Social Work: Ethical Standards, Values, and Professional Practice

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of ethical considerations within the field of social work. It begins by defining ethical standards and their significance, emphasizing the importance of core values and diversity in professional practice. The essay explores the concept of values, differentiating between personal, professional, and family values, and discusses how these are acquired through primary and secondary socialization. Key ethical values such as service, integrity, social justice, the significance of human relationships, and competence are examined in detail, including real-world examples of anti-discrimination cases. The essay also addresses the impact of discrimination, the importance of adhering to laws and regulations, and the role of diversity in promoting harmony. It highlights the core values of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), and the challenges social workers face in meeting ethical guidelines, concluding with a summary of the importance of ethics in social work activities and practices.

SOCIAL WORK
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Table of contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Understanding values.................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Ethical standards are considered to be standards belonging to our environment which are
acceptable to almost all the people. Usually, ethical standards are considered to be the matter
of ‘good’ that is accepted by the majority of the people and do not contain any constraints of
rules as well as regulations. Thinking ethically would involve intricacy of the process to
develop ethical standards in order to consider impacts of actions performed by one on
institutions or the individuals which are being served. The essay would certainly discuss
about the positive as well as negative effects of ethical considerations at any organisation
where the significance of core values and diversity is sincerely discussed.
Understanding values
In words of Efendiev, et al. (2016, p.53), through the study about ethics, it might be
understood that values denote degree of significance relating to something or some action
along with the goal or objective of determining the nature of actions that seem to be the best
to survive and to describe the importance of several actions. Values are supposed to deal with
good life as well as right conduct in the context of high valuable action that might be
regarded as ‘good’ in an ethical way. On the other hand, some actions might be considered to
be ‘bad’ in the context of ethics. In the opinions provided by Amernic and Craig (2013,
p.393), values are eventually defined as wide preferences which are concerned with proper
courses of outcomes or actions. They are acquired by reflecting the sense of doing ‘right’ or
‘wrong’ in an individual. Values ought to influence the behaviour and attitudes of the human
beings. Values are acquired differently with different prospects. For instance, family values
are acquired by the learning received from one’s family, professional values determine the
way of conduct and behaviour at a workplace while personal values relate to maintain
cultural as well as social values.
In the observations of Cech (2014, p.71), primary as well as secondary socialisation are the
ways through which values could be learnt. Primary socialisation could be regarded as initial
socialisation that implies the reactions of a child and the way he or she behaves or talk within
a society considering the medium as family members. As per the suggestions of Hookway
(2015, p.283), secondary socialisation could be defined as the type of socialisation which
occurs at the period or duration of school years or the adolescent years. It usually happens
through non-family influence and both the categories of specialisation are significant in its
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own ways. Through primary specialisation, it could be stated that at the stage of infancy,
children are prone to imitate the things usually done by their parents and they catch up the
reactions frequently. They become able to pick up traditions, behaviours and might know
about their expectations through indirect as well as direct interaction with them.
According to the suggestions of Petersen (2013, p.269), once these children reach secondary
stage, they do not easily accept the things to be ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ and they have a tendency to
deviate from their doings or thinking about each of the activities. This happens, since,
children accept unconditionally about their receipt of things but at secondary socialisation
stage, this might not happen. Hence, secondary socialisation tends to be more problematic.
During this stage, children are subjected to make decisions on their own and implement them
in a right way. They are eventually required to make their choices and decide to which social
circles they fit in as the best. Peers as well as teachers would not be ready to accept any
individual who is in his or her adolescence stage, unconditionally. Therefore, he or she needs
to get socially acceptable by making right choices and decisions.
As per the view points of Campbell and Göritz (2014, p.310), the core values that are
required to be present in ethics would include- service, integrity, social justice, significance
of human relationships, and competence. Each of the value is important and holds a firm base
in its own way. Service is regarded as the activity any individual is doing is supposed to be
completed without any breach of activity. Developing and improving of potentialities along
with excelling of skills would significantly develop the ability of doing that activity or task.
As discussed by Amernic and Craig (2013, p.393), social justice is considered to be fair terms
that must be present in any work of any individual. The elements such as equality of scope
and opportunity, relevant participation in making decisions, managing resources as well as
promote sensitivities among the working individuals are necessarily involved in ‘social
justice’.
The Anti discriminatory case studies speak up on these case studies of cases acted in court
law on the basis of discrimination. According to DOH (Department of Health) website of
UK, discrimination was leading to occur chronic poverty which led to mental distress among
the people suffering from it. Suitable policies have been framed to support anti-
discrimination in order to eradicate discrimination among the rich and poor (www.gov.uk,
2016). As per Hegde (2014, p.416), impact of discrimination might include mental stress
among the people who encounters it and increases their depression phases. They lose their
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confidence among themselves and fail to get mingle with other people. People who are
sufferers of discrimination might even lose their self respect and communication abilities
with others.
In view of this act the case study of Henry who is invisible is taken into account. Feasibility
of Henry Cavil the chances of his visiting to school in time as most of the time Henry were in
pain. It was in the beginning of time when Henry was not provided with suitable bus services
from home to school. The parents of Henry filed against the school authority by the parents
of Henry demanding equal rights for the for the disabled child attribute. A tribune was
formed, the school authority was do you as long and they were forced to provide school was
for Henry to reach school within time without any pain or minimising of the pain.
The shallows demonstrated above explain the importance of pertaining to law and regulation
in the society. The objective of the anti discriminatory law is to make the society a better
place to live in. The equal opportunity law have describe the importance of providing equal
opportunity to every people in the society so that they can assured the society with better
support and care in future with their own skill and knowledge.
The diverse nature of the society we live in promotes Brotherhood and harmony among each
other. This official support from the workers members and Society people have resulted in
better caring and sharing of the people in the society. The diverse nature in the society have
never brought into issues of violence or bit understanding. Thus, harmony in diversity has
been the prime Motto in the society I live in. Diversity has some beneficial qualities such as –
integration, tolerance, different culture and societal support. Simultaneously, bad qualities
include involves such as segregation, equal opportunities, conflict and racism.
As per the observations of SOROKIN (2016, p.329), the value of signifying human
relationships lies underneath explaining the worth of relationships among the human beings
such a parent to a child, a brother to a wife or a wife to her husband. Professional
relationships are also important and hence this value helps to notifying human beings about
their gesture and attitude towards others. In the findings of Zhang and Sun (2014, p.83),
integrity, it can be understood that, socialism include unit among the individuals performing
equivalent tasks. It implies workers or individuals must be aware of their activities in order to
understand ethical principles, values, mission of the work as well as the standards of ethics
identifying practices in a consistent way. Finally, competence helps the individuals to
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enhance and improve the professional expertise of individuals. In order to illustrate this value
of ethics, one must obtain adequate and proper knowledge about social work.
According to the BASW ethical codes, human beings possess intrinsic value and hence
values are too impactful on them. In the words of Brosnan et al. (2013, p.1147), every
activity carried out by any individual is supposed to contain some ethical behaviour and
conduct. The social workers fail to meet the guidelines as prescribed by BASW due to the
reasons such as- heavy work pressure which makes them unable to meet the needs and
expectations of everyone, emotional breakdown and mental pressure that leads to stress
factors among the individuals. As per the visions and notions of BASW, the values that are
possessed by the people are simply reflection of being people and do not depend on
usefulness. While undertaking any social work or activity, the core values are needed to be
considered, since they form the base of the ethics. As per the opinions of the members of
BASW, the significance of knowledge for understanding the core values are required for
undertaking the social work. The features of core values include sophistication, soberness,
idealisation, unity and integrity, honesty and motivation.
The emotion gets into the way of smooth operation of the organization. The providing of the
supporting needs of the organization gets hampered with the rise in the close emotion of the
society (Pickersgill, 2013, p.41). Time scales and the social workers mentality acts as the
prime aspect I the functioning disorder in the organisation.
Conclusion
The study therefore, entails about certain well stated facts about ethics and values required to
undertake social activities. Even core values and their features are necessary in order to
perform any social activity. Different learning styles of values have been evaluated in the
study. Use of ethical standards in anti-discriminatory as well as equal opportunity practices
have been presented as well.
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References
Amernic, J. and Craig, R., (2013). Leadership discourse, culture, and corporate ethics: CEO-
speak at news corporation. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(2), pp.379-394.
Amernic, J. and Craig, R., (2013). Leadership discourse, culture, and corporate ethics: CEO-
speak at news corporation. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(2), pp.379-394.
Brosnan, C., Cribb, A., Wainwright, S.P. and Williams, C., (2013). Neuroscientists’ everyday
experiences of ethics: the interplay of regulatory, professional, personal and tangible ethical
spheres. Sociology of health & illness, 35(8), pp.1133-1148.
Campbell, J.L. and Göritz, A.S., (2014). Culture corrupts! A qualitative study of
organizational culture in corrupt organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 120(3), pp.291-
311.
Cech, E.A., (2014). Culture of disengagement in engineering education?. Science,
Technology, & Human Values, 39(1), pp.42-72.
Efendiev, A.G., Balabanova, E.S. and Sorokin, P.S., (2016). Identity and professional culture
of Russian sociology: a bibliometric analysis. Sociological Studies, 3(3), pp.45-54
Hegde, S., (2014). Invoking sociology at University of Lucknow (1921–75) Framing
considerations. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 48(3), pp.409-417.
Hookway, N., (2015). Moral decline sociology: Critiquing the legacy of Durkheim. Journal
of Sociology, 51(2), pp.271-284.
Petersen, A., (2013). From bioethics to a sociology of bio-knowledge. Social Science &
Medicine, 98, pp.264-270.
Pickersgill, M.D., (2013). From ‘implications’ to ‘dimensions’: science, medicine and ethics
in society. Health Care Analysis, 21(1), pp.31-42.
SOROKIN, P., (2016). Ethically responsible Global Sociology: conceptual framing of a new
vision. FILOSOFIJA. SOCIOLOGIJA, 27(4), pp.323-330.
Zhang, X. and Sun, D., (2014). The Path of Constructing the Localization of Environmental
Ethics in China. Studies in Sociology of Science, 5(2), p.83.
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www.gov.uk (2016) Gov.UK Available at: https://www.gov.uk/dfid-research-outputs/policy-
responses-to-discrimination-and-their-contribution-to-tackling-chronic-poverty [Accessed on
14 Jan 2017]
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