Ethics are defined as the rules of conduct recognised in respect to a particular class of human actions of a particular group or culture or professional context.
If ethics guide our professional practice how does this relate to our own personal morals?
Morals can be defined as principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct. While morals also prescribe dos and don’ts, morality is ultimately a personal compass of right and wrong.
This means that within society as a whole we will have great diversity in relation to morals and of course this will be seen within a workplace or profession.
Ethical thinking or decision-making do not happen in isolation. They are affected by:
- our morals
- our values
- our specialisms within the sector.
It is often personal morals that guide our immediate responses and this needs to be taken into consideration during ethical decision-making.
The Code provides a framework to support ethical thinking in a structured way to help us take into consideration these elements, where appropriate, and enables us to put others aside.
This will be covered further in our final section – Change Making.