Christopher Meyers - The Professional Ethics Toolkit

CHRISTOPHER MEYERS

This edition first published 2018
2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Meyers, Christopher, 1957 author.
Title: The professional ethics toolkit / by Christopher Meyers.
Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ, USA : John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017047294 (print) | LCCN 2017052284 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119045175 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119045182 (epub) | ISBN 9781119045168 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119045151 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Professional ethics.
Classification: LCC BJ1725 (ebook) | LCC BJ1725 .M49 2018 (print) | DDC 174dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047294

Cover Images: (Background) Tashatuvango/Shutterstock; (Microchip) Iaroslav Neliubov/Shutterstock; (Veterinarian) Zivica Kerkez/Shutterstock; (Doctors) Olena Yakobchuk/Shutterstock; (Professor) sirtravelalot/Shutterstock; (Gavel and scale) one photo/Shutterstock; (Workers) Christian Lagerek/Shutterstock; (Toolkit images) Winston Link/Shutterstock; pictafolio/Gettyimages; ProstoVova/Gettyimages; Science Photo Library/Shutterstock; Thomas Northcut/Gettyimages; Keith Bell/Shutterstock; jgroup/Gettyimages
Cover Design: Wiley

To my family, in gratitude for the inspiration and joy you provide every single day.

I am indebted to the many students and working professionals who have, over the years, helped me to explore and better understand the issues discussed in this book. I also am thankful to colleagues for serving as a sounding board for ideas. And I am especially grateful to Hugh LaFollette, whose encouragement and good editing were instrumental to my engagement with professional ethics.

I was recently enjoying lunch with a couple of highranking police officers when the following exchange took place:

ME :

OFFICER TWO (laughing out loud):

OFFICER ONE :

OFFICER TWO :

Good chuckles ensued all around, but their clever play on words captured a key problem with the topic of this book just what do we mean by professional ethics? Consider the following statements, all of which rely on a different meaning of the term:

• Muhammad Ali became a professional boxer in, after fighting for six years as an amateur.
• That painter sure did a professional job, dont you think?
• Prostitution is the worlds oldest profession.
• You can count on Jones gardening: we are the most professional in town.
• Sam sure is a professional complainer.
• Did you hear Gabriela passed her licensing exam and is now a professional engineer?

You probably recognize each of the different senses and have probably used several yourself. Despite some clear overlap, the meanings attached to the different uses vary so much that no single ethics conversation could effectively apply to all the specific ethical duties attached to professional boxing, for example, differ widely from those of engineering.

This book focuses on the last meaning, that is, on the formalized sense of professional. It does so for two reasons. First, the other meanings all derive from the last in that they appeal to some version of a higher standard, one worthy of additional pay or respect. Even the fifth usage gets at the idea that Sam is a really good complainer. That is, they are at least loosely tapping into the common understanding that to be a professional is to possess a normative commitment to higher quality.

Second, the very goal of this book is to make explicit that normativity, the moral foundation at the core of professionalism. In short (for now), the thesis of this book is that to be a true professional, unlike other economic activities, is to be dedicated to a client relationship grounded in trust: trust in the professionals competence and in her commitment to place the wellbeing of her client at the forefront of their encounters.

Think of it this way:

Youre in the market for a new car so you go to a local dealership, settle on a model, and, after some haggling, agree on a price. Thrilled with your shiny new toy, you happen to run into your buddy Omar a few days later who, lo and behold, has just bought the same model! In discussing the options you each purchased, Omar says, I guess you didnt read the Consumer Reports review. You agree that you didnt and he goes on to explain that they concluded this model doesnt need such addons as rust coating, an extended warranted, or sealcoat paint all items that you now realize you got suckered into buying by the very persuasive salesman. You also learn, to your great annoyance, that Omar also paid considerably less for his, even taking into account those addons.