Ethical Issues Diploma of Business

Question: Discuss about theEthical Issues for Diploma of Business. Answer: Introduction: This case study is based on my placement as a social worker in an agency. The case evolves a round a 3rd grade student of black aboriginal background who was referred to me for having behavioral problems that included fighting with his peers, paying less attention in class and disrespecting his teachers. Since the time he was at the age of 4, the student hand witnessed incidences of domestic violence in his family. The main concern here was that the student revealed a lot of confidential information with regard to his mothers boyfriend behavior of abusing his mother. The student reported to me cases of violence that he witnessed against his mother and how it made him feel after my assessment, I felt that it was good if I shared this information with authorities in school. The school later informed the students mom about it. I felt this was an ethical issue since the student mom was wary as to the kind of information his son would reveal to professionals (Association, 2001). Ethical Delima at Workplace Experienced In my case study I focused on the gathering and use of information as the main area of focus. This is because establishing services and confidentiality of users is very vital when it comes to providing the need or service from an employee (Bednarz Pawlak, 2011). However, even though the issue of confidentiality is mostly negotiated between the client and the service provider at an agreement meeting, I realized that there is usually a lot of ethical dilemmas when this is discussed. One of the areas is deciding whom one can share information with and the amount of information that needs to be shared. According to Budd Scoville (2005), when it comes to working with children services it becomes difficult for the provider to exercise proper confidentiality. This is because it can make the subject reveal issues with assurance of protection from breach of confidentiality. This calls for a professional to have to share this information with others in order to have an action taken regarding this. This discusses the fact that when it comes to child protection issue, promoting and safeguarding the welfare of the child is paramount at all times more than the issue of confidentiality. However when one looks at the code of ethics as it was the case in my previous placement agency policy on the issue of confidentiality, also advised me about my practice (Association, 2001). The act actually calls for agencies to have access to peoples information. It also dictates that this information should be kept safe and that a worker should only use such information for the purpose of serving the client or in the interest of the client. In this regard, it also means that if a clients information was to fall in to the wrong hands it could be used to harm the client or disregard is right to privacy and that of his family (Coninck, Chaturvedi, Haagsma, Griffioen, Glas, 2008). Personal data is also know to enforce some discriminatory and other offensive practices when the worker uses it to categ orize people when it comes to service delivery. Ethical Questions Raised With regard to my case study, the issue regarding confidentiality became a very big ethical Delima (Fisher, 2011). I began to question if it was wise for the school to have informed the students Mom what he shared. I also asked myself if I had broken the students trust and confidence when I informed the school about the issue. Was I also right to question the school authorities on why they decided to share the students information which his mom, after the referral was made by the school itself. These are the ethical questions that I asked myself before discussing with my professional mentor. I became aware regarding these ethical questions including conflicts of interest and how this would implicate my actions and my professional life. There was also another challenge that I would deal with if I did not share the information; which also meant that I was going to be responsible for my actions if there would be anything wrong (Fowler, 2010). I also felt that this might in a way become an issue leading to potential discrimination, for example the fact that the school also overlooked the effect their action had on the student. For example how this would affect the students relationship with his mother; this is because it so happened then the student would not be easy to deal with professionals in future (Bednarz Pawlak, 2011). Critical Analysis of Lessons Learnt After the evaluation of my actions, I became aware that my assumption about the case, could have been coming from my own base, beliefs, cultural and social background and also the agency code of conduct. According to Budd Scoville (2005), he looks at a contextual awareness as being achieved when elderly learning come to understand that their expectations are usually socially and personally created in a particular cultural and historical context (Bednarz Pawlak, 2011). This means that I ought to have been self-aware of the influences of my cultural, social and personal traits which could have influenced the hardly of the case study. I was also able to understand and unearth more about the power imbalance which exists between the client and the worker. For example, to could be possible that the school authorities informed the students mom because they had more power to do so in order to improve the students problem. It was also a way to investigate whether the issue was generated at school or at home (Dolgoff, 2012). The other important lesson that I learnt during the case study was that in sharing, I focused more on theory dictating that every child matters (Howard Korver, 2008) or what Fowler (2010) regarded as being a technical rationality, that a good theory could provide solution for professionals like me. This was wrong, as I should have used my background of theories and past experience to help inform about my practice. If this was done, there could be a more balancing effect for the student (Coninck, Chaturvedi, Haagsma, Griffioen, Glas, 2008). Due to this, I am very sure that my future placements will be drawn from my formal knowledge and application of theory. List of Recommendations The following were my recommendation: It is important for professionals to differentiate their belief system, values, gender, culture, and assumption, social, race, political orientation with professional approach to a client. It is possible to solve an issue from the clients point of view more than professional point of view. This means that the professional should always allow the client to walk him through. I professional should gather information from all sources instead of the client alone before making recommendations. It is important to reflect on the use of self-awareness and other power imbalances including developing new perspective and meaning. References Association, A. N. (2001). Code Of Ethics For Nurses With Interpretive Statements (American Nurses Association). Amer Nurses Assn; Bklt edition. Bednarz, T. F., Pawlak, M. (2011). Ethics Integrity: Pinpoint Management Skill Development Training Series. Majorium Business Press. Budd, J. W., Scoville, J. G. (2005). The Ethics of Human Resources and Industrial Relations . ILR Press; 1 edition. Coninck, J. D., Chaturvedi, K., Haagsma, B., Griffioen, H., Glas, M. v. (2008). Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Development Organisations: Sharing Training and Facilitation Experiences. SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd. Dolgoff, R. (2012). An Introduction to Supervisory Practice in Human Services . Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Fisher, C. B. (2011). Decoding the Ethics Code: A Practical Guide for Psychologists. SAGE Publications, Inc; Third Edition edition . Fowler, M. D. (2010). Guide to Code of Ethics for Nurses: Interpretation and Application. Nursebooks.org; 2010 reissue edition. Howard, R. A., Korver, C. D. (2008). Ethics for the Real World: Creating a Personal Code to Guide Decisions in Work and Life. Harvard Business Review Press; 1 edition.