Professional Orientation and Ethics in Counseling - Coursework Example

Running head: Ethics in counseling Professional Orientation and Ethics in Counseling Introduction Human generation is able to witness developments inalmost the entire areas of life. But all such developments are limited to the improvements of physical standards rather than ethical or moral standards. Physical developments are immense so that the people are deliberately forgetting about the importance of morality in personal and professional life. The challenges of the modern world force them to avoid ethical standards from their life. “Even in areas such as medicine where there is a history of ethical codes and an awareness of the need of ethics, unethical behaviour continues to occur” (Campbell, p.12) It is difficult for the modern people to keep their professional and personal life to flow strictly in accordance with the ethical standards. Ethical or moral standards have been redefined by the current generation in order to convince others about their opinion about personal or professional life. This paper briefly analyzes the role of an ethical practitioner, changes in ethical standards, competence in profession, etc. Most important shifts in my thinking about ethical practice I have born and brought up in a traditional religious family and hence the importance of morality or ethical standards in personal and professional life has been transferred to me by my parents. They were able to segregate between the good and the evil and guided me immensely in developing my personality strictly adhered with ethical standards. I tried to keep as much as ethical standards in my studies during my school and college days like avoiding all types of malpractices in examination or other areas of learning process. Most of my friends used false means like preparing the assignments using professional services or influencing teachers to help them in their examinations etc. But I never tried such tricks to get better grades. One of my friends also has the same attitudes like me and he also kept strict ethical standards in his student life. My friend got a teacher’s job in one of the famous schools in America and he tried to teach the students strictly in accordance with his ethical standards. He never allowed students to engage in any type of malpractices to secure higher grades and hence the students generated treated him as their enemy. Though my friend was able to overcome the immense pressure exerted by the students to compromise upon the ethical standards, the treatment from the school management was irritating for him. The principal once called him and asked him to liberalize his methods of teaching. He asked him to stay away from the malpractices of the students since he was more concerned about the better results of the students in order to keep the image of the school intact. It was a shock for my friend and finally he resigned from that school and had to undergo certain counselling sessions from a psycho analyst to stabilize his disoriented mental structure. I also visited the psychoanalyst along with my friend and the counsellor allowed me to attend the counselling session along with my friend after brief personal session. The counsellor has told my friend that the world is meant for humans and not for angels. Humans can commit mistakes. For example a student who makes 30 wrong answers out of a 100 questions will get a higher grade even if he committed 30 mistakes. The counsellor asked my friend to change his thirst for 100% perfection in professional or personal life which is impossible by human beings. The above counselling session not only provided insight to my friend, it also helped me a lot in redefining my attitude towards ethical standards. I have realized that it is not an easy task to keep an absolute approach as far as ethical standards are concerned. Flexibility and adaptation is an important aspect of human life which I learned from the above mentioned counselling session. The above incident also changed my whole perspective about ethics and I have realized the importance of management ethical standards in personal and professional life as per the changing needs of the current society and finally decided to become an ethical practitioner. “Happiness then is something final and self sufficient and is the end of action” (Cahn &Markie, p.135) Essentials for becoming an ethical practitioner ‘Core values like caring, fairness, respect, responsibility, and trustworthiness are required for an ethical practitioner. The practitioner should service the customers in a responsible manner. He should serve and establish relationship with the customers long enough to make them satisfied. The practitioner should maintain confidentiality about the clients and also he should avoid conflicts with the customers. Moreover the ethical practitioner must act with integrity, recognizing the personal interests of the customers. Professional responsibility of the practitioner includes developing his personal skills, sharing of knowledge with others etc.’ (Von Baeyer, p.4) Functions of Ethics Practitioners ‘Ethics practitioners must develop custom made programs or processes for each organizations they work with. They should promote ethical leadership and decision-making at all levels of the organization and should be able to provide guidance to empower individuals and organizations to address specific ethical issues and dilemmas. They should be able to design and provide advice on social responsibility frameworks. The ethical practitioner must maintain high level of professional knowledge and expertise for the purpose of applying ethics and values in organizations.’ (Von Baeyer, p.7) Most of the employees working in organizations are often come across with confusing situation in which they will find difficulty in taking decisions. The professional environment has become more challenging nowadays and hence only the smartest people who are able to keep a balance between professional needs and ethical standard will survive. Because of this challenging environment, the employees often need the services of ethical practitioners to take decisions about their professional life. The ethical practitioner must be able to identify those needs and should be able to suggest solutions which are acceptable to both the employee and the employer. ‘The ethical practitioner should have the skills like Trust, Objectivity and balance, Listening, Stakeholder focus, Dialogue, Teamwork and co-operation, Transparency and confidentiality, Leadership, Analysis, Synthesis Advice, Formulating, Counseling and training etc in order to succeed in his profession. (Von Baeyer, p.11) Professional ethical standards has changed a lot in the last two three decades because of the tight competition between organizations under the globalized environment. The employees need to be flexible enough to deal with the changing trends of ethical standards. For example, seeking recommendations for getting something done was a sin as per the moral standards earlier. But avoiding recommendations seems to be the sin of the current business world. Competent professional “There are four dimensions to assessment: the knowledge and understanding required to carry out a task; the performance indicators to be looked for; the scope or range of situations across which an employee is expected to perform; and any particular evidence requirements” (Business Definition for: Assessment Of Competence) Professional competence is a specific term. A person competent in field may not be the same in some other field. For example a software professional need not be a good manager because of the difference in requirements these professions demand for. But for software professional or a manager certain level of competence is required. The manager needs the management skills in all the departments of an organization like man, material, machine and money whereas the software professional needs at least the software management skills. “Professional codes have extensive and high minded negative and positive ethics. They stress disclosure, candor, client confidentiality, truthfulness etc.” (Howard & Korver, p.64) Assessment and maintenance of competence As an ethical practitioner, I strongly believe that I have the required competence in succeeding in this profession. The feedbacks I am getting from most of my clients are encouraging for me to continue in this profession. I have solid communication skills and also have ample temperament, patience and observational skills, analysis and synthesis skills which are essentials for becoming a success in this field. Moreover I always learn something new from each of my counselling sessions which improve my competence day by day. Most of the people approaching me for advice are coming from different socio economic religious and cultural backgrounds and hence each case provides me new lessons required for my future professional life. It is good preparation and not good luck that is needed to pass the test of professional competence. (Barnwell, p.439) Conclusions The ethical standards are undergoing constant changes in the current world. Yesterday’s right became wrongs today and Yesterday’s wrongs became right today as per the changing trends seen in professional ethical standards. People are often confused with the management of ethics with their professional life and the ethical practitioner can help them out in solving such issues. References 1. Von Baeyer Cornelius, 2006, The Competency Profile of Ethics Practitioners Produced by the Ethics Practitioners’ Association of Canada (EPAC), Retrieved on May 6, 2009 from http://www.workplaceethics.ca/Competency%20Talk.pdf 2. Business Definition for: Assessment Of Competence, 2009, Retrieved on May 6, 2009 from http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/assessment+of+competence.html 3. Campbell Ed., An Ethical Approach to Practitioner Research: Dealing with Issues and Dilemmas in Action Research, Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 15, 2007) http://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Approach-Practitioner-Research-Dilemmas/dp/0415430879/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241622233&sr=1-2# 4. Howard Ronald A., Korver Clinton D. Ethics for the Real World: Creating a Personal Code to Guide Decisions in Work and Life , Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (June 24, 2008) http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Real-World-Creating-Decisions/dp/1422121062/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241622744&sr=1-3# 5. Cahn Steven M.& Markie Peter, Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues, Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 4 edition (October 13, 2008) http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-History-Theory-Contemporary-Issues/dp/0195335961/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241622744&sr=1-4 6. Barnwell Heather, CIMA Official Learning System Test of Professional Competence in Management Accounting, Fifth Edition (Cima Official Learning System) (Cimas Official Learning System) Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 5 edition (September 4, 2008) http://www.amazon.com/Official-Professional-Competence-Management-Accounting/dp/0750687703/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241623457&sr=1-5 Read More