Values refer to the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide our behavior and decision-making. They shape our attitudes and actions, influencing how we interact with others and the world around us. Ethics, on the other hand, encompasses the moral principles that govern our conduct, distinguishing between right and wrong behavior. It involves adhering to standards of honesty, integrity, fairness, and respect for others.
Being ethical is crucial alongside professional competence as it fosters trust, credibility, and reputation. In any professional setting, individuals are expected to uphold ethical standards to ensure the welfare of stakeholders and maintain the integrity of their work. Ethical behavior promotes accountability and transparency, contributing to a positive work culture and sustainable relationships with clients, colleagues, and the broader community. Ultimately, integrating ethical principles into professional practice not only enhances individual success but also strengthens the foundation of organizations and society as a whole.
Tag: Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in-human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics – in private and public relationships. Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers, and administrators; role of family society and educational institutions in inculcating values.
Decoding the Question:
- In Introduction, try to start with the definition of ethics and values.
- In Body, highlight the Importance to Be Ethical Along with Being Professionally Competent.
- In Conclusion, try to give examples of ethics with being professionally competent like Hippocratic oaths by doctors etc.
Answer:
Values and Ethics are often used interchangeably. However, there does exist a distinction between the two. Anything we see or experience around us is viewed and interpreted in terms of some preconceived ideas/values. Values are the yardsticks which help in measuring the desirability or undesirability of any act, behaviour or practice. Due to this nature of the values, there can be some universal values that are admired by all cultures and societies.
Ethics, on the other hand, are the socially acceptable principles that define what is good-bad, moral-immoral, and desirable-undesirable in a particular society. Ethics, in this context, becomes the manifestation of the different values in human society. Ethical principles are altered to different shades to suit the human purpose, and achieve its goals. Therefore, while values are, more or less, universal in character, ethical principles are custom made by every society to serve the interest of the individuals living under its framework.
Importance to Be Ethical Along with Being Professionally Competent:
- Part of ethics which covers the personal and job-related standards of behaviour expected of professionals is known as Professional Ethics. Ethical along with being professionally competent and professional ethics are two terms for one rationality.
- Professionalism is the attributes, behaviours, commitments, values, and goals that characterize a profession and makes a person competent. The development of professional ethics is a long-term process to be achieved through appropriate value education.
- As profession is only a subset of the life activities, the competence in profession is the manifestation of one’s right understanding. The salient features characterizing these competencies would then be:
- Clarity about the comprehensive human goal.
- Confidence in oneself as well as confidence in the harmony, coexistence, and self- regulation prevailing in entire existence based on the right understanding of oneself and the rest of existence.
- Competence of mutually fulfilling behaviour, clarity, and confidence in ethical human conduct and its correlation with sustainable personal as well as collective happiness and prosperity.
- Competence of mutually enriching interaction with nature, ability to assess the needs for physical facilities for the family, and their fulfillment through production/ service systems ensuring harmony in nature.
- Competence of actualizing one’s understanding of real life.
Professionals possess and use specialized knowledge and skill. The manner of using such knowledge while providing a service to the public is considered a moral issue. Professionals can make informed judgments in various situations based on their skills. The general public is unable to make such decisions for want of relevant training. One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is the Hippocratic oath to which medical doctors’ stills adhere to this day.
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