Professional responsibility

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Professional responsibility is a set of duties within the concept of professional ethics for those who exercise a unique set of knowledge and skill as professionals. [1]

Contents

Professional responsibility applies to those professionals making judgments, applying their unique skills, and reaching informed decisions for, or on behalf, of others, as professionals. [2] Professionals must be seen to exercise due care and responsibility in their areas of specialisation – known as professions.

What makes professionals unique, is that the general public would not ordinarily be expected to know in detail the skills and knowledge of a profession independently. [3]

In a modern context, professional responsibility encompasses an array of the personal, corporate, and humanitarian standards of behaviour, as expected by clients, fellow professionals, and professional bodies. [4]

Origins and History

Professional responsibility historically applied to secularly taught professions including medicine, law, and divinity – or religion. [5] The origins of this phrase date back to 1695, with the aforementioned split of the concept into three areas. [6] The term continued to evolve alongside generally accepted responsibilities for professionals to become all-encompassing as it accommodated new emerging professions in modern societies. [7]

Code of Medical Ethics for the AMA, written by Thomas Percival AMA Code of Medical Ethics.png
Code of Medical Ethics for the AMA, written by Thomas Percival

In the earlier history of the phrase ‘professional responsibility’, Thomas Percival (1740-1804) published one of the most notable professional codes for medical ethics, specifically for practising physicians in the United States governing their professional responsibilities as practitioners. [8] Percival was also accomplished in founding one of the first known professional responsibility codes to be adopted by a professional body: The American Medical Association (AMA). [9]

More recently, modern professionals and their networks continue to adopt the various codes of professional responsibility to suit their evolving modern professions. Research has shown that through implementation of common behavioural standards, the likelihood of interpersonal conflict decreases where honour and respect is encouraged. [10] Professional responsibility acts as an organisational framework permitting professionals to assert practical independence in their fields, away from nominal employers, by way of service to their clients. [11]

Implementation

Professional responsibility is typically implemented by an organisation or institution’s management, through what is commonly referred to as a code of ethics or similar guiding document of standards. [12] A code of ethics sets out principles and rules to assist professionals and organisations to govern their implementation of the ideals of professional responsibility. [13] A code of ethics also establishes a general idea of the ethical standards for businesses or other organizations.

Because professionals are persons conducting unique skills in their career of choice, ethics, responsibility guidelines and professional responsibility principles, should be applied simultaneously through organisations professionals work within, but also implemented in the individual’s character, demeanour, and personal life. [14] Professional responsibility is implemented to assess the moral dimension of human activity in occupations that have professional status, concerned with the moral conduct and standards governing the profession and its members. [15]

Professional responsibility is defined by professional accepted standards of personal behaviour, moral values, and personal guiding principles. [16] Codes for professional responsibility may be established by professional bodies or organizations to guide members in performing functions to a consistent ethical set of principles. [17] In the rapidly globalised world, developments in technology for many occupations in different fields, mean that professionals must pay particular attention to this rapid growth.

Professional responsibility helps professionals to choose how to react to problems, by making choices and other approaches, drawing on perspectives through professional ethics. These perspectives can be reached through virtues, values, rules, other ethical theories, moral stances, moral decisions and moral compasses. [18]

Common Competencies of Professional Responsibility

Professional responsibility should be implemented through several components as general guidance for members of professional bodies. These competencies include:

Industry Examples

Legal professionals and associates of the legal profession are bound by general codes of ethics, with governing principals of client privilege, confidentiality, completeness, and professional courtesy. This professions’ responsibilities vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but generally form a similar perspective internationally. [19]

The Medical Profession

The American Medical Association imposes its code of ethics on practising medical professionals in the USA, which discusses issues ranging from workplace interpersonal relationships with staff, to the handling of critical information regarding patient care. Internationally, medical professionals often take the Hippocratic Oath, an oath of Greek origins, which encompasses the ‘first do not harm’ responsibility. [20]

The Business World

Businesses have codes of ethics to assist workers deducing whether behaviours would be considered appropriate or acceptable wherever dealing with clients and stakeholders. Some businesses will require their staff to attend recurring monthly or yearly training on business ethics. In some cases, employees may be required to sign declarations that they will adhere to the organisations ethical guidelines as laid out by the employer. [21]

Teachers and Education

Teachers and education professionals – such as those in tertiary institutions – often act as role models to students. Their code of ethics usually protects their students against mistreatment and protects the value of sharing knowledge through responsible communication. [22]

Common Responsibilities for Professions
LegalMedicalBusinessEducation

Confidentiality

Competence

Professional Courtesy

Trust

Do No Harm

Privacy

Integrity

Teamwork

Objectivity

Consideration

Growth

Communication

Examples of common violations in one field

Common violations in the legal include

Reports of violations will activate that profession's regulator to investigate and perhaps discipline the professional concerned.

In the United States

In U.S. law schools

Following the Watergate scandal, which involved questionable behavior by a number of lawyers, the American Bar Association ("ABA") mandated that all American law schools incorporate a required course on this topic. [23] This is typically offered as an upper-level course, most often taken in the second year. Professional responsibility courses include matters pertaining to basic legal ethics, as well as bar admissions, legal advertising, disbarment proceedings, ineffective assistance of counsel, and judicial misconduct.

Maynard Pirsig, published one of the first course books on legal ethics, Cases and Materials on Legal Ethics, 1949, later Cases and Materials on the Standards of the Legal Profession, 1957, and Cases and Materials on Professional Responsibility, 1965.

Maynard Pirsig also published the definition of legal ethics in Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974.

Examinations

Every state in the United States tests prospective attorneys on their knowledge of professional responsibility. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia require bar applicants to pass an exam called the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). The remaining three states test professional responsibility on their local bar examinations. Furthermore, the ABA promulgated the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. [24] [25] in 1983; when Maine adopted the model rules in August 2009, California became the only remaining U.S. jurisdiction not to have adopted the model rules in whole or in part. Most states have only minor variations from the model rules, if any. Attorneys who violate professional responsibility rules may be subject to sanctions ranging from reprimands to temporary suspension to permanent disbarment.

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Kun, Luis (May 2008). "Professional responsibility: politics, culture, and religion versus science and technology". IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology. 27 (3): 95–99. doi:10.1109/MEMB.2008.918695. ISSN   0739-5175. PMID   18519190 – via JSTOR.
  2. ↑ Solbrekke, Tone Dyrdal; Englund, Tomas (November 2011). "Bringing professional responsibility back in". Studies in Higher Education. 36 (7): 847–861. doi:10.1080/03075079.2010.482205. ISSN   0307-5079. S2CID   144219656.
  3. ↑ Lindgren, Joakim; Carlbaum, Sara; Hult, Agneta; Segerholm, Christina (2018-12-10). "Professional responsibility and accountability?: Balancing institutional logics in the enactment of new regulations and practices against bullying and degrading treatment in Swedish schools". Nordic Studies in Education. 38 (4): 368–385. doi:10.18261/issn.1891-2018-04-06. ISSN   1891-5949. S2CID   158295321.
  4. ↑ Demuijnck, Geert; Murphy, Patrick; Philosophy Documentation Center (2022). "Retail Practitioners' Views vs. Ideal Theoretical Positions Concerning Ethical Business Practices with Garment Suppliers". Business and Professional Ethics Journal. 41 (1): 59–92. doi:10.5840/bpej20211230114. ISSN   0277-2027. S2CID   245927006.
  5. ↑ "The Physician's Responsibility: An Important Decision on Professional Secrecy". JAMA. 324 (16): 1685. 2020-10-27. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.13675. ISSN   0098-7484. PMID   33107931. S2CID   225081821.
  6. ↑ "The Physician's Responsibility: An Important Decision on Professional Secrecy". JAMA. 324 (16): 1685. 2020-10-27. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.13675. ISSN   0098-7484. PMID   33107931. S2CID   225081821.
  7. ↑ Solbrekke, Tone Dyrdal; Englund, Tomas (November 2011). "Bringing professional responsibility back in". Studies in Higher Education. 36 (7): 847–861. doi:10.1080/03075079.2010.482205. ISSN   0307-5079. S2CID   144219656 – via JSTOR.
  8. ↑ Canney, Nathan E.; Bielefeldt, Angela R. (July 2016). "Validity and Reliability Evidence of the Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment Tool: The Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment Tool". Journal of Engineering Education. 105 (3): 452–477. doi:10.1002/jee.20124. S2CID   114786743.
  9. ↑ "The Physician's Responsibility: An Important Decision on Professional Secrecy". JAMA. 324 (16): 1685. 2020-10-27. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.13675. ISSN   0098-7484. PMID   33107931. S2CID   225081821.
  10. ↑ Jin, K. Gregory; Drozdenko, Ronald G. (March 2010). "Relationships among Perceived Organizational Core Values, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Organizational Performance Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Professionals". Journal of Business Ethics. 92 (3): 341–359. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0158-1. ISSN   0167-4544. S2CID   154379938.
  11. ↑ Solbrekke, Tone Dyrdal; Englund, Tomas (November 2011). "Bringing professional responsibility back in". Studies in Higher Education. 36 (7): 847–861. doi:10.1080/03075079.2010.482205. ISSN   0307-5079. S2CID   144219656 – via JSTOR.
  12. ↑ Demuijnck, Geert; Murphy, Patrick; Philosophy Documentation Center (2022). "Retail Practitioners' Views vs. Ideal Theoretical Positions Concerning Ethical Business Practices with Garment Suppliers". Business and Professional Ethics Journal. 41 (1): 59–92. doi:10.5840/bpej20211230114. ISSN   0277-2027. S2CID   245927006.
  13. ↑ Canney, Nathan E.; Bielefeldt, Angela R. (July 2016). "Validity and Reliability Evidence of the Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment Tool: The Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment Tool". Journal of Engineering Education. 105 (3): 452–477. doi:10.1002/jee.20124. S2CID   114786743.
  14. ↑ Solbrekke, Tone Dyrdal; Englund, Tomas (November 2011). "Bringing professional responsibility back in". Studies in Higher Education. 36 (7): 847–861. doi:10.1080/03075079.2010.482205. ISSN   0307-5079. S2CID   144219656.
  15. ↑ Canney, Nathan E.; Bielefeldt, Angela R. (July 2016). "Validity and Reliability Evidence of the Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment Tool: The Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment Tool". Journal of Engineering Education. 105 (3): 452–477. doi:10.1002/jee.20124. S2CID   114786743.
  16. ↑ Kun, Luis (May 2008). "Professional responsibility: politics, culture, and religion versus science and technology [Government Affairs]". IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine. 27 (3): 95–99. doi:10.1109/MEMB.2008.918695. ISSN   0739-5175. PMID   18519190.
  17. ↑ Solbrekke, Tone Dyrdal; Englund, Tomas (November 2011). "Bringing professional responsibility back in". Studies in Higher Education. 36 (7): 847–861. doi:10.1080/03075079.2010.482205. ISSN   0307-5079. S2CID   144219656.
  18. ↑ Lindgren, Joakim; Carlbaum, Sara; Hult, Agneta; Segerholm, Christina (2018-12-10). "Professional responsibility and accountability?: Balancing institutional logics in the enactment of new regulations and practices against bullying and degrading treatment in Swedish schools". Nordic Studies in Education. 38 (4): 368–385. doi:10.18261/issn.1891-2018-04-06. ISSN   1891-5949. S2CID   158295321.
  19. ↑ Jin, K. Gregory; Drozdenko, Ronald G. (March 2010). "Relationships among Perceived Organizational Core Values, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Organizational Performance Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Professionals". Journal of Business Ethics. 92 (3): 341–359. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0158-1. ISSN   0167-4544. S2CID   154379938.
  20. ↑ "The Physician's Responsibility: An Important Decision on Professional Secrecy". JAMA. 324 (16): 1685. 2020-10-27. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.13675. ISSN   0098-7484. PMID   33107931. S2CID   225081821.
  21. ↑ Demuijnck, Geert; Murphy, Patrick; Philosophy Documentation Center (2022). "Retail Practitioners' Views vs. Ideal Theoretical Positions Concerning Ethical Business Practices with Garment Suppliers". Business and Professional Ethics Journal. 41 (1): 59–92. doi:10.5840/bpej20211230114. ISSN   0277-2027. S2CID   245927006.
  22. ↑ Lindgren, Joakim; Carlbaum, Sara; Hult, Agneta; Segerholm, Christina (2018-12-10). "Professional responsibility and accountability?: Balancing institutional logics in the enactment of new regulations and practices against bullying and degrading treatment in Swedish schools". Nordic Studies in Education. 38 (4): 368–385. doi:10.18261/issn.1891-2018-04-06. ISSN   1891-5949. S2CID   158295321.
  23. ↑ American Bar Association (2015). "Standard 303, Curriculum". ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools 2015-2016 (PDF). Chicago: American Bar Association. p. 16. ISBN   978-1-63425-352-9 . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  24. ↑ Theodore Schneyer, "Professionalism as Politics: The Making of a Modern Legal Ethics Code," in Lawyers' Ideals/Lawyers' Practices: Transformations in the American Legal Profession, eds. Robert L. Nelson, David M. Trubek, & Rayman L. Solomon, 95–143 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 104.
  25. ↑ ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct (PDF).
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