ethics ass e 2004

Professional Ethics

For the Health and Safety Professional

June 2004

ASSE Conference Las Vegas

Dr. Peter Strahlendorf B.Sc., LL.B., LL.M., S.J.D., B.E.S., CRSP

Associate Professor

School of Occupational and Public Health

Ryerson University

Toronto, Canada

Pick One

1. Ethics cannot be taught. You are able to sense what is right, good and just, and are motivated to act – or you are not.

2. While people differ in their abilities, most people can improve their ethical decision-making through education and practice.

A Personal Challenge to the Science-Oriented

Do we think differently when thinking scientifically than when thinking ethically?

Can you find scientific answers to the questions “what is reasonable?”, or “what is fair”?

This is part of the “art” of OHS practice.

Professional Ethics

What is a “profession”?

What is “ethics”?

What is “professional ethics”?

Ethical theories

Thinking about professional ethics

Professional values

Codes of Ethics

Do you agree?

It is always wrong to intentionally take an innocent life?

Do you agree?

The right course of action is to weigh the consequences of action and choose the action that leads to the greatest good for the greatest number?

Two Valid Moral Positions

The first is “Kantianism”

Kant: Right or wrong regardless of consequences

The second is “Utilitarianism”

Utilitarianism: Right or wrong depending on consequences

Most people agree with both positions

Dilemma

The hijacked plane with 200 people is approaching a building with 50,000 people

Vote! Will you shoot down the plane?

Dilemma

You cannot subscribe to both principles in the case.

A true moral dilemma

Which position has the greatest weight in the circumstances?

Orientation

Aim to show several different ways to think through a problem in professional ethics, rather than merely describe what professionals say are their problems (sociology of ethics).

“Profession”

“Ethics”

“Professional Ethics”

Profession

All professions are occupations, but not all occupations are professions

Can take a broad or narrow view of what is a “profession”

A “self-regulated occupational group capable of legally prohibiting others (including incompetent or unethical members) from practising” is a narrow view

Based Primarily on :

“Morality and the Professional Life”

Cynthia A. Brincat

Victoria S. Wike Prentice Hall, 2000

ISBN 0-13-915729-8

Profession

1. Group identity

2. Shared education, training -- requirements for admission

3. Special uncommon knowledge

4. Knowledge used in the service of others… positive social need

5. Involves individual judgment, (some) autonomy in decisions

6. Adherence to certain values

7. Penalties for substandard performance

Profession

Matter of degree … there are many “emerging professions”.

Obstacle in the way of the OHS professional is the diverse nature of practice with competing co-professionals.

Profession

You are not a professional until you are a member of a group of colleagues who have articulated a set of standards and values and can enforce them, at the very least, by exclusion from the group.

“Professionalism”

1. Skill, competency in work

2. Relational element – work will be beneficial to others

Work itself doesn’t have moral status

Execution of work has moral status

Recognizing when We’re in the Realm of Ethics

Watch the language:

Right and wrong -- Actions

Good and bad -- Motives, methods, goals

Professional Ethics

Purpose… Helps professional decide when faced with a problem that raises a moral issue

Complexity … Can be many people, with many issues involved … may be involved history to the issues … may be an issue WHO decides, not just WHAT decided.

Ethics and Morality

Morality – making choices with reasons

Ethics – the study of HOW the choices are made, ie “ethics is the study of morality”

Often use “ethics” and “morality” interchangeably

General vs Professional

General Ethics – individual as member of community, broader range of issues, “top down” principles

Professional Ethics – moral expectations specific to the occupational group, tend to focus on concrete “bottom up” cases

Morality and Ethics

Professional Morality – what we do in our occupational lives

Professional Ethics – the study of what we do in our professional lives

Ethics and Law

Law – the authority is external

Ethics – the authority is internal

Much of law, but not all, is based in morality

Sometimes law is unethical

Much of what is ethical is unaddressed by legal rules

Professional Ethics and Law

There is a moral duty to obey the law (with some caveats)

Professional ethics covers more issues than the law

One can be unethical without behaving illegally

Rare – ethically must resist the law


Be very careful not to embark in an exercise in ethical analysis when there is a clear legal rule in the situation that trumps the entire process of ethical analysis.


