even though they were partners in large law firms) were found to be more likely to bend to the pressure of a client manager, even when to do so compromised an ethical responsibility to elevate an issue within the true client (the corporation and not the manager; that is, the misdirected client capture referenced above).

Understanding ethics within the PSF thus requires attention, first and foremost, to the organizational context of the professional. While at first glance professionals in the PSF are thought to be technically independent of their client, as our discussion shows, this independence is fraught with commercial and collegial pressures. The issues raised earlier—of codes, gatekeeping, and autonomy—take on a particular valence when analyzed within the PSF, and demonstrate that scholars must take into account the exigencies in professional practice in order to understand the ethical responsibilities of professionals.

6.6 Conclusions

The study of ethics in the PSF is today largely empirical. While there is an extensive and continuing literature on professional ethics in general and a lively debate about the normative elements of professional ethics in particular, for the most part these are based on a generic understanding of the professional—for example a lawyer, an actuary, or an accountant who is understood to perform certain highly skilled tasks—without consideration of the context in which their art is practiced. For example, Martin (2000 : 4) talks of the dominant perspective as focusing upon “the moral requirements attached to a profession and imposed on all its members, together with the ethical dilemmas created when the requirements conflict or are too vague to provide guidance.”

Yet this ignores the very real pressures experienced by professionals in PSFs resulting from phenomena such as the client capture we describe above and the overriding commercial pressures and increasingly competitive environment faced by PSFs more generally that are responsible for much of these pressures. It is, in other words, naïve to assume that professionals are able to maintain a level of autonomy that places them above the temptations of the commercial world, particularly since PSFs themselves are increasingly—and probably always were—deeply embedded in and an integral part of that world. Autonomy is encroached on from many directions: from the client, who may want the professional to act in a way convenient to them but not in accord with the ethical standards of the profession; and from colleagues and senior management in the firm who also have an interest, for their own reasons, in the same client. The complexity of relationships between PSFs and their large corporate clients can mean that professionals fail to recognize who the real client is (the client corporation), potentially leading to a form of goal displacement in which the professionals’ actions are focused on the needs of their contact within the client firm rather than the interests of the actual client, sometimes with disastrous results ( vide Enron).

Indeed the tensions between what users expect of professionals and what professionals are willing and able to deliver have threatened, and may continue to threaten, the continued existence of professions if the extent of the ethical lapses that result destroy the trust of the public in the profession in question. This was the case with accountants in 2002. More importantly, a continued drip of ethical failures will feed a popular cynicism about the worth of professionals. What then are the challenges for the study of ethics in the PSF?

First, it is evident that in order to understand the ethical pressures at work on professionals in PSFs we need to know more about the PSFs themselves. Are some professions more vulnerable than others to pressures like the various forms of client capture that we describe above? How might variation in the organizational form and governance of PSFs (Leblebici and Sherer, Chapter 9 , this volume) affect the relationship between the professionals and their client? To what extent is professionals’ ethical judgment protected, in the sense that they feel able to act strictly in accord with their profession’s code, by the professional culture ( Faulconbridge and Muzio 2008 ), or lack thereof, of the firm? How might different kinds of careers affect ethical judgment (see Cohen, Chapter 16 , this volume)? For example, something as simple as increased evidence of lateral moves by professionals ( Henderson 2014 ) may well have a profound impact on ethical decision-making, because newcomers to the firm may well be more concerned about the need to establish themselves with their colleagues and thus be more vulnerable to phenomena such as client capture. The classic perspectives on the influence of the firm as guardian of ethical mores ( Smigel 1964 ) may be moot if we no longer assume that the individual professional is committed to the PSF itself but is instead more focused on personal career advancement and job (in)security (e.g. Clay and Seeger 2012 ; Galanter and Henderson 2008 ). Such changes might impact all aspects of the firm and increase competitive pressures between and within PSFs, which in turn can increase ethical pressures ( Dinovitzer et al. 2014a ).

