Professional Practice 2: Standard Professional Practice

Is Code of Ethics still Relevant in the 21st Century?

Abstract: How ought one live? This question represents on how should individual lives despite the changes and
development of age and the world’s civilization became modern to full extent. Does people living in a modern world and time
still having an ethics? This term paper is responsible to answer the question, “Is code of ethics still relevant in 21 st Century?”
This query depicts the foundation of centuries of debate on the philosophy of ethics as part of the humanity. The idea of good
and evil had filtered through multitudinous perspectives, allowing for questions not just in the goodness of actions but also in
the use, rightness, morality, and justness of actions are just some of the concepts of ethics. The context of this term paper
includes the definition of ethics, its history, establishing of code of ethics, purpose and role in an organization. Also, includes
the importance of ethical conduct in the 21 st century. Each of us has different understanding and perception about life, but we
are tied because of ethics that governs us.

Keywords: Centuries, Professionalism, Competence, Ethical conduct, Civilization, Organization, Epics, carrying Capacity

1.0 INTRODUCTION

How should we move? What should we think? What should we wear? What is proper? What is not? People
nowadays can freely express their opinion and thought through social medias platform without thinking of
possible results. In early years, people have difficulty socializing and keeping in touch with what is truly
happening worldwide. Now, everything is possible. Everything means something good and something bad
that might affect anybody.
In these days, the development of men comes with different aspects such as technology, globalization and
education. The rise of population and rapid urbanization is evident because of the competence in economy.
People are striving hard to get along with the trends. The circumstances whether it is bad or good is
uncontrollable. Thus, defines every individual on how they response with dilemmas not just in a workplace
but also in everyday lives.
Ethics already made a mark in the civilization 2000 years ago. It was imprinted through the works of
Aristotle’s ethical theory, that we study ethics in order to improve our lives and therefore its principle
concern is the nature of human well-being. What we need in order to live well, is a proper appreciation of
the way in which such as goods as friendship, virtue, honor, and wealth fit together as a whole. Also some
of the rules like Hippocratic Oath “First of all, do no harm”, Golden Rule” Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you” and the religious creed like the Ten Commandments are just some quotes that
symbolizes ethics in that time. (Resneek, 2015)

1.1 Defining Ethics

Ethics is concerned with right and wrong, principles and obligation set by institutions and individuals in the
society and governs all actions and practices of professionals (Canadian Forces Defence Ethics Handbook
p.56). It emphasizes the responsibility and capability of individuals engaged in profession or job to come to
his or her own conclusions through reasoning. It is his or her own capability to determine which principles
are relevant in a particular case. Ethics derived from the Ancient Greek words “Ethikos” means arising from
habit (classes.engineering. In addition, it refers to reasonable acts of human that relies on materialists and
social consequences. Due to some instances, many people used these two words interchangeably.
1.1.1 A Brief History of Ethics
It was said that ethics started from the birth of humanity. Moreover, the history of ethics was already shown
through the various works of wise men such as Aristotle, Pythagoras and Confucius. For the ancient Greeks,
epics became a representation of the code in moral correctness. Writers like Homer sang the praises of
virtuous men, holding such characters up as paradigms of virtuous action. In this way, the Greeks had a
model to inform their own behaviour and by which to judge others. (Downs, 2012) They have contributed a
lot in the development of understanding ethics. Philosophers describe their ideal in the most functional and
productive structure of society, laying out their best plan to achieve such an end. For more than 2000 years,
ethics reign within the human race. It does have different adaptation in different times in different countries.
Ethics is properly the history of civilization and ethnology. (Open Site.org)

1.1.2 Establishment of Code of Ethics

Code of ethics is usually established by a professional order as a way to protect the public and the
reputations of the professional. Socializing perhaps is an important factor in human’s individuality; it
greatly affects the development of the ethics throughout the time. Accordingly, the development of morality
is the matter of learning the norms of one’s culture, of accepting them and internalizing with them. (John
Wiley & Sons)
We developed ethics as we continue to face and answer the situations in a right way or based on
professionalism. Our response through this dilemma is resulted to ethical conduct. To protect the morality
and to have a proper guide in practicing the ethical norms, code of ethics has created. All disciplines,
institutions and professions have standard for behaviour that suit their aims and goals. For instance, ethical
standards govern conduct in medicine, law, engineering, and business. . (Resneek,, 2015)

1.1.3 Purpose of Ethics

The code of ethics is created and designed to guide professionals in conducting their
businesses with honesty and integrity. It is a document of core values and standards to
which professional should approach the problems. Ethics has been developed since
professionalism started. Below are the roles of ethics (sec.gov.archives) :
 It requires the highest standards ethical conduct such as honesty and includes proper procedures in
dealing with conflicts between personal and professional relationships
 Mandates full compliance with applicable governmental rules, law and regulations
 Requires immediate internal report of any illegal behaviour or violations of the Code.