Be very careful not to assume that there is a legal rule for every situation. Often the gaps between legal rules require one to switch to an ethical analysis.

Ethics

Descriptive ethics – “What IS”

Prescriptive ethics – “What OUGHT to be”

We do not seek to study professional ethics as a sociologist would, but to assist with choices about what one ought to do.

Descriptive Ethics

2002 British study by Burgess and Mullen:

77% of hygienists had witnessed ethical misconduct by colleagues within last 5 years.

Descriptive Ethics

Burgess and Mullen study. Most common cases:

1. Plagiarism

2. Confidentiality of data

3. Faked data

4. Criticizing colleagues for gain

5. Holding back, disguising data

6. Destruction of data

7. Not reporting incident deliberately

Descriptive Ethics

Patricia Logan 2001, USA. Reported reasons for misbehavior, hygienists:

1. Economic pressure

2. Transition from employee to consultant results in compromises

3. Working in foreign countries

4. Lack of legal standards

5. Working on contingency basis

6. Decrease in job security

Descriptive to Prescriptive

Two very different ways of reasoning. Descriptive, or scientific, studies of professional ethics help us identify issues that need to be included in Code of Ethics and in educational programs. Gives us our “case studies”.

Prescriptive Ethics

“What OUGHT to be”

The words used are different… good-bad, right-wrong, just-unjust

Thought processes use values, goods, virtues, rules, ethical theories, moral reasons, moral explanations, and moral decisions.

Why the Interest in Professional Ethics?

1. As occupations become more specialized, the ethical issues become more specialized

2. Professional societies have increased efforts to establish ethical codes to guide members

3. Increasing public scrutiny, lack of traditional deference

4. Regulatory oversight, public protection

Moral Reasoning

Machinery of Prescriptive Ethics

1. Rules – e.g. “always tell the truth”

2. Values – e.g. Integrity

The two are intimately related.

Prescriptive Ethics

Judgments should be

“universalizable” or “generalizable”

Judgments should apply to like cases and not be case-specific or subjective

“If it applies to me now, it should apply to anyone else in a similar position.”

Moral Relativism

Ethical values are relative to time, place and culture

Moral beliefs are subjective and arbitrary

“It’s all a matter of personal opinion”

Decisions shift easily

Moral Absolutism

Ethical values completely objective

Unchangeable, universal, no exceptions

Comparatively inflexible

Neither position tenable.

Objectivity

Codes of ethics require objectivity, which means that there are principles and values outside of the individual that the members of the community share and that individuals will be measured against.

Objectivity

“Thinking reasonably is thinking morally.”

Samuel Johnson

Reasonable Person -- Peer

What would the reasonable peer do in the circumstances?

Reasonable person: mature, sane, sober, well-informed, well-intentioned, open-minded, calm, detached but empathetic …

Reasonable peer – add expertise.

Moral Decisions

Reasons explain a decision:

Reason + Reason +… = Decision

Explanation… System of reasons

A Moral Reason

Is general, not particular or contingent

reason, not instinct or external authority

not selfishness

moral value, not economic, legal, social value

Moral Explanation

At least one of the reasons justifying a decision is a moral reason.

This identifies, but does not evaluate a moral explanation.

Dilemma

Explanation 1

Reason + Reason + … Decision 1

Explanation 2

Reason + Reason + … Decision 2

May or may not be a MORAL dilemma

Non-Moral Dilemma

1. I should work late and finish the work I promised I’d finish.

2. I should leave and go to a party because I like parties and want to enjoy myself.

1. = universalizable, non-selfish, moral value (integrity, responsibility, promises…)

2. = non-moral reasons and decision.

