Professionalism: Exploring Ethics, Dilemmas, and Informed Consent

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of professionalism, beginning with a definition rooted in specialized knowledge and experience, as highlighted by Sir William Shaw. It distinguishes between the common understanding of a 'professional' and the more rigorous definition, emphasizing the importance of certification and expertise. The essay then explores ethical and moral dilemmas, providing examples and differentiating between them. A key focus is on informed consent, particularly in the workplace, stressing its legal and ethical significance. The essay concludes by underscoring the role of ethics in shaping individual character and guiding conduct, with a focus on duties, obligations, and fairness. The essay also emphasizes the moral obligations that professionals have to the society. The provided references are from Shaw and Barry's book 'Moral Issues in Business'. The essay covers topics such as ethical dilemmas, informed consent, and the responsibilities of professionals.

Running head: PROFESSIONALISM
Professionalism
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1PROFESSIONALISM
According to Sir William Shaw, a professional is a person who has achieved a
specialized knowledge that is usually gained through years of experience in university study or
forms of larger group, and continuing professional development (Shaw & Barry, 2015). Due to
high field experience, they treasure fundamental knowledge in certain aspect of business domain
such as statisticians, physicists or researchers of any specific field.
In everyday life, the term ‘Professional’ is normally used for having a particular
profession that is chosen to earn livelihood as a permanent career. The person who is engaged in
certain kind of activity through which he is receiving financial returns are said to be as
professional. However, an actual ‘professional’ is different from our common sense of
understanding. As said in Shaw’s book of ‘Moral Issues in Business’, a professional is someone
who is formally certified by a professional body by virtue of having achieved an acclaimed level
of proficiency in a trade (Shaw & Barry, 2015). They treasure fundamental knowledge in certain
aspect of business domain such as statistics, physicists or researching etc. He is a professional in
proper sense.
According to Shaw’s definition the best example of a ‘professional’ is- When a customer
comes to an accountant for financial advice, the professional is the accountant on whose
knowledge; the customer is relying for his cause. Similarly, when a patient goes to a doctor for
his health crisis, the professional is the doctor on whose specialized medical knowledge the
patient is relying for his cause.
A footballer and a golfer are also said to be a professional but they do not meet the
criteria of Sir William Shaw’s definition of ‘professional’. They are paid for undertaking a
specialized set of tasks and they complete them for fee. It is not mandatory for them to be
certified by any professional body or to have a high field experience in university study. It is
their talent in the specific field they are been paid for and they are known by the name of
‘professional footballer’ and ‘professional golfer’.
Professionals too have special moral obligations that exceed those of ordinary individuals
(Shaw & Barry, 2015). The reason behind it is professional are the experts in certain field and
their work has the ability to influence either negatively or positively. This provides them the
advantage over the ordinary people and society depends on professional’s specialized knowledge

2PROFESSIONALISM
(Shaw & Barry, 2015). For example, people seeks advice from professional teachers for their
children, they takes advice from professional doctors when they are sick. This reliance creates a
special kind of ‘social contract, between the professional and the society and hence, bringing
with its moral obligations.
A dilemma is a situation in which a person find himself difficult to choose between the
given alternatives. It is usually the time when a difficult choice is to be made among the ones
that are more or less equally undesirable. It is a situation, which has the potential to challenge an
agreeable solution. They are three types of dilemmas including ethical, classic and moral. In the
workplace, people often face ethical and more or less moral dilemmas. An ethical dilemma can
be- taking credit for other person’s work, or conducting any personal business during company
time. However, moral dilemma is a situation where a person gets confused between the right and
the wrong (Shaw & Barry, 2015).
An Informed consent is a legal and ethical requirement for research and it involves
human participants. It is a process where the participant is manually informed about all the
different aspects of trial that are important for him to make the decision. After studying all the
aspects of the trial, he voluntarily confirms willingness to participate or not. It implies
deliberation and free choice.
An employee must be provided with all significant facts related to the information
gathering procedure and understand its consequences. When the worker who has agreed to abide
by a workplace policy not have given informed consent they might look for work elsewhere
(Shaw & Barry, 2015). It is very important for the company to give their employee informed
consent and employees must understand what they are working to. They must be allowed to
proceed based on sufficient usable information (Shaw & Barry, 2015). Free choice is very
important.
Ethics deals with individual character and the moral rule that govern and sets a limit to
his conduct. The main purpose of ethics is to investigate the questions about duties and
obligations, fairness and unfairness, right and wrongs, justice and injustice, and the principles
and values that should guide a person (Shaw & Barry, 2015).

3PROFESSIONALISM
References
Shaw, W. H & Barry V. (2015). Moral Issues In Business. Cengage Learning.
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