Abstract
In our study of ethics and the professions we focus on four themes: evolution of professions, the making of an ethical professional, the professional decision-making process, and whistle-blowing. These four themes cover all the activities of professional life. First we look at the beginnings of professions, describe the characteristics of professionals, and discuss how these characteristics are supported by commitment, integrity, responsibility, and accountability. We then describe the ways professionals are made: through both formal education and informal unstructured in-service. When professionals enter the work force, their duties involve decision making. We therefore look at the process of decision making, the problems involved, and the guilt felt about what are perceived as wrong decisions and how to avoid them. Professionals in their working environment encounter problems every day that require them to check in with their moral code. We focus on whistle-blowing as one of those areas that requires continual consultation with individual morality and discuss how it affects professions.
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Further Reading
Johansson, Conny, and Lennart Ohlsson. “An Attempt to Teach Professionalism in Engineering Education.”
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Kizza, J.M. (1998). Ethics and the Professions. In: Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age. Undergraduate Texts in Computer Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2950-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2950-4_3
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-2952-8
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