Moral Dilemma

Moral Explanation 1

Moral reason + reason +… = Decision 1

Moral Explanation 2

Moral reason + reason + … = Decision 2

Resolution of Dilemmas

Some dilemmas are resolved because they are not moral dilemmas.

Some MORAL dilemmas can be resolved through a creative third alternative that satisfies both moral outcomes.

Or, possible to sequentially act on each one.

Or, evaluation will show which is strongest moral explanation and decision.

Evaluate Moral Reasons

STRONG

relevant to decision

concern with person(s) most affected by decision

focussed on values of central importance

WEAK

tends to be irrelevant

not concerned with person(s) most affected by decision

emphasizes peripheral values

Evaluate Moral Explanations

STRONG

use several perspectives (consequences, motives, rights, virtues, etc.)

considers all persons

many values

WEAK

narrow focus

selective concern

fewer values

Ethical Theories

A Moral Theory

Is a broad perspective which:

helps us decide which element of a moral problem is most important (e.g. consequences, rights, goods, virtues, etc.)

helps us resolve conflicts between rules and between values.

How We Come by Moral Theories

Family

Religion

Culture

Experience and reflection

Education

Moral Action Theories -- “Doing”

consequences for community

rights of individuals

duties of individuals

What correct course of action should I take?

Moral Status Theories - “Being”

Virtue, character

Care, relationships

Narrative, history and plans

What kind of person should I be?

Human Goods

Life, health

Knowledge

Play

Art

Friendship

“Self-evidently good”

Human Goods

Human life considered to be fundamental good, pre-conditional good

Human life is not measurable, “life is priceless”

Leads to dilemmas in the workplace

Consequentialism

The greatest good for the greatest number

an act is right only if it tends to result in the greatest net good

all acts are potentially permissible; depends on consequences

all persons count equally

difficult to determine which consequences, what probability, what weight?

May sacrifice individuals for greater good

Consequentialism

Utilitarianism is major consequentialist theory

Not the only one

May aim for human goods as a matter of duty, without a strict utilitarian calculation

Rights-Based Theories

Right = justified claim on someone

Right-holder may or may not claim right

Which rights?

Which rights more fundamental? Or pressing?

An act is morally right if it respects and upholds rights

Respects individuals, bearers of rights

Good of community may be sacrificed for right of individual

Duty-Based Theories

Duty = obligation, responsibility

Considers motive or intention of decision-maker, plus nature of act, rights, consequences

Good motive, means are acceptable, nature of act is good

Consequences are of secondary consideration

Recognizes complexity

Value of individual is important

May sacrifice community good for the sake of individual duty

Kantianism

Often viewed as a duty-based theory

But rights emerge from duty to treat others with respect

X has a duty to Y

Y has a right that X must respect

E.g. right to know and duty to tell

Kantianism

“Deontological” = prior to action

Decide if an act is right or wrong without looking at consequences

Motivated by reason alone

“Universal moral imperatives”

Reason tells us that something is always right … all can follow without contradiction

Kantianism

Duty to:

“Always tell the truth”

“Always avoid taking an innocent life”

“Always treat others as ends in themselves and never as means solely” Basis of respect for persons

Virtue-Based Theories

Act for the sake of virtue, or as a virtuous person would

A virtue is a good character trait or disposition

Tendency to act in a way that promotes human good or human flourishing

Vice is a bad character trait

More people affected by virtue than fewer

More virtues expressed than fewer

BUT, some virtues may be more important than others

Whole person considered, not isolated acts

Virtues may be culturally specific

Virtues

Examples:

Benevolence

Justice

Loyalty

Friendliness

Courage

Honesty

Integrity

Moral Reasoning

Part 2

Using Moral Theories

Not what is decided, but HOW it is decided

Theories identify values and interpret values

A person’s moral theory explains why they hold the values they do

Professional Ethics

Professional’s work involves decision-making

One’s own decisions, decisions of others

Relational component to professional work

Must understand reasons and decisions of others

Must make own decisions in context of others’ decisions

Moral Framework

Provide a Moral Explanation by:

