Professional Ethics: The Fundamental of Human Prosperity

In his book “The Professional Ethics Toolkit”, Christopher Meyers defines of professional “as experts skilled in the provision of vital services, who have a normative commitment to their clients’ well-being”. As my point view, I think that his definition is completely correct. Moreover, professional ethics is also a solid foundation for human development and prosperity. If that goes away, human society will be in seriously crisis of belief. Today, human society needs more faith than ever before. And well implementation of professional ethical standards of each person, not only engineers, doctors or lawyers but any other profession in society which will contribute to building the trust between people with each other, between people and organizations, and between people and nature. Since then, human society will develop more sustainably and prosperously.

Meyer writes, 'Even acknowledging the potential for corruption, it is important to recognize just how unusual and exceptional the professions' normative foundation is'. He admits that negative events in professional ethics are still going on today. However, to limit and prevent it, it is necessary to have a professional organization with strong rules that are verified by government agencies and most importantly, directly evaluated by their customers. Indeed, for example in health matter, one of us will one day have problems with this in our life, so seeing a doctor for treatment is the first thing we think about. However, how can we know the doctor who we will come to that he has skilled and capable of curing us? Those are the licenses that he obtained that validated his skills. Besides, it was word of mouth from previous patients that he had successfully treated. It is trust in his ability and you believe that he knows what he is doing. Moreover, you will trust that he will put your health first rather than the money he is paid by you. They see their work as a contribution to society rather than as a way to make a living. And the identity of the profession he is doing is largely determined by his professional role. He does his job well, many people like him also do their jobs as well, thereby creating great trust from their clients. And their industry is increasingly respected and developed by people.

My argument in this essay is to emphasize the importance of ethical organization to the profession of every industry in today's society. First, to achieve a professional ethics organization, it must focus on two factors: culture and personal behavior. Second, when focusing on that, we will find that culture is created and maintained by two factors: establishing standard policies and conducting the implementation of those policies by all members of their organization. The most important is the organizational structure - how it manages and what values are promoted and preserved. The technical organizations they often have clear hierarchies and core staff, have been included in professional rules.

First factor, the importance of culture, let's just believe that everyone is good, so why do good people sometimes do bad things? Usually, morally evil actions come from three sources: good people make mistakes (because of confusion or lack of knowledge), good people have weakness will, and bad people choose to do bad things. So, with this assumption, the organizational structure of professional ethics and culture is the way to help good people avoid mistakes, strengthen their wills, and determine appropriate penalties for those who do wrong. A strong professional organization will provide for their members with guidelines, principles and clearly explain the consequences when they do bad things. That is really a worthwhile goal. Many people come from an organizational culture that promotes internal values, good people make the right decisions, they to do so with the power of character and morality.

Creating the culture, creating good culture we must pay attention to how it is set up and maintained. The strongest influence comes from where people most expect it - the organization's leader - it comes from the people who create and maintain the organization's agenda. They develop company policies, organizational rules, and ethical rules. Business leadership should be an ideal role model. Employees will look these behavior of senior managers as standard behaviors are allowed in the workplace. When the actions of senior management achieve ethical standards, it means sending a positive message to employees. Besides, organize training courses, or ethical workshops. Use these training sessions to reinforce organizational standards of conduct and address potential ethical dilemmas. The reward and punishment system must be clear and transparent. The organization should also provide a method for employees to discuss ethical dilemmas and to report unethical behavior without fear of repression or reprimand. My personal point of view, that is how the organization's ethical culture is created.

Second factor, personal behavior, in class we were discussion about integrity. I would like to expand this definition as integrity and self-regulation. These qualities are necessary to determine the ethical professional behavior of people expressed in their daily work. Integrity is a personal virtue that is very important to a person. In the issue of distinguishing between an ethical or unethical act, the integrity of the individual may indicate the correct ethical behavior with reality. An individual without integrity will not be able to behave in an ethical manner.

For a long time, the role of self-regulation has been recognized as one of the outstanding characteristics of a profession. It used to be reserved for doctors, lawyers, scientists, self-regulation is now expanded to include engineers, accountants, architects, pilots. Although the characteristics of their jobs are different, but these occupations have two common characteristics. Firstly, the members of the profession are expected to show their proficiency in creating the best products that serve society. Second, the members will apply their specialized knowledge in a spirit of service; that is, they must use their good expertise to treat the trust of their clients and bring great benefits to the community, even if those actions opposite to their personal interests. Recognizing the importance of these goals in preserving the integrity of the profession, many professional organizations have 'self-regulation' their members of the organization by defining these duties in their professional code of conduct. Because the codes are voluntary, so for effective they must be got agree to comply by professionals. Recognizing the gap in this issue, most professions organizations in the United States and other countries have sought to strengthen self-regulation with mandatory licenses. But unfortunately, self-regulating rights and responsibilities are not without moral challenges. Despite the duty to build solid trust from clients more and more, licensees empowered to make decisions may be tempted by their personal interests.

In conclusion, let's imagine that if our society does not exist the rules of professional ethics, what would it be like? The trust between people does not exist, the world is really chaotic, and whether humankind make the great innovation as we are seeing? Surely, we will not witness the achievements of scientific and technological development like today. So, as the title of this essay, I want to emphasize the importance of professional ethics, help us build strong trust with each other, willing to adjust for proper with reality. From that foundation, humanity will be increasing prosperity.

Works cited

• Christopher, Meyers. The Professional Ethics Toolkit. Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
• “Self-Regulation Is Not without Ethical Challenges.” American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), https://www.asce.org/question-of-ethics-articles/dec-2014/.
• Nguyen, Steve. “Creating an Ethical Organizational Culture.” Workplace Psychology, 6 Apr. 2017, https://workplacepsychology.net/2011/02/14/creating-an-ethical-organizational-culture/.