Lecture-1-Introduction to Professional Ethics.pptx

Introduction to Professional Ethics.pptx

1. Introduction to Professional Ethics Lecture presented by Ms. Hina Yousaf

2. ‘‘ WHY SHOULD I STUDY ETHICS? I am an ethical person.’’ “Engineers and engineering students often ask this question when the subject of professional ethics is raised, and the short and simple answer to is: ‘‘You are not being asked to study ethics in general, but your profession’s ethics.’’

3. What is a Professionalism? Full Definition of PROFESSIONALISM 1 : the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person(see 1professional) 2 : the following of a profession (as athletics) for gain or livelihood

4. You know that it's essential to be professional if you want to be a success. But what does "being professional" actually mean? For some, being professional might mean dressing smartly at work, or doing a good job. For others, being professional means having advanced degrees or other certifications, framed and hung on the office wall. Professionalism encompasses all of these definitions. But, it also covers much more.

5. Defining Professionalism The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as "the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person"; and it defines a profession as "a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation." These definitions imply that professionalism encompasses several different attributes, and, together, these attributes identify and define a professional. So, what are these attributes?

6. Specialized Knowledge First and foremost, professionals are known for their specialized knowledge. They've made a deep personal commitment to develop and improve their skills, and, where appropriate, they have the degrees and certifications that serve as the foundation of this knowledge. Not all areas demand extensive knowledge to practice successfully; and not all professionals have top degrees in their field.

7. What matters, though, is that these professionals have worked in a serious, thoughtful and sustained way to master the specialized knowledge needed to succeed in their fields; and that they keep this knowledge up-to-date, so that they can continue to deliver the best work possible.

8. Competency Professionals get the job done. They're reliable, and they keep their promises. If circumstances arise that prevent them from delivering on their promises, they manage expectations up front, and they do their best to make the situation right. Professionals don't make excuses, but focus on finding solutions.

9. Honesty and Integrity Professionals exhibit qualities such as honesty and integrity . They keep their word, and they can be trusted implicitly because of this. They never compromise their values , and will do the right thing, even when it means taking a harder road. More than this, true professionals are humble – if a project or job falls outside their scope of expertise, they're not afraid to admit this. They immediately ask for help when they need it, and they're willing to learn from others.

10. Accountability Professionals hold themselves accountable for their thoughts, words, and actions, especially when they've made a mistake. This personal accountability is closely tied to honesty and integrity, and it's a vital element in professionalism.

11. Self-Regulation They also stay professional under pressure. For instance, imagine a customer service employee who's faced with an annoyed customer. Instead of getting upset or angry in return, the employee exhibits true professionalism by maintaining a calm, business-like demeanor, and by doing everything that she can to make the situation right. Genuine professionals show respect for the people around them, no matter what their role or situation. They exhibit a high degree of emotional intelligence (EI) by considering the emotions and needs of others, and they don't let a bad day impact how they interact with colleagues or clients.

12. Image Professionals look the part – they don't show up to work sloppily dressed, with messy hair. They're polished, and they dress appropriately for the situation. Because of this, they project an air of confidence, and they gain respect for this.

13. How to Exhibit Professionalism Professionals are the kind of people that others respect and value. They are a genuine credit to their organizations. True professionals are the first to be considered for promotions, they are awarded valuable projects or clients, and they are routinely successful in their careers.

14. Now that you have a clear view of what constitutes professionalism, are you demonstrating these characteristics to the people around you?

15. Here are some further strategies that will help you be more professional in the workplace: 1. Build Expertise Don't let your knowledge and skills get outdated. Commit to build expertise and stay up-to-date with your industry. 2. Develop Your Emotional Intelligence Professionals can sense the emotional needs of others. They're able to give clients and coworkers what they need, because they know how to listen actively and observe what's happening. So, if you want to improve your professionalism, focus on developing emotional intelligence.

16. 3. Honor Your Commitments Whenever you make a promise to your boss, colleagues, or clients, keep it. If it looks as if you won't be able to meet a deadline, let your boss, team or client know as soon as sensibly possible. However, do what you can to avoid ending up in this situation! Don't make excuses – instead, focus on meeting expectations as best you can, and on making the situation right. 4. Be Polite Be kind and polite and use good manners to everyone you come into contact with, no matter what their role is, and no matter how you're feeling. This might sound unimportant, but it makes a significant impact.

17. 5. Have the Tools You Need Do you show up to a client meeting lacking important samples? Or arrive at work, only to realize that you left a vital file at home? Or do you find yourself operating in situations where you don't have the skills needed to do a good job? True professionals are always prepared. This requires planning, timeliness, and attention. Focus on improving your time management and planning skills, so that you're always in control.

