Campus Session

On Monday’s campus session the group focused on Professional ethics and ethical issues regarding Professional Practice.

The group led by R.McGuinness began to first brainstorm upon what they thought was the definition of ethics. The words and phrases that emerged were “Rules, Morels, fair, just, good and bad, virtues and code of conduct

Ethical practice refers to the morels and principles of an individual and their code of conduct in their practice.

We discovered that the Greek translation of ethics was the word “ethos” which means character.

Rosemary highlighted the conflicting nature that a person can have between their work Ethos and their personal Ethos. Example, Pulitzer award winner Kevin Carter and his controversial photograph. His primary ethos as photojournalist was to capture and document an image not interfering with the subject. The subject was a malnourished child with a vulture lingered in the background.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981431,00.html

What are good character traits?

 As a group we listed the individual values that we thought represented ourselves in our personal life, example “fair, kind and loyal”.  We then listed the values that we thought would be good in our Professional Practice, example “empathy, reliability, time management and confidence.

Theories about ethics.

 The group discussed various theories about ethics, which can be found in more detail in the course reader.

• Consequentialism- Outcome justifies the means.

• Deontology- A rational duty, moral obligation with no grey middle ground.

• Virtue ethics- Character of a person rather than the action they carry out.

Types of ethics

There are different types of ethics that apply to various professional practices. Some that were mentioned are

• -Legal ethics- Legislative.

• -Comparative ethics- Subject to change over time and geographical proximity.

A Professional Arts managing group was formed for the purpose of the session consisting of Joanna, Adeyinka-Burford, Nicole Geddes and I. The task we were given was to collaborate and produce some ideas developing a code of practice that would be ethical and present it to the other two groups.

Code of Practice for Performing Arts Management

• To insure equality for all employees. (Days off, Religious Holidays)
• To adhere to the legal requirements and policies (CRB, Data protection, safe guarding Minimum wage)
• To provide and create a safe environment to work and learn
• To provide and sustain opportunities
• Maintaining a professional operation
• Training (Health and safety
• Risk assessment
• To Maintain interpersonal skills
• To be responsible- development of the company ensuring guide lines are clearly outlines for company
• To maintain company ethos

From this task it became apparent that in a managerial role there is not only responsibility for self, but a large responsibility for the liability of other employees.

I came across this Sunday Times article on ethical types which proved interesting to read:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/article4902555.ece