ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL AMONG PRACTICIONERS

Ethical behavior, simply put, is doing the right thing. Unethical behavior is the reverse. In the Workplace, unethical
behavior certainly includes any deeds that violate the law, such as theft or violence. But unethical behavior can involve
much broader areas as well, such as deliberate violations of company policies, or using hard-sell sales practices that may
be legal, strictly speaking, but that take excessive advantage of human frailties. Examples of unethical behavior can be
found in all types of businesses and in many different areas.

Common Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work:

 Receiving Gifts

Clients who receive assistance sometimes wish to reciprocate. Although giving a gift can be a kind gesture, it can also
prove problematic. If a social worker receives a gift (particularly when it is expensive), it may constitute a breach of
integrity. However, rejecting a gift may hurt the client's feelings, potentially damaging the relationship. If the gift is
handmade or inexpensive, it is generally considered appropriate to accept.

 Right to Self-Determination

Although the job of social workers is to help people make informed decisions, they are ultimately not responsible for the
actions of their clients. When clients choose to act against their own best interest (such as former drug addicts deciding
to visit their old dealer), it can be tempting for social workers to provide their clients with "tough love." But except in
extenuating circumstances, social workers must ultimately respect their clients' autonomy.

 Differences in Personal Values

Sometimes, clients need a type of assistance that conflicts with a social worker's personal moral beliefs. A pregnant
client, for example, may ask her anti-abortion social worker for help obtaining an abortion. Social workers may feel torn
between providing a type of service requested and maintaining a positive relationship with the client. They may want to
encourage the client to choose another alternative. However, they must ultimately follow the NASW policy statement,
Family Planning and Reproductive Health, which states support for clients to make their own decisions about sexuality
and reproduction.

 Dual Relationships

The NASW strictly forbids relationships between social workers and their clients outside a professional context. However,
these connections can sometimes prove difficult to avoid. Social Workers and their clients may live in the same
communities, shop at the same stores, or send their children to the same schools and share intimate life details due to
the nature of their work. Practitioners of social work must decide on the most ethical and professional way to engage
with their clients in a nonprofessional setting.

 Confidentiality Involving Minors

Although information shared between social workers and their clients is strictly confidential, certain situations may arise
that require the social worker to disclose client information to a third party. Sometimes these situations include minors
who may or may not be entitled to certain rights of confidentiality, depending on federal, state and agency laws. Acting
in these situations may prove both difficult and painful because they can feel to both parties like a major breach of trust.
Examples of unethical behavior can be found in all types of businesses and in many different areas.

 Deliberate Deception in the Workplace

Deliberate deception in the workplace includes taking credit for work done by someone else, calling in sick in order to go
to the beach, sabotaging the work of another person and, in sales, misrepresenting the product or service to get the sale.
There are other examples of deliberate deception, but these show how damaging deception can be by using a person's
trust to undermine his rights and security. In a workplace environment, this results in conflict and retaliation. In a sales
function, it can result in lawsuits from deceived customers.

 Violation of Conscience

Your sales manager calls you into his office and threatens to fire you unless you sell 50 large toasters. You know the large
toasters are inferior products and have been selling the small toasters to your customers, instead. To keep your job, you
must violate your conscience and recommend that your customers buy the large toasters. Your boss is engaging in
unethical behavior by forcing you to do something you know is wrong, and also risking the ire and potential loss of
valuable customers to meet a product sales goal.

He may be engaging in unethical conduct because top management has forced him by threatening his job, too. Coercion
is also the basis for workplace sexual harassment and results in lawsuits. Unethical behavior often causes more unethical
behavior.

 Failure to Honor Commitments

Your boss promises you an extra day off if you rush out an important project by a certain date. You work late hours and
finish the project before the deadline. Ready for your day off, you mention it to your boss who responds "No, we have
too much work to do."

Your boss engaged in unethical behavior that has vitually guaranteed your future distrust and unwillingness to extend
yourself to assist in department emergencies. In addition, you are likely to complain to your co-workers, causing them to
distrust the promises of the boss and be unwilling to cooperate with his requests.

 Theft and Other Unlawful Conduct

Padding an expense account with non-business expenses, raiding the supply cabinet to take home pens and notebooks
and passing around unregistered or counterfeit software are examples of unlawful conduct in the workplace. The person
who steals from the company by padding her expense account or taking supplies for personal use risks losing her job. If a
company decides to overlook such theft on the basis of maintaining employee morale by not firing a popular employee,
other employees will also steal so they can feel they are getting the same deal as their co-worker. Passing around
counterfeit software, if discovered by the manufacturer, can cost the company through lawsuits and fines.

On a grander scale, Enron-style accounting fraud - "cooking the books" - involves a coordinated, deliberate and illegal
effort to misstate company earnings and mislead investors as a way of manipulating the company's stock price. This is
the type of unethical behavior that sends company executives to jail.

 Disregard of Company Policy

An employer is understandably concerned about avoiding lawsuits and angry customers because those things negatively
affect profitability. Most employers clearly state company policies against deception, coercion and illegal activities. They
also strive to convey an image of trustworthiness to their customers and employees.

Corporate trustworthiness helps retain customers and valued employees, and the loss of either also negatively affects
company profitability. To disregard company policy is unethical because it has the potential to harm the company and
other employees.