Ethical Behaviors in Community Interventions & Organizations - Essay Sample

Introduction

The ethical behavior of people in different community interventions often relates to information, money, treatment of people or employees, the general tasks and actions of employees as well as the actions of an initiative or organization even when the general community is not involved. Moreover, various community services or organizations have a different code of ethics in managing themselves, but ethical behaviors are often similar in any organization or program. The paper, therefore, is premised on a discussion regarding the importance of solving community problems with ethics, how the present practice is unethical and positive measures to be addressed and rectified on the underlying reasons for the current practice.

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Importance of Solving Community Problems with Ethics

Confidentiality

In some organizations, confidentiality might be violated as people, staff or the organization expect the party involved that information and communication during a program or a community intervention should be kept confidential. The legal responsibilities of a program may vary, but confidentiality should be the best policy as the general rule. Nonetheless, being confidential protects the organization and the participants from privacy invasion as well as creating a bond of trust between the program and the participant (Pym, 2016). Confidentiality may also encompass numerous possibilities depending on the position of a staff member, the program or the needs of the participant (Miller, Hess, & Orthmann, 2013).

Competence

By offering any service, an organization is always establishing a contract with its employees to do their work as required. Implied in the contract are the actual workers and the general organization who should be competent in accomplishing the aims, goals, and missions under reasonable circumstances. However, on many occasions, no individual or project can be 100% successful as the people involved might be resistant or unready. Some community interventions might also be successful for less than half of the allocated period, and it might be the best a person can do (Meese et al. 2004).

Regardless of the rate of success, the community and the participants often have the right to expect that the program knows its actions, and it must make the best efforts to provide effective and efficient services, which implies that the services of a community should be offered by professionals who are competent in their actions (O'Neill, 2005). Therefore, if service seems to be harmful to ineffective, it is the ethical responsibility of the organization or program to develop or seek out to try developing more effective methods. For instance, if a staff member, even when he or she is being assisted with their colleagues or supervisors, cannot handle a task as required, it should be documented, and the member should be dismissed (Kappeler, & Gaines, 2012).

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest gets construed as a situation where the personal interests of a person might influence his actions or judgment in a financial decision, his relationship with friends or colleagues, or in carrying out his job. Nevertheless, in various community interventions, the conflict of interest may vary to the disadvantage of the community from how finances are spent to how programs are run. In some cases, the conflict of interest may seem unethical where even small conflicts should be avoided (Meese et al. 2004). Therefore, people who are in situations of conflict of interest should often not be allowed to make decisions before solving their problems as they may make the organization unsuccessful due to irrational decision-making.

Grossly Unethical Behavior

Grossly unethical behavior is always a character that is beyond the bounds of the ethical standards accepted by society. In some scenarios, the behavior might begin from taking advantage of a situation such as the conflict of interest while in for other organizations, it might be lack of moral scruples or cases of dishonesty (Miller, Hess, & Orthmann, 2013). Therefore, community programs should be clear on their ethical standards, hold its employees or workers to them as well as other legal standards demanded by their profession (Pym, 2016). Staff members who are often proven guilty of grossly unethical behavior are always dismissed and, in some cases, prosecuted where appropriate.

How the Present Practice is Unethical

People who work in the government or hold great positions in organizations often believe that their decisions should be made final even if they do not favor other staff members or the success of the organization. The depicted practice is Davenport Schools, Superintendent Art, Tate. Tate went before the budget review committee of the school, which was a nonpartisan group that was created to consider requests for modifying the budgetary limitations and reviewing the budgets of the school. He requested a supplemental amount that was modified of 2,796,692.50 dollars to raise the budget spending of the district authority beyond what would have been granted.

The amount proposed by Tate represented a shortfall of 175 dollars in every student in funding which had befallen the school district. After a month, Marsh Tangen, the chief financial officer of the school also, asked the school's review committee to consider some modified amount of spending to deal with the negative unspent balance of the district. He acknowledged that the spending authority of the district would be exceeded, but the review committee denied him the request. According to the code of ethics, both Tate and Tangen had knowingly failed to comply with the laws of the state as they were taking advantage of their positions.

Proposed Measures to Address and Rectify Underlying Reasons

The Root Causes of the Problem

The root cause of Tangen and Tate's actions might not be apparent immediately. It might be a function of the political or social system or a situation or behavior which might be unrelated to it. Therefore, to find the underlying reason or cause of the action, one is required to use different analytical methods such as the "But why?" technique or critical thinking (O'Neill, 2005). The former is involved in stating the problem to the committee the way it is perceived as well as asking but why? When every person stands to say their opinions, numerous answers which cannot be reduced further will be acquired that might make the team find the root cause of the problem that might tell the group on where to direct their efforts of solving the problem (Pym, 2016).

Environmental Factors Which May Contribute to the Problem

During a meeting in attempting to solve the problems of Tate and Tangen, the team should always look into the environmental factors that led them to their actions. The research might be due to lack of information, services, or other support, the barriers and degree of accessing the funds which they needed, the opportunities that they would have acquired through their actions, or the financial, social, as well as other change benefits (O'Neill, 2005; Miller, Hess, & Orthmann, 2013). Maybe the treatment of the school was never favorable for the duo, or it was self-centeredness that drove them to their actions. Thus, before taking actions for them, possible genuine reasons should have been retrieved and in case it was caused by the school, it should correct its treatment to its staff to be successful. However, if there is a different cause, then they should be used as examples to other board members who try to solicit funds to help the unknown.

Targets and Agents of Change for Addressing the Problem

The review committee of the school should identify who their efforts are being focused on as well as the person who can improve the situation. The best action might be a change policy where the best route might be mounting an advocacy effort that is aimed at the people who can do something achievable. Moreover, people who are often suffering from inadequate services or skills might be the ones whose circumstances or characters should be changed. The team might also wish to recruit new agents of change to work with them and assist them in their efforts to understand how, where and when to direct their work most effectively (Meese et al. 2004). For Tangen and Tate to think of their actions, they might have drawn their plans well to see whether they might work out for them, which unfortunately failed. Maybe there was a board member who had informed them of the weaknesses of the committee and how they would retrieve money from them without them noticing. Moreover, the action suggests the reason for effective teamwork in a successful organization (Kappeler, & Gaines, 2012).

References

Kappeler, V. E., & Gaines, L. K. (2012). Community policing: A contemporary perspective. Routledge. Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315722092

Meese, E., Ortmeier, P. J., & Baca, L. D. (2004). Leadership, ethics, and policing: Challenges for the 21st century. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. M. (2013). Community Policing: Partnerships for problem-solving. Nelson Education.

O'Neill, P. (2005). The Ethics of Problem Definition. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 46(1), 13. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0085819

Pym, A. (Ed.). (2016). The Return to Ethics: Special Issue of The Translator (Vol. 2001). Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=abAFDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA122&dq=Solving+community+problems+with+ethics&ots=lVzbGpvcu_&sig=KBF_3RsXNB-66UlTANBPd6xIIvM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false