Further, the focus of the study of ethics in the PSF has been mostly limited in its context to large firms and, in particular, large accounting and law firms (but see Levin and Mather 2012 ). However, the largest proportions of lawyers in the USA, for example, practice in small firms or as sole practitioners ( Harvard Law School 2007 ), and it is known that ethical challenges are not only just as rife there but may be more difficult to resolve than in larger firms that have conflicts or opinion committees to provide an internal check against unethical behavior ( Gunz et al. 2002 ; Levin and Mather 2012 ). In addition, this discussion has largely been confined to the legal and accounting professions, especially the former, which reflects the attention these two have received in the literature. There is plenty of scope for extending this work to other professions, for example engineering, the actuarial profession, or indeed the investment advising industry, the work of all of which can destroy the lives of their clients, sometimes literally.

Cross-cultural ethical issues form yet another area into which this work could be extended. As PSFs increasingly operate internationally either as firms themselves or through the offshoring of aspects of professional work (Boussebaa and Morgan, Chapter 4 , this volume), a broad range of critical ethical issues arise. For example, is there common agreement as to ethical obligations between countries in which firms operate? What is the effectiveness of international ethical codes, and should they exist? Ought clients in one jurisdiction be made aware that their work is being conducted in quite a different jurisdiction? These raise complex ethical issues and there is little evidence of any rigorous approach to date as to how they should be addressed.

There is, evidently, a large and rich potential for scholarly work devoted to ethics in the PSF. One important caution should be noted: empirical ethical work is difficult, which no doubt explains why there is such a dearth of existing work in this field. Traditional social science methodologies such as those of self-report or direct observation are problematic for many reasons. Ethical problems are comparatively rare events, making observational studies largely impractical: the researcher has no way of knowing when such an event may happen, and therefore has little, if any, chance of being there to observe it. Retrospective studies are complicated by issues of confidentiality: it is not easy to persuade people to tell you about things they have done which might, if revealed, get them into trouble. Self-report hypothetical studies are affected by social desirability bias, and instead of providing a “true” answer (that might indicate an lapse in ethical judgment for example), respondents will instead provide one which is socially acceptable ( King and Bruner 2000 ); and so on.

Ethical issues are (fortunately) rare for professionals, and even when encountered, probably fall into the category described by Zohar (2005) as low intensity, in other words the minor, everyday issues that involve minor ethical judgments which do not, on the whole, have the potential to land a transgressor in court or before a professional disciplinary tribunal. But every so often ethical lapses become large enough that they hit society hard, and the more we can understand the pressures leading to these lapses, the greater our chance of preventing their recurrence. This research, in other words, may be difficult, but its potential payoff makes it exceedingly worthwhile.

The terminology here is kept deliberately generic: descriptive rather than necessarily legally precise—while the authors work in a common law jurisdiction, the same issues apply to all legal systems.

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The Definition of Professional Ethics

This essay about the significance of professional ethics in guiding practitioners towards integrity, trust, and accountability in their respective fields. It highlights how ethics serves as a moral compass, weaving together principles of honesty, transparency, fairness, and integrity. Central to the discussion is the concept of integrity, which acts as a guiding light through ethical dilemmas, ensuring practitioners prioritize ethical values over personal gain. The essay emphasizes the importance of continuous reflection and adaptation in navigating evolving ethical landscapes, urging professionals to embrace a culture of ethical awareness and lifelong learning. Ultimately, it underscores the role of professional ethics in shaping ethical conduct and leaving a legacy of excellence for future generations.

How it works

Embarking on the voyage of professional life, individuals are equipped not only with skills and expertise but also with a moral compass known as ethics. Like the guiding stars in a vast celestial map, ethics serves as a beacon, offering direction and guidance through the complexities of professional terrain towards the shores of integrity, trust, and accountability. It acts as a silent mentor, instilling the importance of upholding values and principles in every decision and interaction.

At its essence, professional ethics is a kaleidoscope of virtues, blending strands of honesty, transparency, confidentiality, fairness, and appreciation for diversity.

