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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
Professional Ethics and 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.
Professional Ethics and Law
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 ….
“Whistleblowing”
Explore all options to avoid conflict
Creativity and clarification often reduce conflict
Compromise between values often possible
Distinguish between internal versus public whistleblowing
“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.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
Principles:
1. Protect people, property and the environment through the application of state-of-the-art knowledge.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
Principles:
2. Serve the public, employees, employers, clients and the Society with fidelity, honesty and impartiality.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
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.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
I shall:
1.Inform the public, employers, employees, clients and appropriate authorities when professional judgment indicates that there is an unacceptable level of risk.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
I shall:
2. Improve knowledge and skills through training, education and networking.
3. Perform professional services only in the area of competence.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
I shall:
4. Issue public statements in a truthful manner, and only within the parameters of authority granted.
ASSE Code of Professional Conduct
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.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
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.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
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.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
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.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
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.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
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.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
6. Conduct their professional relations by the highest standards of integrity and avoid compromise of their professional judgment by conflicts of interest.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
7. Act in a manner free of bias with regard to religion, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation.
BCSP Code of Ethics -- Standards
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:
And put on subject line “ethics talk”