Terzet-Digitaal Congres-15-dhr. dr. R. van Es

TERZET 25 JAAR- DIGITAAL CONGRES 2018 11 upholding my professional honor, and c. the public interest, i.e. not burdening Dutch society with the additional costs of this rehabilitation project? Stage 3: Ethical Decision Making - Taking Responsibility and Expressing Identity After we have unraveled and precisely defined the ethical issues at stake, it is time to reconnect them. The moral actor can use judgment to come to a decision. There is a detached list of arguments (pros and cons), and there is a concerned individual (the counselor) who has to reach his own conclusions based on those arguments. In other words, there is both an objective and a subjective component that are to be reconciled in the decision. In this process, the decision maker must bear in mind both responsibility and identification; he has to be able to justify the decision to others and it has to feel right to him personally. Responsibility and identity There are three types of responsibility. I am responsible for approaching the other, i.e. respecting the other’s beliefs, but also conveying mine as clearly as possible so we can meet each other halfway. I am also responsible for acting, i.e. I accept the positive and negative effects of my actions. I enjoy the benefits, but I also pay for any damage done. And lastly, I am responsible for developing, i.e. I know where I come from, I know myself and I approach life with confidence and a willingness to learn. These types of responsibility are also part of the Code of Conduct. ‘Identity’, as the term is used here, consists of personality, aspirations and commitment. The term ‘personality’ refers to an awareness of one’s own temperament and psychological make-up and a willingness to take these into account. ‘Aspirations’ denote an awareness of one’s own ambitions and ideals. And finally, ‘commitment’ implies choosing actions that are in tune with the heart: passion and connection. Taking responsibility Let us first focus on the three types of responsibility. The counselor takes responsibility for being approachable by carefully listening to both employer and employee and by checking the information they supply by giving each a chance to respond to the other’s statements. The counselor takes responsibility for his actions by explicitly calculating what this incident will cost in time and money and by supplying this information to everyone involved in the hope of reducing these costs. The counselor takes responsibility for his personal development by immediately exploring, as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, how he can responsibly raise the matter of both parties’ misconduct (cheating and lying, respectively). In order to truly take responsibility, he would have to take an active approach towards both employer and employee. At the very least, he would have to impress upon them that their conduct is reprehensible (morally flawed) and that Dutch society is footing the bill for their misconduct. But will he actually do this? This is where identity comes in. Identity Co-determines Identity is defined as the narrative that I am sincerely willing and able to tell about myself in terms of looking back at formative events (personality), looking ahead to ambitions and ideals (aspirations), and following my own passions (commitment). Based on that narrative, I can now say what action I am going to take and why. This is neither the time nor the place for a general analysis. This is where the vocational rehabilitation counselor must give his personal interpretation: “It is part of my personality to be hypersensitive to injustice; it jumps out at me instantly and bothers me. I strive to act as a professional, to act rationally and fairly and to avoid or redress wrongs wherever possible. I feel committed to my sense of justice and my aspirations of professionalism. This brings me full circle, returning me to my moral intuitions in the first stage of ethical analysis. Emotionally, my first response indicates that the situation violates my sense of justice vis-à-vis the employee, the employer and myself. To top it off, it comes at the expense of the taxpayer. I want my actions to be in line with this sense of justice.” Ethical standpoint “This brings me to the following ethical standpoint. Ethical Issue #2 was stated as follows: Is it ethically apt, in my role as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, to condone the lies of this employer, in light of: a. my duty to focus primarily on my client, and b. the employer’s stated aim of telling a white lie to maintain the status quo in the local community?