These elements intertwine to form the intricate tapestry of ethical conduct within a specific profession, establishing boundaries of acceptable behavior and shaping the character of its practitioners. Whether navigating the realms of law, medicine, engineering, or commerce, professionals are entrusted with safeguarding these ethical standards, preserving the trust and confidence bestowed upon them by their communities.

Central to the ethos of professional ethics is the concept of integrity, a steadfast commitment to honesty, consistency, and moral courage. Like the unwavering beacon of a lighthouse guiding ships through treacherous waters, integrity serves as a guiding light, illuminating the path towards ethical conduct even amidst the storms of temptation or adversity. Upholding integrity necessitates placing ethical values above personal gain, thereby earning the respect and admiration of peers, clients, and society at large.

Furthermore, professional ethics serves as a compass for navigating the ethical dilemmas that inevitably arise in professional practice. Whether grappling with conflicts of interest, breaches of confidentiality, or ethical gray areas, practitioners must rely on their ethical compass to steer them through. By engaging in introspection, seeking counsel from colleagues, and adhering to established ethical principles, professionals can navigate these murky waters with integrity and accountability, emerging stronger and more resilient.

As the landscape of professional practice evolves, so too must our understanding and application of ethical principles. In an age of rapid technological advancement and globalization, new ethical frontiers emerge. Issues such as data privacy, artificial intelligence ethics, and sustainability pose novel challenges for professionals to navigate. However, by embracing a culture of ethical awareness, lifelong learning, and adaptability, practitioners can navigate these challenges while remaining steadfast in their commitment to ethical conduct.

In conclusion, professional ethics serves as the guiding beacon that illuminates the path towards integrity, trust, and accountability in professional practice. It is a testament to the values and principles that underpin ethical behavior within a specific vocation, emphasizing the importance of integrity, honesty, and responsibility in earning the trust and respect of all stakeholders. By upholding these ethical standards and principles, professionals can navigate the complexities of their professions with grace and dignity, leaving a legacy of ethical excellence for future generations to follow.

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Personal and Professional Ethics, Essay Example

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In general terms the concept of ethics relates to how we conduct ourselves from a moralistic, obligatory and virtuous standpoint. Whereas personal ethics are more in keeping with our personal values and commitments to others, professional ethics tends to be more holistic by nature and relates to those standards we uphold in our professional lives. In certain professions these can be very serious and have life threatening consequences i.e. Doctors, Lawyers, Bankers, etc.

Personal Ethics

It is fair to say that everybody, leastwise in Western democracies, has both freedom of expression and the right of choice. As such this can be morally bad or good. In theory we are all bound by the law of the land and as such our interpretation and application of these laws will vary according to our own moral standards. If you are an educated person with a relatively affluent upbringing you are more likely to respect and uphold the law. In this case the laws seem much more pertinent to your position and role in life. If you are a poor person with no education and forced to survive in the streets of a City, then your ethics are much likely to be tuned more towards survivalism as opposed to upholding the common law. ” A person who believes that certain races are inferior to others and therefore that it is “right” to oppress or persecute those races has adopted a personal value system that is inherently “unethical” according to the universal and consensus values associated with normative ethics. Similarly, an individual who has decided that lying is proper if it is necessary to achieve an important personal goal cannot assert personal ethics as a shield against impropriety.” (Portman)

Perhaps the nicest summary of personal ethics was provided by the Dalai Llama relative to Buddhism and his Tibetan monks. “Human qualities as morality, compassion, decency, wisdom and so forth have been the foundations of all civilizations. These qualities must be cultivated and sustained through systematic moral education in a conducive social environment, so that a more human world may emerge. The qualities required to create such a world must be inculcated right from the beginning, from childhood. We cannot wait for the next generation. This is a particularly good verse because it sets out the principles of personal ethics as the foundation for all civilizations. It describes our humanity towards one another and the importance of educating Children the meaning of right and wrong from an early age. Never has this been so important as today. A world approaching global catastrophes, a world of religious and racial intolerances and a world of rising tensions and conflicts.

