Professionalism in context Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Professionalism in context - Essay Example Transgression of these boundaries has meant that society has greatly suffered. In view of this information, this paper will explore professionalism based on a news article as well as some of the laws that have been passed to ensure that professionalism is adhered to. Background Information According to a news article in the Guardian by Joe Curtis, Mr. Patel who worked in a Magistrates Court in Britain made a promise that he would influence the results of a court case. He said would only do this if the victim in the case was willing to pay for the favour. The sum to be paid was put at ?500 (Curtis 2011). He was a clerk in the administrative department of the court. After the fraud was discovered, he was arrested and faced several charges in court for obstruction of justice as well as corruption. If convicted, Mr. Patel faces a maximum jail term of ten years. The man will be prosecuted under the new Bribery Act which came into effect in June 2011 (James 2011). Among other things, this laws places strict laws and penalties for civil servants who engage in bribery activities and also companies which offer bribes to other institutions in order to gain favour from the institutions (Curtis 2011). This is a major step in the reduction of corruption charges in the country as it will keep people on their toes when it comes to corrupt practices. Professionalism and Ethics Professionalism is the ability of a person to perform his duties as required by law and guidelines of the career. Professionalism has been thought to be a complimentary feature of ethics and thus people are expected to be ethical at all times while practicing their professions. Debate has centred on whether ethics and professionalism are part of the same process or one can be implemented separately from the other (Kultgen 1988). Ethics is a major part of society and involves identification of conflicting choices. For a choice to be termed as ethical, it must bring out the greatest good fro the greatest n umber of people. A simpler definition of ethics is the choice between what is considered wrong by society and what is termed right (Driver 2006). All ethical decisions are reasonably acceptable by the majority. However, there are some issues that may bring conflicts as decisions made in such cases seem to be continuously controversial with no specific group of people rooting for or opposing such decisions. There are different codes of ethics depending on the profession. One of the best known ethical guideline is the oath taken by doctors. These codes play a major role in the development of an organization as well as to the development of the career for a person (Shah, Farooq, Munir, Mahmood, & Saeed, 2011). Despite the differences in the codes of ethics in most careers, the goal of all organization is to achieve the best output for the organization and for the consumers. Failure to adhere to such codes of ethics can lead to disastrous outcomes for the organization such as the collap se of various organizations in the world (Ferrell & Ferrell, 2011). The employees of an organization have the responsibility of ensuring that they adhere to such codes so as to promote professionalism in the company. The leaders of the institution should play a leading role in the development of an ethical culture in the organization. The UK, upon realizing the importance of professionalism in its controlled interests, developed a law that would enable it to fight