Supply and Demand in the Development of Professional Ethics
Contemporary Issues in Applied and Professional Ethics
ISBN: 978-1-78635-444-0, eISBN: 978-1-78635-443-3
Publication date: 4 August 2016
Abstract
How can we explain the development – or equally the non-development – of professional ethics norms in a particular case? And how can we enhance compliance with existing professional ethical norms? In this chapter, I develop a supply/demand theory of professional ethics. That is, I consider the demand-forces and pull-factors that call for the construction, reform or continuance of a professional ethos. These demands may come from various stakeholders, including individual service-providers, the professional community, actual and prospective clients and the general public collectively as interested third parties. The supply-side, on the other hand, constitutes the ethical materiel out of which norms emerge: these are the felt-motivations of individual professionals at the coalface of action that drive them to recognize, acknowledge and act upon a professional norm. This material includes traditions and stories, the conscious application of common-sense ethics, explicit endorsement of public moral codes, internal excellences within the activity, a discrete community capable of cultivating attractive role-identities and so on. As well as considering such ethical-materiel, I canvas the institutional and cultural supports that facilitate the production of these motives.
Keywords
Citation
Breakey, H. (2016), "Supply and Demand in the Development of Professional Ethics", Contemporary Issues in Applied and Professional Ethics (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620160000015001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited