Identifying the ACA Code of Ethics for Counselors in Australia
A code of ethics is a set of guiding principles intended to help specialists perform themselves in the workplace honestly and morally. An organization’s mission and fundamental values, the professional standards to which they are held, how professionals should handle challenges and other topics may all be included in a code of ethics statement. For example, a social worker’s ethics will be considered through commitment in person or technology.
Ethical practices used in our community or the present world are a guideline for the root that needs to be followed to avoid conflict among members. A code of ethics includes topics like company ethics, a code of professional behavior, and a conduct policy for employees. Below are some of the ethical code practices: a compliance-based code of ethics, a value-based code of ethics, and a code of ethics among professionals.
Compliance-Based Codes of Ethics
In addition to establishing rules for behavior, compliance-based codes of ethics also specify the consequences of infractions. Specific regulations regulate company conduct in particular sectors, including the banking industry. These sectors create compliance-based codes of ethics to uphold rules and laws (Cothern, 2019). Typically, formal training is required for employees to learn the standards of behavior. Individual employees may experience consequences for breaking the rules since disobedience can result in legal concerns for the corporation.
Counselors are duty-bound to guarantee that the objectives and guiding aspects of the code of ethics are upheld. They are responsible for monitoring employee behavior to promote conformance and staying current on changes to regulation codes. Instead of focusing on individualized behavior monitoring, this code of ethics focuses on unambiguous guidelines and well-defined penalties. Some compliance-based codes of behavior do not foster a culture of ethical obligation within the organization despite rigorous conformity to the law.
Value-Based Codes of Ethics
On the value-based code of ethics, a company’s fundamental values are addressed by a code of ethics founded on values. It might include guidelines for appropriate behavior regarding the environment and general welfare. Ethical rules based on values rather than compliance may require more self-control (Lavie Dinur et al., 2021). Some rules of conduct include wording that speaks to both values and compliance. For instance, a chain of grocery stores may establish a code of conduct that emphasizes the importance of health and safety laws to the business over profit. The supermarket giant can also claim that it won’t work with vendors that provide hormones to cattle or raise creatures in terrible ways.
Professional Codes of Ethics
Finally, regarding ethics among different professionals, specific regulations govern codes of ethics and behavior for some professions, like those in the financial or medical areas. Even though certified public accountants are not commonly considered fiduciaries to their customers, they are nonetheless expected to adhere to the same moral principles, including honesty, objectivity, integrity, and avoiding conflicts of interest. A fiduciary duty is an ethical standard for financial advisors certified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or a state regulator. In addition to being required by law, they are bound by a code of devotion to operate in their client’s best interests.
The Role and Value of the ACA Code of Ethics in the Counseling Profession
Ethical Values
Moral functions provide a set of rules that all professionals are expected to follow. Ethical values are essential as the profession must meet the basic compliance requirement by proving the legal standards and obligations. Ethical values are morals and discipline, explaining what is morally good and evil or right and wrong (McNamara et al., 2018). Values express general ethical commitment that underpins our actions’ purpose and goals.
The moral values include respecting human rights and dignity. Everyone is expected to create space in their lives, ensuring no harm will happen to them. Discovering personal distress and suffering, helped by the human service profession, must prevent early death caused by stress and depression that is not happening to particular community members. Enhancing people’s well-being and capabilities means that people are motivated concerning what they do, which will improve how they present their results.
Ethical values improve the quality of relationships (Whittlestone et al., 2019). People can interact freely, helping each other and even sharing ideas in decision-making. It facilitates the sense of self that is so helpful to people regarding their personal and cultural way.
That is, people can acquire a sense of belonging as a particular and being accepted in their community. Appreciating human experience and culture will build up their morale as community members. Ethical values will enhance the quality of professional knowledge and how it applies in our present world. Finally, they help strive for fair and adequate provision of services so people are treated equally.
Ethical Roles
Ethical roles are the attention to the essential ethical responsibilities of ethical practices. They tell those acting on behalf of the organization how to conduct themselves. The honorable profession should be trustworthy by honoring the trust between the work and clients. It is the role of ethical practice professionals to have autonomy. It is the act of respect for clients to self-govern and self-govern their bosses. Members are given a chance to choose what is expected of them.
Ethical Practices
Ethical practices enhance the action of beneficence committed to promoting the client’s well-being. That provides a favorable environment for the client where they are free and have open minds when deciding what is best for them. It is the role of ethical practices to protect clients from harm. Suppose they sense an occurrence of the risk, professionals ensure that immediate action has to be taken (Whittlestone et al., 2019). A good ethics code is responsible for ensuring that justice is upheld. It should provide free and impartial treatment and adequate services to all clients. Moreover, ethical practices ensure they uplift the self-respect of their clients. That is, fostering the practitioner’s self-knowledge, integrity, and care for oneself.
Strengths and Limitations of the ACA Code of Ethics in Community Practice
On the strength of ethical practices, they have helped maintain the integrity of an excellent ethical code in our community to clarify the need for honesty in their work. An example is placing the integrity of the investment profession and clients’ interests above their interests. Ensuring they adhere to the required standard of professional behavior, where ethical practices will articulate the importance of the organization to the workers and the leaders.
The Code of Ethics has become a guide and a place to retrieve the required information for the employees that support day-to-day activities. Ethical practices help empower employees to handle the ethical problems they encounter (Whittlestone et al., 2019). Ethical Code is compliance; the legislation expects an individual serving in the organization and the leaders of public firms to implement their Code adequately.
Being a follower of law and ethical codes helps understand what is right and wrong, clearly defining the behavior that all employees are respected for. Workers are given equal access to advancement opportunities, and the workplace becomes a better place to nurture employees. In addition, ethical practices increase employee morale and recruit new employees.
However, a code of ethics raises the public’s desire for an organization to a limit that may be unattainable, where employees struggle to maintain the firm’s performance when making new rules. Ethical practices’ limitations include higher costs because businesses are forced to source resources from a fair trade rather than the lowest prices (Morley et al., 2020). This will only result in smaller profits as the professional Code of ethics restricts business people from maximizing profit in favor of what is best for clients.
Moreover, for instance, businesspeople end up taking much of their time establishing good interactions with the clients instead of making sales, which is not fair as it may lead to the closure of their businesses. They would find themselves working on attainable goals like respecting their employees rather than working on their performance. A professional code of ethics may cause employees’ production to go down as they focus on creating a happy environment rather than the result and the work standard of the business.
In addition, ethical code practices have a high overhead, which means training and communicating an honest policy is costly. Developing and implementing an open program within the organization is very expensive, and much time is spent. From time to time, ethics needs to be continually updated to reflect changes in work rules and the organization’s culture as it grows and more resources are required.
Reflecting on a Key Ethical Theme and Its Connection to My Emerging Student Identity
The common theme in the Code of Ethics is being involved in the client’s welfare. Professionals should ensure that their clients are free from discrimination and enhance proportionality; harm should be proportional to gains, and action should be taken if anything arises (Tseng, 2020). In addition, clients are given chances to participate fully in the organization by presenting their grievances or contributing to decision-making. It is the responsibility of the ethics of codes to ensure that the client is in the safe hands of their suppliers, that they are not overtaxed, and that the products are of good quality.
The human services profession is expected to be fully available to their need. A human services professional refers to those who hold a job in the homes of correctional, intellectual disabilities, and standard mental health organizations (Sage, 2018). Human service professionals also govern family, child, and youth service agencies. The purpose of these health service professionals is to assist individuals and communities in functioning effectively.
Human resource service professionals should strongly desire to help people; that is their core character. With the help of ethical code practices, human service’s most emerging student identity has fueled the need to help those in need. People want to join the human service profession no matter the commitment or how dangerous it could be. They need to join others to assist people experiencing poverty, people with disabilities, older people, and those who are depressed.
The central theme of the compliance-based code of ethics is human service workers adhering to the rules governing them. In most scenarios, compliance-based ethics have failed to give adequate training to us, the human services workers, which has been challenging to do according to the rules and regulations of the organization. Sometimes, I felt bored and did not meet the required obligations as a service worker.
Counselors on the guidelines are becoming harsh on us; they are not questionable about anything, creating a challenging working environment. Instead of the counselors focusing on individual behavior, you will find that they are more interested in the penalties that would fall on us upon breaking the rule. It has been difficult for me to attend to my professional work duty and ensure that I am maintaining the organization’s rules.
As a human service worker, I will try as much as possible to build my experience in this profession to avoid conflicting with counselors on issues of not acquiring adequate training. I would acquire training by earning a degree as a human service specialist, which will make it easier for me to capture the organization’s rules. No matter the unfavorable environment created by my rulers, I need to work on developing empathy for others. That is, understanding the needs of my clients and avoiding being controlled by anger that would make me lose morale in my job.
Therefore, having a compliance-based code of ethics, value-based code of ethics, and ethics among different professionals, among other ethical practices, is evident that a clear code of ethics should be followed to maintain a good relationship between the clients and the human service profession. This is because it will be easy for human service workers to feel the urge to work for the intended people without fear of insecurity, boredom, and many others. The workers ensure they are acquiring adequate training to avoid conflicts with their rulers.
References
Cothern, C. R. (2019). An overview of environmental risk decision making: Values, perceptions, and ethics. Handbook for Environmental Risk Decision Making, 37-67. Web.
Lavie Dinur, A., Aharoni, M., & Karniel, Y. (2021). Safe online ethical Code for and by the “net generation”: Themes emerging from school students’ wisdom of the crowd. Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society, 19(1), 129-145. Web.
McNamara, A., Smith, J., & Murphy-Hill, E. (2018). Does ACM’s Code of ethics change ethical decision-making in software development? Proceedings of the 2018 26th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering. Web.
Morley, J., Machado, C. C., Burr, C., Cowls, J., Joshi, I., Taddeo, M., & Florida, L. (2020). The ethics of AI in health care: A mapping review. Social Science & Medicine, 260, 113172. Web.
Sage. (2018). International association of marriage and family counselors ethics code. The Family Journal, 26(1), 5–10. Web.
Tseng, L. (2020). Company–customer conflicts and ethical decision-making of life insurance agents: The role of ethics institutionalization. Managerial Finance, 46(9), 1145–1163. Web.
Whittlestone, J., Nyrup, R., Alexandrova, A., & Cave, S. (2019). The role and limits of principles in AI ethics. Proceedings of the 2019 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society. Web.