Ethical Analysis of a Contemporary Issue, Essay Example

Introduction

Work place ethics determines the moral or the ethical soundness of an act or lack of it thereof, on the basis of related consequences. In the strictest sense of utilitarian thought, an act is moral if it results to the greatest good of the greatest number of people (Morrison, 2010). It has a similar perspective to the consequential theory, in that they both judge an act on the basis of the good that comes out of it. For instance, it would be morally right if a bus driver overran a child crossing the road, if avoiding him would have endangered the lives of several passengers. In the corporate world, utilitarianism comes into play when those in leadership like the counselors make economically sound decisions, but in the process overlook or ignore some moral considerations. An example is when a bribe is given to clinch a lucrative contract. Bribery is wrong, but the action is justified since the company makes a profit from the contract and at the same time, creates employment opportunities in terms of the manpower that will be hired (Heather, 25).

Justice violations in the work place have become a subject of discussion in both the public and private sectors. Some of the most common forms of violations include discrimination, harassment and skewed pay patterns. These forms of discrimination have become even more apparent with the advent of globalization which has led to integration of work cultures, people and styles of management (Mittelman, 2002). In an effort to fit in a globalized world, many organizations are putting more emphasis on promoting market integration and growth at the expense of balanced development and social and economic equity. From the Christian counseling perspective, many are still not well informed on whether they are operating under the state regulation or the Christian regulation which may not be party to the state regulations in counseling field.

In the state counseling regulations, the counselors are said to operate from the view that they do work in the support of the politically aligned correct position in determining right and wrong. This is supported by the fact they the state counselors should be in position to support what the appears in the face of the Christian perspective as sin like the support to homosexuality. The state licensed therapists are said to operate based on the law of the country where issues like abortion, homosexuality, and divorce as normal lifestyle in the society. In a Christian set up of counseling, this is contrally to their rules and even to the bible.

Another difference between the two groups is that the state counselors are governed by the government while the Christian counselors are governed by the religious institutions or the body of Christ. For instance in the Canadian set up, their counseling approach is based on the fact that the belief of the counselor is motivated by the care and the virtue basing of the reason that they are quite sure that it is the right thing to do. The virtue ethics therefore focus on the counselor as the agent of ethics having the capacity to make ethical considerations that could be complex. The NCCA mode entirely follows the bible faith based and the examples on the teaching of Jesus Christ (Retnowati, 63).

In the Christian profession of counseling, all the counselors under this category have not been clear on where to place themselves, are they in any way supposed to be held accountable and if so to whom. Counseling licenses from the American states does require a person to follow the regulations that have been set by the country. Christian counselors are ordained and commissioned by the church or the religious institution that they are affiliated to which do in turn hold them accountable in their counseling practice. According to the Christian counseling set up, their counseling centre is said to offer anything possible that makes them viable counselors recognized by the National Association of Christian Counseling commonly referred to as NCCA.

Like the other counselors under the state council, Christian counselors are too entitled to allowances which are a demand for any professional work when it comes to service delivery expectation. The educators in Christian counseling set up are also educated just like those of the state council. When it comes to certification, it is upon an individual’s decision to decide whether he wants to serve as a counselor in church or in state council parastatal. The national Christian counselors association is in this case not a state licensed body which is more different compared to the American counselors association and the Canadian counselors association. The two state governed counselors bodies are under certain laws that govern their psychological practices unlike the Christian one. They differ from the Christian system in that they do offer general counseling and not as that specific as the Christian counseling system. Although the legislation in the national Christian counselors association do vary from state to state, their operation is purely professional for they insist on clear identification of the their credentials which is to keep check on the operations of the counselor to operate within their set legal ethical class with the aim of maintaining the public trust and even confidence (Tan, 18).

The other difference between the state or rather non Christian counseling body and the Christian based counselors is that the Christian based counselors are an NCCA credentialed and are purely running under the management of the church which is clearly defined compared to the state council governed counselors. It is believed that counselors that are held by the state are under ethical standards that are strict that do mandate people a free religious influence. They are also not in any way supposed to introduce anything to do with Christianity in their counseling solutions. According to the state regulations, introducing such activities may be termed as an ethical in the state regulations particularly if the funding is from the government. According to the United States and Canadian state counselors’ regulations, state counselors are not supposed to introduce personal opinions based on the Christian concept during the counseling sessions which include the Christian morals, the Christian activities, and even the Christian instructions. Despite the set regulations, it can happen otherwise only under circumstances that the counselee has requested this particular area. The weakness in this is that the state counselor may not be well versed with the bible verses to aid in the counseling as it would have been with the Christian based counselor. Pastors during the counseling are known to offer prayer and share their faith during the counseling sessions which makes them more distinct from the state governed counselors (Garry, 37).

References

Boyle Heather. Ethical Issues in Prisoner Treatment, Offender Therapy, and Community Reentry: International Perspectives and Policy Considerations . Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice. Routeledge publishers, 1998, pp. 25 Collins Gary. Christian counseling. Word publishers, 1998, pp. 37

Ernest Retnowati. Worked Example Effects in Individual and Group Work Settings. Educational Psychology. SAGE publishers, 2001, pp 63 Syang wu Tan. Lay counseling, equipping Christians for helping ministry. Zondervan publishers. 2003, pp. 18