ABSTRACT

Social workers are often caught in ethical binds. Dilemmas arise largely because of the position social workers occupy within organisations and institutions. This chapter is concerned with the idea of ethics. It is necessary to look at the political, social and organisational contexts in which a social worker's obligations arise to decide what his/her various duties are, and how much weight to attach to them. It is also necessary to know what options the social worker and his/her manager had, whether any of his/her duties were outweighed by the consequences (good or bad) of those options, and whether any of these choices were incompatible with his/her professional or personal integrity. There are a number of modes of ethical thinking that reflect different ethical theories. The perspective of ethics employed here is built upon a particular view of the relationship between these approaches.