18. A Sociological Analysis of Professionalism Among the several traditions of sociological analysis of the professions, one of the most influential has a distinctly economic orientation. These sociologists view attaining professional status as a tactic to gain power or advantage in the marketplace. Professions have considerable power in the marketplace to command high salaries, so they conclude that professional status is highly desirable.

19. Occupation VS Profession Occupation refers to the regular activity performed by a person to earn his bread and butter. A profession is an occupation or vocation which requires a high degree of knowledge and expertise in the specific field. Although probably no profession has all of these characteristics to the highest degree possible, the more characteristics an occupation has, the more secure it is in its professional status.

20. 1. Extensive Training Entrance into a profession typically requires an extensive period of training, and this training is of an intellectual character. Professionals’ knowledge and skills are grounded in a body of theory. This theoretical base is obtained through formal education, usually in an academic institution. Today, most professionals have at least a bachelor’s degree from a college or university, and many professions require more advanced degrees, which are often conferred by a professional school. Thus, the professions are usually closely allied in our society with universities, especially the larger and more prestigious ones. Although extensive training may be required for professional work.

21. 2. Vital knowledge and skills Professionals’ knowledge and skills are vital to the well-being of the larger society. A society that has a sophisticated scientific and technological base is especially dependent on its professional elite. knowledge possessed by physicians to protect us from disease and restore us to health. Lawyer’s knowledge for our welfare if we have been sued or accused of a crime accountant’s knowledge for our business successes or when we have to file our tax returns we are dependent on the knowledge and research of scientists and engineers for our safety in an airplane

22. 3. Control of services Professions usually have a monopoly on, or at least considerable control over, the provision of professional services in their area. This control is achieved in two ways. First, the profession convinces the community that only those who have graduated from a professional school should be allowed to hold the professional title. The profession usually also gains considerable control over professional schools by establishing accreditation standards that regulate the quality, curriculum content, and number of such schools.

23. Second, a profession often attempts to persuade the community that there should be a licensing system for those who want to enter the profession. Those who practice without a license are subject to legal penalties. Although it can be argued that monopoly is necessary to protect the public from unqualified practitioners, it also increases the power of professionals in the marketplace.

24. 4. Autonomy in the workplace Autonomy at work means  giving employees the freedom to work in a way that suits them : whether that's deciding the pace of their work, the order of task completion and having more control over job tasks, or even the freedom to decide when and where they do their work. Professionals often have an unusual degree of autonomy in the workplace.

25. This is especially true of professionals in private practice. Whether in private practice or in an organizational setting, physicians must determine the most appropriate type of medical treatment for their patients, and lawyers must decide the most successful type of defense of their clients. This is one of the most satisfying aspects of professional work. The justification for this unusual degree of autonomy is that only the professional has sufficient knowledge to determine the appropriate professional services in a given situation.

26. 6. Claim to ethical regulation Professionals claim to be regulated by ethical standards, many of which are embodied in a code of ethics. regulating themselves for the public benefit. Professional codes are ordinarily promulgated/implemented by professional societies. Sometimes professional societies attempt to punish members who violate their codes.

27. Professions as Social Practices A profession is an example of a social practice. Every social practice has one or more aims or goods that are especially associated with it or ‘‘internal’’ to it. For example, medicine (along, of course, with nursing, pharmacy, osteopathy, and the like) aims at the health of patients. One of the aims of law is justice. A practice may also produce other goods, such as money, social prestige, and power… especially related to its moral legitimacy. a social practice is inconceivable without this distinctive aim. We cannot imagine medicine apart from the aim of producing health or law without the aim of producing justice.

28. the aims of a social practice must be morally justifiable aims. Both health and justice are morally praiseworthy aims. the distinctive aim of a social practice provides a moral criterion for evaluating the behavior of those who participate in the social practice. if a medical practice does not promote ‘‘health,’’ we might wonder about its moral legitimacy as a medical practice. The advantage of this account of professionalism is that it has a distinctively moral orientation and characterizes the professions as institutions that must be not only morally permissible but also aim at some moral good. There cannot be a profession of thievery or a profession of torturing because these occupations are inconsistent with ordinary morality

29. Chapter 1: Ethics & Business 1.1 The Nature of Business Ethics Morality & Ethics Levels of Ethics

30. MEANING AND DEFINITION OF ETHICS Ethics is defined as the study of "what is right or good in conduct”. The word Ethics has been taken from Greek word “ethora” means character and this is connected with custom or habit. Peter F. Drucker writes— "There is only one ethics, one set of rules of morality, one code: that of individual behavior in which the same rules apply to everyone alike.“ According to the dictionary, the term ethics has several meanings. One of the meanings given to it is: “the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group.

