Code of Ethics in Humanitarian and Community Services

This article discusses the importance of a code of ethics in the field of humanitarian and community services. It explores how a code of ethics helps protect client rights, resolve ethical dilemmas, and ensure the delivery of superior quality professional services. The role and function of the code of ethics in the community services industry are also examined.

Running Head: HUMANITARIAN AND COMMUNITIES
Humanitarian and Communities
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HUMANITARIAN AND COMMUNITIES
Discuss why your code of ethics is part of the philosophy of the degree you are currently
pursuing.
Provide an overview of the ‘role and function’ of the Code of Ethics specific to your
profession or field of study.
According to Dutelle and Taylor (2017), the code of ethics is a set of principles which are
designed to support the professionals to conduct the business with integrity and honesty. It is a
document which may outline the values and mission of a particular organization. It delineates the
standards of ethics, a professional should approach and align with the principles of the
organization. It may encompass the codes of business ethics, the employee code of conduct and
the code of professional practice too as suggested by Guishard et al.,(2018). The importance of
having a fixed code of conduct is highly important for a business. A code serves both as an
internal and external guideline for maintaining the corporate commitment and values. A code
serves three most important purposes such as the compliance with the legislation, the functioning
as a public statement and reducing the financial risk connected with the ethical misconduct.
I am pursuing my bachelors in humanitarian and community services which teaches to
assist people and communities in need. The humanitarian and community service are for the
homeless, the natural disaster victims, the famine victims and the refugees. It responds to the
humanitarian crisis and the primary objective is to save the lives, maintain the human dignity and
alleviate suffering. On the other hand, the community services are a set of works which are done
by a group of people, that benefits others. It helps the people in need such as senior citizen,
children, disabled people and others. The community services also include the improvement of
the environment and supporting the low-income people in the society.

2HUMANITARIAN AND COMMUNITIES
I believe that the code of ethics are a part of the humanitarian and community services
because it helps us to protect the rights of the clients while delivering the services irrespective of
the personal values, attitudes and beliefs. It further allows us to utilize appropriate problem-
solving techniques during facing competing value system along with discussing the potential
ethical issues.
The role and function of the “code of ethics” in the community services ensures that the
clients receive a superior quality professional service by the workers in the community service.
The ethical dilemmas are resolved by the ethical guidelines containing the professional values as
per the views of Menzel (2016). It functions in the best possible way when value conflicts occur
between the workers and the clients. In the community service industry, unethical practices are a
critical topic. According to Vitak, Shilton and Ashktorab (2016),the code of ethics allows the
clients to make their choices in order to gain independence. Hence, it empowers the clients who
can make decisions about their own lives in an ethical manner. Therefore, in the field of
humanitarian and community services, it should be the fundamental practice of all the workers as
per my own understanding of the topic.

3HUMANITARIAN AND COMMUNITIES
Reference
Dutelle, A. W., & Taylor, R. S. (2017). Ethics for the public service professional. Crc Press.
Guishard, M. A., Halkovic, A., Galletta, A., & Li, P. (2018). Toward epistemological ethics:
Centering communities and social justice in qualitative research. In Forum Qualitative
Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (Vol. 19, No. 3, p. 24). DEU.
Menzel, D. C. (2016). State of the art of empirical research on ethics and integrity in governance.
In Ethics in public management (pp. 24-54). Routledge.
Vitak, J., Shilton, K., & Ashktorab, Z. (2016, February). Beyond the Belmont principles: Ethical
challenges, practices, and beliefs in the online data research community. In Proceedings
of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social
Computing (pp. 941-953). ACM.