Appeal to a Rule (rightness, wrongness)

Using a Theory (perspective)

Applying a Value

…in order to make a Decision

Moral Framework

Analysis … decision is already made

Decision-making … decision still to come

Analysis

DecisionRuleTheoryValue

Decision-making

Professional

Values and Virtues

Common Professional Values

Integrity

Honesty

Promise keeping

Loyalty

Competence

Common Professional Values

Respect for persons

Justice

Compassion

Confidentiality

Comparison

Medicine and law: services relate primarily to persons

Engineering and other science based professions: services relate primarily to things

OHS professional: services relate to both; more complex

Comparison

Medicine and law: solo practice or partnership

Engineering: employee in organization

OHS professional: Consultant, employee, official

-- Wider issues of responsibility

-- Relations, context, conflicts, values not always the same

Integrity

Most common value in professional codes

Keystone value

“Consistent commitment to moral commitments”

“Structural integrity” = our moral character is the same, whole, integrated

Can’t commit to conflicting standards and have integrity

Integrity and Honesty

Related values

Honest people “have integrity”

To be true to a system of values, one must be honest

Integrity requires being committed to honesty

Honesty is a way of valuing integrity

Problem

Brilliant, first class OHS professional … but he suggested a scheme many years ago … we would advise clients only solution to a certain regulation was purchase of a very expensive storage tank for which we and our third partner (unknown to client) would have sole vending rights …

Integrity and Honesty

Rules:

admit errors

refrain from false/misleading pretences … competency

advise clients truthfully

don’t fool with the numbers

don’t steal others’ work -- plagiarism

Problem

A few years ago, heard that “Tony”, a former student was claiming that he was a professor in OHS at our university in his consulting adverts.

Investigated: His flyer said “engaged with instruction at Ryerson in OHS for 4 years” .. . Verbally interpreted as “teaching”.

Problem

“We like to order more copies of your training manual”

Never heard of the company; not a client.

“How did you get original training manuals?”

“Oh, Mr X used them when he did training for us last year.”

Integrity and Promise Keeping

Lack of integrity/honesty = “say X, mean Y”

Integrity: follow through on promises

Be careful about promises as may jeopardize integrity

OHS consultant: promise more than one can deliver?

Problem

Bait and Switch:

Albert Einstein does the pitch but Gomer Pyle shows up to do the OHS work ….

Problem

Consultant promises to:

1. Get you to world class safety in 3 months

2. Get your “accidents to zero”

3. Ensure compliance

Or head office wants you, the employee, to agree to the above.

Integrity and Loyalty/Dependability

“Avoid actions that degrade integrity of profession” = loyalty to profession

Be loyal to profession’s goals

If committed to profession, be committed to profession’s goals

Dependability is a display of loyalty

Loyalty to employer’s goals

Disloyalty to Profession’s Goals

OHS professional:

Advocates high risk behaviour?

Chooses incompatible values to promote?

Displays risky behaviour in personal life?

Problem

Member of a professional OHS group, certified by that group, set up his own designation and offered short courses for $ for people to obtain the designation. In his advertising, he said the new designation was “just as good” as the original, only half as expensive and 1/10 the time.

Conflicts Involving Integrity

Commitment to our commitments

What if 2 or more commitments in conflict?

Creatively find alternatives where not at odds

Often values not in true conflict, but interpretation of values

May be a greater commitment to some values than others; compromise necessary in world of scarce resources

Problem

“Protect life, environment, and property.”

“Do not compromise.”

Possible?

Are the values of equal priority when commitments come into conflict?

“Whistleblowing”

Disclosure of wrong-doing

Conflict: protection of life versus loyalty

Honesty versus loyalty

Honesty versus promise keeping

Problem

Your report shows areas of high risk, non-compliance, errors etc.

Your superior or client rewrites the report, eliminating your data and conclusions, or buries the report.

Duty to warn in conflict with ….