31. We sometimes use the term personal ethics , for example, when referring to the rules by which an individual lives his or her personal life. We use the term accounting ethics when referring to the code that guides the professional conduct of accountants. A second—and for us more important—meaning of ethics according to the dictionary is this: Ethics is “ the study of morality.” Just as chemists use the term chemistry to refer to a study of the properties of chemical substances, ethicists use the term ethics to refer primarily to the study of morality.

32. Although ethics deals with morality, it is not quite the same as morality. Ethics is a kind of investigation—and includes both the activity of investigating as well as the results of that investigation—whereas morality is the subject matter that ethics investigates.

33. Morality So what, then, is morality? We can define morality as the standards that an individual or a group has about what is right and wrong, or good and evil. To clarify what this means, let’s consider a case. Read the case on page 13 Lawson believed that as an engineer he had an obligation “to do your best, no matter what it cost,” and that Vandivier believed it was wrong to lie and to endanger the lives of others, and believed also that integrity is good and dishonesty is bad. These beliefs are all examples of moral standards.

34. Moral standards include the norms we have about the kinds of actions we believe are morally right and wrong, as well as the values we place on what we believe is morally good or morally bad. Moral norms can usually be expressed as general rules about our actions, such as “Always tell the truth,” “It’s wrong to kill innocent people,” or “Actions are right to the extent that they produce happiness.” Moral values can usually be expressed with statements about objects or features of objects that have worth, such as “Honesty is good,” and “Injustice is bad.”

35. Where do moral standards come from? learned as a child from family, friends, and various societal influences such as church, school, television, magazines, music, and associations. experience, learning, and intellectual development may discard some standards that you decide are unreasonable, and may adopt new standards

36. Moral standards can be contrasted with nonmoral standards and norms. Examples of nonmoral standards and norms (sometimes also called “conventional” standards and norms) include the standards of etiquette by which we judge people’s manners as good or bad the rules of behavior set by parents, teachers, or other authorities the norms we call the law by which we determine what is legally right and wrong

37. the standards of language by which we judge what is grammatically right and wrong the standards of art by which we judge whether a painting or a song is good or bad and the sports standards by which we judge how well a game of football or basketball is being played In fact, whenever we make judgments about the right or wrong way to do things, or judgments about what things are good and bad, or better and worse, our judgments are based on standards or norms of some kind.

38. How do we distinguish between moral and nonmoral or conventional standards? Look at the two lists of norms below and see if you can tell which is the list of moral norms and which is the list of nonmoral norms: The psychologist Elliot Turiel and several others have found that by the age of three, a normal child has acquired the ability to tell the difference between moral norms and conventional norms.

39. By age three, the child sees violations of moral norms as more serious and wrong everywhere, while violations of conventional norms are less serious and wrong only where authorities set such norms. People in all cultures may not completely agree on which norms are moral norms (although there is a surprising amount of agreement) and which are conventional, but they all agree that the two are different and that the difference is extremely important. philosophers have suggested six characteristics that help pin down the nature of moral standards . Let’s discuss

40. First, moral standards deal with matters that are serious, i.e., matters that we think can seriously wrong or significantly benefit human beings. For example, most people hold moral standards against theft, rape, enslavement, murder, child abuse, assault, slander, fraud, lawbreaking, and so on. Second, and strikingly, we feel that moral standards should be preferred to other values including (and perhaps especially) self-interest. That is, if a person has a moral obligation to do something, then he or she is supposed to do it even if this conflicts with other, conventional norms or with self-interest

41. Third, unlike conventional norms, moral standards are not established or changed by the decisions of authority figures or authoritative bodies. Fourth, moral standards are felt to be universal. That is, if we genuinely hold that certain standards—such as “Do not lie” or “Do not steal”—are moral standards, then we will also feel that everyone should try to live up to those standards, and we will get upset when we see others transgressing them. Fifth, and generally, moral standards are based on impartial considerations.

42. Last, moral standards are associated with special emotions and a special vocabulary. For example, if I act contrary to a moral standard, I will normally feel guilty, ashamed, or remorseful; I will describe my behavior as “immoral” or “wrong,” and I will feel bad about myself and experience a loss of self-esteem. Moral standards, then, are standards that deal with matters that we think are of serious consequence, are based on good reasons and not on authority, override selfinterest, are based on impartial considerations, and are associated with special feelings such as guilt and shame, and with a special moral vocabulary such as “obligation,” or “responsibility.” We learn these standards as children from a variety of influences and revise them as we go through our lives.

43. Ethics What, then, is ethics? Ethics is the discipline that examines your moral standards or the moral standards of a society. It asks how these standards apply to your life and whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable—that is, whether they are supported by good reasons or poor ones. Discussion on page 18 The ultimate aim of ethics is to develop a body of moral standards that you feel are reasonable for you to hold—standards that you have thought about carefully and have decided are justified for you to accept and to apply to the choices that fill our lives.