1.1.4 Roles of Ethics in an Organization

Codes of ethics are important to companies especially in the employees to have equal rights between
colleagues. It can serve three major purposes in organizations. These include demonstrating concern for
ethics by organizations-transmitting ethical values of the organization to its members. The figure above
describes this, growing out of the organization concern about ethics and concluding with some intended
impact on the organization’s ethical climate.

1.1.4.1 Demonstrating a concern for ethics

Every organization should create a document called a code of ethics (Weber 1981).Ethics code can serve to
institutionalize ethics in the corporation. The code serve as a major method to reflect the corporation’s
desire a sense of responsibility between employees, to signify a positive ethical climate, to respond to and
to anticipate external demands and pressures from stake holders and various group in the organizations
environment. (Raiborn and Payne, 1990)

1.1.4.2 Transmitting ethical values to members

In fact, the main purpose of codes is to educate employees to the proper values of the organization. Once
the code of ethics is created, it can now serve its purpose of transmitting ethical values to those who works
in the corporation (Benson 1989). In addition, for the workers to be more effective and functioning they
should familiarize through putting some effort on the part of the employees, such as reading and discussing
the code content, attending training sessions on ethics and critically reviewing company policies just like
Plato’s idea to best understand the value of ethics.

1.1.4.3 Impacting ethical Behavior

The impact of this code is for the employees are to be aware of the ethics, in order to control and influence
the actions and decisions in shaping changes. Trevino 1990 suggested that codes must not just distributed
but also must be enforced and implemented. To achieve this purpose, ethics code must affect how people
act by influencing them to behave in a prescribed manner in a situation with ethical implications.

1.2 The 21st Century

Century is a period of 100 years. The 21 st century is the current century of the Anno Domini Era or the
Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will end on
December 31, 2100. It is the first century of the 3rd millennium. (Definitions.net)
Developments of times are transforming the nature of competencies that have been valuable throughout
history, such as communication and collaboration. In the twenty-first century, literacy skills increasingly
reflect technology use and the abilities necessary to problem-solve, collaborate, and present information
through multimedia. Thus, innovations that seems impossible in previous centuries became possible and
highly invented by today’s geniuses .In the 21 st century, although many inventions has been discovered in
providing human comfort, we have been disregarded our environment. We are now reaching the so-called
“carrying capacity” where the resources from nature cannot sustain the maximum number of people by the
year 2100 or the end of this century.

1.2.1 Role of Code of Ethics in 21st Century

According to Frankel, M. S. J Bus Ethics (1989) code of ethics is both a foundation and guide for
professionals in the face of morally ambiguous situations. Through a code of ethics clarifies, for both its
members and outsiders, the norms that ought to govern professional behaviour.
The advantage of ethical principles is that they are general. They are guidelines, they can adapt to different
changes, cultures and situations without losing their essence. Conservation of ethics do not have to change
in response to new treatment methods or new media. Strong central principles are what enable us to deal
confidently with change. In the 21st century, more organizations will mushroom in the different parts of the
world. Thus, ethics should become an organizational priority as it clarifies situations that involve rights and
responsibilities.

2.0 CONCLUSION
It is seen in this term paper the roles and importance of ethics in our everyday lives. Our growing reliance
on electronic documentation probably means changes in the guidelines as well. Time just contributes to the
code of ethics to be more developed and eloquently constituted. Ethics is not just relevant in 21st Century
but in all centuries, in all times.
In this 21st century, records of unjustifiable cases have accelerated and number of dignities became
trampled. Some individual become witnessed of unlawful acts but chose to be ignorant, reason is, they do
not want to be implicated in that dilemma. Ethics, in the broadest sense is to act rightly, which can be
applies everywhere. People in all generations and century should carry ethical conduct in all times. Our
decisions and actions form a part of our characteristic and thus, it can affect negatively and positively to
others.
In addition, ethics is a serious matter in a business place. As it plays a big role to the companies and
employees behaviour. According to the review of Thomas, Lawrence and Terry (2001) an organization must
have a code of ethics that intended to demonstrate the organization’s desire to support ethical behaviour.
Second, the organization must understand professionalism as the key part to do the job in the right way.
If ethics it has already existed in ancient times, why it is not relevant in this time full of competence,
changes and development?

3.0 REFERENCES

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Cassell,Cathy , Phil Johnson and Ken Smith:1997 , “Opening the Black Box: Corporate Codes of Ethics in
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Davis, Micheal 1998 ‘Thinking like an Engineer’ pp.153-4
Resneek ,David 2015 ‘What is Ethics in research and why it is important?”
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An Empirical Analysis” Journal of business Ethics, 719-727
Ethics Resource Center 1997 ‘A Little Knowledge… Ethics Today’, 6-7
Frankel, M. S. J Bus Ethics (1989) ‘Professional Codes: Why, how, and with what impact?’ 8:109
Jennifer Downs 2012: Ethics in Forensic Science p.1
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