by Jacqui Nelson
Last week I attended an event organised by the UK Inter-Professional Group (UKIPG) on ethics and professional bodies. The event focused on the role these bodies have to play in promoting ethics in the professions, and how to get members to engage with the issues. There were lots of good examples at the event and here are just a few of the tips that I picked up during the day which, I think, Professional Bodies should consider when engaging their members with ethics.
Don't get into the detail
The first speaker of the day was from Shell and was responsible for promoting the ethical behaviour of Shell employees across the world. She felt strongly that it was important to stick to 'principles' and not get into the ‘nitty gritty’ of rules. Her belief was that the more detailed you get the more likely it is that clever people will dispute what is there, and in time justify why these rules don't apply to them.
With rules you also run the risk of never being able to cover everything. Someone will always discover some eventuality that isn't covered. By sticking to the principles and promoting attitudes, you help people make the right choices themselves rather than trying to do that for them.
Make sure the information you give is appropriate
Ethics is a big subject. Professionals need to engage with the topic but they don't need to become experts in philosophy. Aristotle may have an important role to play in ethics but I can't see how that helps today's professional.
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) were also kind enough to share their experience of developing a website dedicated to ethics. By their own admission the site is an amazing resource, but far more information than any professional needs. This is contrasted with the University of Leeds who, to their credit, seem to have got this right. They have brought together experts in philosophy and ethics with the dental faculty to ensure that their dental students have the very best grasp of ethics from the beginning of their career. Despite involving the philosophers in teaching ethics to their dental students they have kept it relevant, providing only valid and useful information which forms a base on which to build their career.
Didactic learning isn't enough when teaching ethics. People need to learn from experience.
This is, I think, fairly obvious and what we at Nelson Croom have been saying for years. You can't make people behave ethically by telling them to. That's why our CPD courses on Ethics takes people through a range of case studies and asks learners to consider how they would behave in a range of circumstances. Once they've thought about their own personal behaviour they receive guidance from the experts and the opportunity to see how fellow professionals would behave. This really enhances their learning, broadens their thinking and opens their minds to differing points of view. Click here to try a sample; I'd be really interested to hear what you think.
Case studies work
Unsurprisingly professional bodies reported that they got far more engagement with case studies than any other resource. During the day different organisations ran interactive sessions where we were split into groups to discuss an ethical dilemma in the form of a case study. The challenge is to replicate this type of discussion and engagement, online.
This is a challenge that I think we’ve gone a long way to addressing with our current Ethics courses.
This confirms, in my mind, that Ethics is an important topic for the professions both right now and for the foreseeable future. As well as the number of courses on ethics we've developed for specific clients we will shortly publish our own course on Ethics in the Professions. If you are interested in getting involved and/or would like to consider offering it to your members, we'd love to hear from you.