44. Ethics is not the only way to study morality. The social sciences—such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology—also study morality, but do so in a way that is different from the approach to morality that ethics takes. While ethics is a normative study of morality, the social sciences engage in a descriptive study of morality. normative study An investigation that attempts to reach conclusions about what things are good or bad or about what actions are right or wrong. descriptive study An investigation that attempts to describe or explain the world without reaching any conclusions about whether the world is as it should be.

45. Business Ethics we are not concerned with ethics in general, but with a particular field of ethics: business ethics. Business ethics is a specialized study of moral right and wrong that focuses on business institutions, organizations, and activities. Business ethics is a study of moral standards and how these apply to the social systems and organizations through which modern societies produce and distribute goods and services, and to the activities of the people who work within these organizations. Business ethics, in other words, is a form of applied ethics. It not only includes the analysis of moral norms and moral values, but also tries to apply the conclusions of this analysis to that assortment of institutions, organizations, and activities that we call business.

46. Business ethics covers a wide variety of topics. Three different kinds of issues that business ethics investigates: systemic, corporate, and individual issues. Systemic issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about the economic, political, legal, and other institutions within which businesses operate. These include questions about the morality of capitalism or of the laws, regulations, industrial structures, and social practices within which businesses operate.

47. Corporate issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about a particular organization. These include questions about the morality of the activities, policies, practices, or organizational structure of an individual company taken as a whole. Finally, individual issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about a particular individual or particular individuals within a company and their behaviors and decisions.

48. Objections to Business Ethics Many people raise objections to the very idea of applying moral standards to business activities. Let’s discuss some of these objections and also look at what can be said in favor of bringing ethics into business.

49. First, some have argued that in perfectly competitive free markets, the pursuit of profit will by itself ensure that the members of society are served in the most socially beneficial ways. To be profitable, each firm has to produce only what the members of society want and has to do this by the most efficient means available. The members of society will benefit most, then, if managers do not impose their own values on a business, but instead devote themselves to the single-minded pursuit of profit and thereby to producing efficiently what the members of society value.

50. In a perfectly competitive free market, there are numerous buyers and sellers, none of whom have significant market power to influence prices. All goods and services are identical, and there are no barriers to entry or exit for firms. Prices are determined solely by supply and demand forces, and all participants have access to perfect information about prices and product characteristics.

51. First, most industrial markets are not “perfectly competitive” as the argument assumes. Firms are said to be in perfect competition when the following conditions occur:  Many firms produce identical products.   Many buyers are available to buy the product, and many sellers are available to sell the product . To the extent that firms do not have to compete, they can maximize profits despite inefficient production.

52. Second , the argument assumes that any steps taken to increase profits will necessarily be socially beneficial. In fact, however, several ways of increasing profits actually injure society such as: allowing harmful pollution to go uncontrolled, deceptive advertising, concealing product hazards, fraud, bribery, tax evasion, price fixing, and so on.

53. Third , the argument assumes that, by producing whatever the buying public wants (or values), firms are producing what all the members of society want. But the wants of large segments of society (the poor and disadvantaged) are not necessarily met when companies produce what buyers want, because these segments of society cannot participate fully in the marketplace.

54. Fourth , the argument is essentially making a normative judgment (“managers should devote themselves to the single-minded pursuit of profits”) on the basis of some unspoken and unproved moral standard (“people should do whatever will benefit those who participate in markets”). Thus, although the argument tries to show that ethics does not matter, it assumes an unproved ethical standard to show this. And the standard does not look very reasonable.

55. A second kind of argument sometimes advanced to show that business managers should single-mindedly pursue the interests of their firms and should ignore ethical considerations discussion on page 24. examples LAW OF AGENCY A law that specifies the duties of persons who agree to act on behalf of another party and who are authorized by an agreement so to act.

56. A third kind of objection is sometimes made against bringing ethics into business. This is the objection that to be ethical it is enough for businesspeople to follow the law: If it is legal, then it is ethical. Discussion on page 25

57. It is wrong, however, to see ethics as no more than what the law requires. It is true that some laws require behavior that is the same as the behavior required by our moral standards. Examples of these are laws that prohibit murder, rape, theft, fraud, and so on. In such cases, law and morality coincide, and the obligation to obey such laws is the same as the obligation to be moral . However , law and morality do not completely overlap. Some laws have nothing to do with morality because they do not involve serious matters. These include parking laws, dress codes, and other laws cov ering similar matters. Other laws may even violate our moral standards so that they are actually contrary to morality.