Explore all options to avoid conflict

Creativity and clarification often reduce conflict

Compromise between values often possible

Distinguish between internal versus public whistleblowing


Some cases of public whistleblowing excessive and involve motives of spite, revenge, self-justification

Best companies have addressed whistleblowing and protect it… provide internal mechanisms

Hard cases requiring self-sacrifice actually rare, involve high risk

Competency

Part of the meaning of “professional” is to possess special, uncommon knowledge and skills.

Don’t have to be best in profession, just above threshold.

Redundant to put in Codes of Ethics?,

as incompetent person should not have been granted status, or should have been weeded out?

Competency – Duty to Maintain

Far more important is a duty to keep up, to maintain competence.

As technology and knowledge improve, the bar of professional practice is raised.

“Standing still” results in eventual incompetence.

Problem

A few years ago, a well known member of the profession stated publicly that a failure to adopt behavior-based safety was professional malpractice (hence, unethical).

Agree?

Problem

Insofar as BBS is “behavioral psychology”, we would be missing out on cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, etc. etc.

Solution

Professional groups should be leery of declaring that certain theories and techniques are “true” or established.

Better approach is the PDC approach where competing and novel ideas are not barred. Gradual, contingent acceptance is the pathway.

Areas of Competence

Extremely important in a profession:

1. where people come from a wide variety of disciplines

2. there are many areas of specialization, and

3. there are other professions adjacent

Problems

1. You are asked to provide expert evidence in an area that you are not truly an expert.

2. Head office wants all locations to institute a certain safety technique about which you know little.

3. You observe a colleague offering services in areas you know he or she has little competence.

Respect for Persons

All persons are due basic respect and a dignity which is to be respected

Kant: “treat every person as as end, and not as a means solely”

Other people are not merely a method for our own goals; others have their own goals

Others may be used with informed consent … contracts are moral

Respect for Persons

Distributive justice - distributive criterion for basic respect and dignity is personhood

Respect on a continuum - desert beyond the basic minimum

Respect for certain aspects of others: integrity, wisdom, honesty, skill, experience

Basis of respect for professional peers

Respect for Persons

Professional - show basic respect for every person, even if not felt

Not hypocrisy

Many professional codes refer to a right to “respectful care” on part of client/patient

Confidentiality, privacy, autonomy, choice, informed consent, self-development, empowerment

Problem

OHS professional transferred to company’s gold mine in South Africa. A large portion of miners were HIV positive, and life expectancy averaged 2 years. Company’s unstated position that spending on safety uneconomical due to short life span of workers? Solution?

Justice

Justice as “fairness”

Involves “balancing”, “weighing” and conforming to a standard

Moral psychology: people have a “sense of justice”

Four forms of justice: Commutative, distributive, retributive and procedural

Commutative Justice

Unfair to leave a harm uncorrected.

X does harm to Y. Take from X to compensate Y so as to address the imbalance. Basis of law of torts.

Fairness lies in putting people back in the position they would have been in had the harm not been done

Distributive Justice

Fairness in distributions

Distribute X according to pre-agreed criterion Y (need, ability to pay, merit, status, personhood)

We distribute DVD players on the basis of ability to pay, university degrees on the basis of merit, and human rights on the basis of personhood

Retributive Justice

Balance severity of punishment with severity of harm for which punishment imposed

Severe punishment for severe wrongs, light for slight

Workplace discipline should be fair in such a balanced fashion.

