ABSTRACT
This chapter presents research results about disagreement among social workers. These results challenge the idea that common values are influential in social work practice and that general ethical guidelines are helpful for social workers handling ethical dilemmas in practice. The chapter reviews empirical research that shows widespread disagreement among social workers about judgments and attitudes regarding concrete situations and ethical dilemmas. Empirical studies show that social workers are often unaware of the existing disagreements within their profession. The chapter discusses that social workers have an important ethical obligation to recognize those disagreements, express their own judgments, listen carefully to divergent views, and the emerging ethical issues. It suggests that the vignette method can be used to train the competencies and study social workers’ responses to ethical dilemmas. Social work codes of ethics often emphasize values such as social justice, dignity, participation, and inclusion, and such broad principles are supported by both national and international associations of social workers.