Professional Ethics

These are normally provided by professions and govern the code of conduct that members of the profession are expected to uphold. It covers such items as standard of practice, continuing professional development and maintenance of currency of research in their profession, provision of due diligence and care to customers or clients, maintaining a practice standard applicable to a body of knowledge of the profession, restraining from any fraudulent or negligent acts, behaving in a professional and responsible manner to fellow members of the profession. Those in breach of professional ethics may be reported to a governing body and may be summoned to a hearing. If proven to be a serious breach they may be find and in the most extreme cases struck off the professional register and have their practicing certificates revoked. This is particularly applicable to Doctors, Dentists, Accountants, Lawyers, Bankers, Nurses, Teachers etc.

Conflict Between Personal and Professional Ethics

Without a doubt there are times where personal and professional ethics can collide. A good illustration might be in the medical profession where a Doctor and Nurse are looking after a terminally ill patient. Should the patient be allowed to suffer or should the patient be allowed to pass peacefully away. The professional ethic is all about saving life whilst the personal ethic may be more humanitarian and preventing suffering. To make matters worse it has legal connotations and the Doctor may face legal consequences if he breaches his medical ethics of doing all to save lives. A similar problem may face the litigation lawyer defending a client who ultimately they may believe to be guilty. The Accountant who allows a fraud to be perpetrated on behalf of his client or acts improperly when filing tax returns. (Noonan)

The Nursing profession is particularly vulnerable as the ethical responsibilities are different from the Doctors and this can create ethical dilemmas. Although the Doctors, strictly speaking are in charge, the brunt of recovery firmly resides with the Nurses.” the contrast between the perceived weakness of the female gender and the strength of the nursing profession as a whole (e.g., the largest single sector of the health care industry), and the inconsistency between the goals of the physician and institutional sectors of the health care industry with goals of the nursing profession.” (Jardin)

“A code of ethics cannot resolve all ethical issues or disputes or capture the richness and complexity involved in striving to make responsible choices within a moral community. Rather, a code of ethics sets forth values, ethical principles, and ethical standards to which professionals aspire and by which their actions can be judged.” (Killingbeck)

Works Cited

Jardin, Karen des. Political involvement in nursing—politics, ethics, and strategic action. 11 2001. 7 12 2009 <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSL/is_5_74/ai_81161374/>.

Killingbeck, Paul Leighton and Donna. Appendix: Professional Codes of Ethics . 2000. 7 12 2009 <http://www.paulsjusticepage.com/cjethics/ethics_appendix.htm>.

Noonan, John T. “Professional Ethics or Personal Responsibility.” Noonan, John T. Professional Ethics or Personal Responsibility. New York: Monroe H Freedman, 1975.

Portman. What is ethics? 1 12 2009. 7 12 2009 <http://sun.menloschool.org/~sportman/ethics/definition.html>.

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Ethics and professionalism

The ability to behave ethically and sustainably whilst respecting others.

Ethics and professionalism is the skill of understanding the impact of your actions and ensuring that that impact is at all times positive. You may think that ethics only has to do with not doing something illegal - but it is much more complex than that. Ethics is in fact part of your everyday life- is it OK to lie to get out of an uncomfortable situation? Should you share with your friends information that someone gave you confidentially?

In more detail, behaving ethically and professionally is about demonstrating:

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Essay on Professional Ethics | Profession | Management

In this essay we will discuss about:- 1. Meaning of Professional Ethics 2. Need of Professional Ethics 3. Importance.

Essay on Professional Ethics

Essay # 1. meaning of professional ethics:.

Professional ethics are ethics that refer to the moral rules and regulations governing the professional world. In other words, they are the moral values that guide the way corporations or other business makes decisions. Professional ethics are standards or codes of conduct set.by people in a specific profession.

Ethics related to a professional e.g., a manager of a factory are known as – professional ethics. Ethics may be internal or external. As regards internal ethics, a manager must be honest with oneself, since one’s greatest asset is one’s character. And one should be honest and straightforward with others also, treating them in the same manner in which one wishes to be treated (external ethics).