Procedural Justice

Fairness in decision-making about others’ interests

Unbiased decision-maker

Hear both sides

Mutual disclosure, notice

Treat both sides equally

Balance between the parties

Justice

Treat like cases alike

Justice equality, Justice = equity

Equal and unequal treatment could both be “fair”

“Rewarding” and “punishing” can both be “fair”

Not always concerned with legal version(s) of justice

Justice in the Workplace

Fair compensation for services

Equal treatment in process

Unfair competitive practices

Appropriate (fair) discipline

Hearing both sides in a dispute

No bias re grounds of discrimination

Professional Codes & Justice

Accountability -- punish professionals who violate standards

Duty to report colleagues’ wrong-doing for retributive justice to be carried out

Fairness: warning, reprimand, suspension, expulsion from group

Professional Codes & Justice

Fairness in distribution of professional services -- no discrimination

More than one form of justice can be in play at same time

Compassion

A professional is compassionate

No “relational sensitivity” = no professional life

Compassion is a feeling

No obligation to feel compassion, but an obligation to act compassionately

Some believe professional is “dispassionate”

Compassion

Concern for others

Strongly relational: employer-employee, colleague-colleague, professional-client

Imagine (if you can’t ask) what it would be like in the other’s shoes

Not “knowing better”, but “knowing as”

Compassion

Two rules:

Alleviate suffering

Act in other person’s actual (to them) best interest

Confidentiality

Confidentiality regarding:

1. Whose interests

2. Which interests

Confidentiality

Confidential information of:

1. Worker

2. Employer

3. Colleague

4. Competitor

Confidentiality

1. Medical information

2. CBI – confidential business information

Legal rules exist in many jurisdictions for both.

Problem

“You’ve won the contract but how about including these features of your competitor’s work – from his proposal -- into your services. We insist…”

Should you? Aiding in a breach of confidentiality by the client?

Problem

You signed a confidentiality agreement when consulting for a world class company - X. During the contract you learn many highly effective techniques. Later you are asked to give a talk at a PD conference on “X’s world class safety techniques”.

Problem

If clear contractual language, not an ethical issue but a legal one.

Yet, contractual non-confidentiality clauses do not typically capture experience.

Not simple, outside of legal issue, as failure to share knowledge a breach of a professional standard. Lives may be saved with broader use of technique.

Problem

You signed a confidentiality agreement, and began contract. Discovered:

1. An issue of high risk, the company ignoring; or

2. An issue of high risk, the company actively covering up, lying; or

3. An issue of high risk, the company knows it’s in clear legal non-compliance.

Conflicts

Human life versus property

e.g. Right to know versus trade secrets

Human life versus environment

e.g. Take time to ensure PPE of response crew versus speed in preventing chemical reaching natural environment

Conflict of Interest

Usually refers to conflict between professional duties and personal interests

Can also refer to conflict between professional duties/values and other values

Objective Decision-making

Often expressed in Codes of Ethics

Opposite of subjectivity

Does the decision and the reasoning behind it hold up to scrutiny by the “reasonable peer”?

No bias, truthfulness, no conflict of interest

Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)

Commonly used to guide action

Related to risk benefit analysis

1. What are alternatives?

2. Identify costs and benefits of each

3. Quantify

4. Calculate net gain of each

5. Choose one with greatest net gain

Criticism of CBA

1. Not all costs/benefits identified

2. Correct weight not given

3. Action may be greatest net gain but morally impermissible from another moral perspective

4. Appears “scientific” or “value free”; but not

5. Merely a utilitarian technique

Environmental Protection

1. Protect human interest in the environment, versus

2. Protect the environment “for its own sake”

Environmental ethics is problematic:

-- “rights” for non-moral creatures?

-- universalizability of principles?

Protection of Property

Often denigrated as a value

Compares poorly with “human life”

Yet, pre-condition to many aspects of human flourishing

Implicit in organizational values of commercial enterprises

An issue in many dilemmas and cannot be ignored

Relations with Colleagues

Distinguish between duties to profession as an institution and duties to professional colleagues

Don’t bring profession into disrepute

Treat colleagues in a professional manner

Relations with Colleagues

Co-operative

Respect

Egalitarian

Supportive and helpful

Openness

No blatant crude competition

Intra-professional recognition based on merit

Maintenance of discipline

Professional

Codes of Ethics

Code of Ethics

Clarifies values and rules

Facilitates group cohesion

Instills necessary public confidence

Used as framework for discipline

Code of Ethics -- The Audience

1. Members of profession

2. Clients, employers

3. Agencies and regulators

4. Public at large

5. Professional “competitors”

Code of Ethics -- Positive

1. Inspirational?

2. Educational?

3. Enforcement, self-policing

4. Resolve moral dilemmas?

5. Alert audience of expected standard of performance

Code of Ethics -- Negative?

1. Done to polish public image?

2. Protects professional monopoly?

3. Status symbol of emerging profession?

4. Can instill complacency (“we have a code of ethics, therefore we are ethical”)

5. Cannot create an ethics

6. Cannot truly codify ethics

7. Of marginal ability to resolve ethical dilemmas without collateral education

Code of Ethics

Examine each statement in Code

Where do you see the professional values we have been reviewing?

Do we agree they need “unpacking” and further study to see what they really mean in application?

Do we agree that a Code of Ethics is good, but not sufficient?

ASSE Code of Professional Conduct

Duty to serve and protect people, property and environment.

Exercise duty with integrity, honor and dignity.


Principles:

1. Protect people, property and the environment through the application of state-of-the-art knowledge.


Principles:

2. Serve the public, employees, employers, clients and the Society with fidelity, honesty and impartiality.


Principles:

3. Achieve and maintain competency in the practice of the profession.

4. Avoid conflicts of interest and compromise of professional conduct.

5. Maintain confidentiality of privileged information.


I shall:

1.Inform the public, employers, employees, clients and appropriate authorities when professional judgment indicates that there is an unacceptable level of risk.


I shall:

2. Improve knowledge and skills through training, education and networking.

3. Perform professional services only in the area of competence.


I shall:

4. Issue public statements in a truthful manner, and only within the parameters of authority granted.


I shall:

5. Serve as an agent and trustee, avoiding any appearance of conflict of interest.

6. Assure equal opportunity to all.

BCSP Code of Ethics

“Certificants shall, in their professional safety activities, sustain and advance the integrity, honor, and prestige of the safety profession by adherence to these standards.”

BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards

1. Hold paramount the safety and health of people, the protection of the environment and protection of property in the performance of professional duties and exercise their obligation to advise employers, clients, employees, the public, and appropriate authorities of danger and unacceptable risks to people, the environment, or property.


2. Be honest, fair, and impartial; act with responsibility and integrity. Adhere to high standards of ethical conduct with balanced care for the interests of the public, employers, clients, employees, colleagues and the profession. Avoid all conduct or practice which is likely to discredit the profession or deceive the public.


3. Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner and only when founded upon knowledge of the facts and competence in the subject matter.


4. Undertake assignments only when qualified by education or experience in the specific technical fields involved. Accept responsibility for their continued professional development by acquiring and maintaining competence through continuing education, experience and professional training.


5. Avoid deceptive acts which falsify or misrepresent their academic or professional qualifications. Not misrepresent or exaggerate their degree of responsibility in or for the subject matter of prior assignments.


5. Continued …

Presentations incident to the solicitation of employment shall not misrepresent pertinent facts concerning employers, employees, associates, or past accomplishments with the intent and purpose of enhancing their qualifications and their work.


6. Conduct their professional relations by the highest standards of integrity and avoid compromise of their professional judgment by conflicts of interest.


7. Act in a manner free of bias with regard to religion, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.


8. Seek opportunities to be of constructive service in civic affairs and work for the advancement of the safety, health and well-being of their community and their profession by sharing their knowledge and skills.

Summary

Examination of professional ethics is important for the profession as an institution, and for individual professionals

Solving problems can be very difficult – sometimes …

Better ethical decision-making can come from education and practice

Education is needed to supplement Code of Ethics

For an electronic copy of this presentation, please email me at:

[email protected]

And put on subject line “ethics talk”

mailto:[email protected]

ethics ass e 2004

Documents

safety professional

professional life cynthia

problems sociology of

consequences of action

moral status execution

true moral dilemma

right course of action

positions dilemma