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Fairness in dealings with compeers and subordinates is mandatory; one should never discriminate by dispensing special favours or privileges, whether for remuneration or not. Information coming to a professional confidentially should neither be revealed nor used to the disadvantage of any subordinate or worker. One should ensure one’s employment right to privacy. With reference to external ethics, the same suggestions as stated above can be followed.

A code of ethics is a part of the expectations of those involved in many different types of professions. People in a profession don’t want to condone bad, dishonest or responsible behaviour if it does occur by someone in their field. By setting out expected behaviours in the form of professional ethics, professionals work together to try to uphold a good reputation. Professional ethics are commonly known as ethical business practices.

Respect and honesty are the two main Components of professional ethics. All employees are expected to represent a business ethically as they are a part of it. This is why business people traditionally speak of ‘we’ or ‘us’ rather than the more personal ‘I’ for the most part.

For instance, if an employee must mention company policy to a customer, he or she may say “I’m sorry, but this is our company policy in these situations.” Policies are another type of preferred standards in how business is done, and everyone in a company is expected to represent them.

Professional ethics training is often included in career education programs. For instance, medical assistants are trained on the many ethics issues regarding patient confidentiality. It is both unethical and unlawful to discuss a patient’s health records with others who are not involved in the medical care of the individual.

Engineering, journalism, religious organizations and many other professions have professional ethics. These ethical codes or rules must never go against laws, but rather often coordinate with them as in the case of medical record confidentiality. In general, professional ethics always include upholding honesty and respect in the profession over personal needs, conflicts or biases. A bias is a personal belief such as prejudice towards a certain group of people.

Essay # 2. Need of Professional Ethics:

Every company or business needs their own set of ethics and standards for several reasons.

Some of the important reasons are:

1. Success.

2. Checking Tool.

3. Integrity.

4. Mutual Respect.

1. Success:

Success is the most important reason for need of professional ethics. A company should give their employees in writing the list of moral and ethics codes that they have to follow. In the world, every singles person’s individual set of morals and ethics differ.

In the workplace, all these individuals come together and work under the same roof. If one person’s ethics is totally against another person’s set of ethics, then this will lead to confusion and politics. No professional organization can afford to have warring factions within their office if they have to conduct business successfully.

2. Checking Tool:

Work place ethics act as a moral police and check the employees when they are wrong. An employee, who knows what the work ethics are, will not go wrong and live up to the business standards. This is the biggest advantage that an organization gets by defining a set code of ethics.

3. Integrity:

Integrity is one thing that every business should have. When employees follow work ethics, they show integrity to the outside world. Customers believe in the company and also business prospects increase. Every industry has its own ethical guidelines, and a business should make sure that they follow these standards.

4. Mutual Respect:

Mutual respect also should be one of the strongest ethical points for a company. When employees respect each other, then everyone else, including the customers, respect the business.

Essay # 3. Importance of Professional Ethics:

Professional ethics are important for several reasons as explained below:

(a) Ethics corresponds to basic human needs :

It is a human trait that the man desires to be ethical, not only in his private life but also in his profession/business affairs where, being a manager, he knows his decisions will affect the lives of thousands of employees.

Also, most people want to be a part of an organisation which they can respect and be publically proud of, because they perceive its purpose and activities to be honest and beneficial to society.

These basic ethical needs compel the organisations/business enterprises to be ethically oriented.

(b) Ethics create credibility with the public :

A company ethically and socially responsive is honoured in the society, people favour its products and its public issues attract an immediate response.

The management automatically gets credibility with its employees when it has credit with the public. The leadership and the people (employees) come and work together.

(d) Ethics help better decision making :

An ethical attitude of management helps making decisions in the interest of public, their employees and the company.

(e) Ethics and profit :

Ethics and profit go together. Value driven companies are always successful in the long run.

(f) Ethics can protect society :

What ethics can do, probably government, and law cannot, to protect society. For example, an ethical oriented management can prevent pollution and protect the health of their workers, and people in general, much before being mandated by law.

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