Introduction
Being a professionally responsible person is quite a challenging task as it requires a lot of hard work and certain inner qualities necessary for the successful fulfillment of varied tasks set by the executive management. It often happens that the employee’s willingness to be a professionally responsible person is challenged by some serious difficulties such as moral conflicts, someone’s incompetence, and so on. In the following paper, important points which are to be taken into consideration in order to be a professional and responsible employee will be examined. Overall, after evaluating varied facts it appears that to be a professionally responsible person one is to acquire due knowledge about one’s work, combine it with good discernment and under sense, and support all of that with great teamwork skills (in case the work is to be done as a result of cooperation with the other people).
Main text
First of all, discussing important points which are to be taken into consideration with regards to being a professionally responsible person, important skills and capabilities are to be addressed. Employees are to be skilled in accomplishing their professional tasks. Among the other important skills and capabilities of a professionally responsible worker is the ability to be trained including self-trained skills. This is very important as the working process is closely connected to progress which never stops. To be able to go step in step with technologies and working strategies applied in the area of one’s work the employee is to engage in the process of constantly enlarging the body of one’s knowledge.
In addition, a professionally responsible person is to have excellent communicating skills applied with due respect to his/her fellow workers; and the better these skills are, especially in terms of his/her speech clearness, the better results in the work and maintaining healthy working climate will be achieved. This is explained by the importance of mutual understanding between the team of workers. A professionally responsible person is to know how to gain his team’s trust as trust is another vital condition for the success of any business relations. Besides, a good worker is to be able to create and support a positive atmosphere in the collective body. Such a positive atmosphere will add to good communication between all the participants of the working process, thus, establishing a firm ground for successful cooperation. A positive atmosphere is very important because it guarantees better acceptance of managerial directions.
Further, the professionally responsible person understands that he/she has certain moral responsibilities at work. With regards to this fact the following comment appears to be very interesting:
There is a point beyond which we cannot get rid of our own moral responsibilities by laying them on the shoulders of a superior, whether he be general, priest or politician, human or divine. Anyone who thinks otherwise has not understood what a moral decision is (Hare 10).
Reasoning on this statement it becomes evident that professional responsibilities are closely connected to one’s moral responsibilities as most people work with fellow humans which inevitably causes certain situations where one’s moral standards are under test. For example, working with other people one may notice some personal thing of his/her fellow employee and might like this thing so much that he/she would be tempted to steal it. However, such an act as theft is morally irresponsible. Thus, committing theft, one will also become professionally irresponsible. One more illustration can be seen in the collective bodies where most of the employees are women. Women have a weakness of liking to communicate too much. Their favorite topics are related to human relationships and the personal affairs of other people. Talks about other people’s matters are called gossip, and gossip is the actual problem of so many collective bodies. Gossips ruin the reputation of many people; they also ruin the healthy and respectful spirit in the collective body. All of that might become a serious danger for the effectiveness of work. However, if a person remembers about one’s moral responsibility he/she will never engage in such unprofessional practices as gossiping.
Moral responsibility is often connected to moral conflicts; this linkage is direct and proximate. Moral conflicts may occur for many reasons. Some of the most common reasons for moral conflicts at work are covering of some person’s guilt. It happens that at times some of the employees may become a witness of an utter neglecting of one’s professional responsibilities. Of course, this person will decide to inform the direction about such a situation. It also happens that even the management of the organization may be guilty of serious violations at work. When the guilty people learn that some of their fellow workers told about their faults to the representatives of authority this becomes a reason for serious moral conflict. Bok (1) explains this in the following way: “moral conflicts on several levels confront anyone who is wondering whether to speak out about abuses or risks or serious neglect”. In the situation where one’s moral principles are challenged it is important to remember that being morally honest is equal to being professionally responsible. Bok states that a “would-be whistleblower must weigh his responsibility to serve the public interest against the responsibility he owes to his colleagues and the institution in which he works”. Thus, It is evident that moral responsibility as a part of professional responsibility to society is more important than one’s collective responsibility to one’s fellow workers. The following comment by Bok shows that such regulation finds its reflections in the legislation of the United States:
While the professional ethic requires collegial loyalty, the codes of ethics often stress responsibility to the public over and above duties to colleagues and clients. Thus the United States Code of Ethics for Government Servants asks them to “ex- pose corruption wherever uncovered” and to “put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or government” (2).
Remembering about being professionally responsible in the situation when the person is tempted on the reason of possible gaining material values in case of breaking the rules of professional ethics is very important. Such determination may help the person to preserve one’s working position and even be emboldened by some premium or bonus to the salary for the honesty. Thus, wisdom is seen in sticking to the standards of professionalism even under the conditions of possibly gaining something using some illegal schemes and strategies. In addition, facing the temptation to fail to stick to one’s professional responsibility one is to remember the danger of being terminated, fined, or even imprisoned at times.
The other area where professional responsibility means a lot is adhering to the professional hierarchy. This might be one of the greatest challenges as it happens many times that top managers do not show themselves as people adequate and easy to deal with. They may often offend their subjects by being too strict with them or by failing to show due respect to them. In addition, they might appear to be incompetent which will make it very difficult to listen to their instructions. One more reason for such a problem can be found in personal conflict with one’s chief at work. However, a professionally responsible person remembers the importance of respecting one’s chiefs even if this task brings a measure of difficulty with itself. Hare explains such importance by the fact that without obeying the rules of hierarchy’s operation the whole system of organization professional activity may fail (4).
Next, the other challenge of being falsely accused in some fault may prevent an employee from being professionally responsible as he or she might be so discouraged by the situation that will not have enough motivation to strive for one’s reputation and rights. Bok describes such a situation in the following way:
From the public’s point of view, accusations that are openly made by identifiable individuals are more likely to be taken seriously. And in fairness to those criticized, openly accepted responsibility for blowing the whistle should be preferred to the denunciation or the leaked rumor. What is openly stated can more easily be checked, its source’s motives challenged, and the underlying information examined. Those under attack may otherwise be hard put to defend themselves against nameless adversaries. Often they do not even know that they are threatened until it is too late to respond (12).
In such a situation, it is still very important to remember the necessity to be professionally responsible as this will certainly prove that the accusations are false or mistaken. In addition, in case one will forget about sticking to the standards of professional responsibility this will bring more problems to the person. A similar situation may occur in case someone’s secret information is spread by a fellow worker among his or her fellow workers which significantly worsens the person’s reputation in the collective body. The feeling of the offense may become very hurtful bereaving the person out of his or her desire to be effective at one’s work and be a professionally responsible person. However, the rule of the importance of being a professionally responsible person is also applied in such situations as without it the employee may happen to multiply one’s problems at work even more.
Finally, one more problematic situation of seeing a chance to acquire some personal gain at work may well become a temptation for a person to avoid being a professionally responsible employee. This situation happens very often, and it should be frankly said that numerous employees give up under such conditions. People are very mercenary in their souls which should be taken into consideration. For example, being a bookkeeper the employee may know about many ways of secretly stealing money from one’s enterprise. Or it may happen that being a specialist on reparation, one may inform the customer that certain materials or services cost more and put the difference into one’s pocket. Still, remembering about being professionally responsible in the situation when the person is tempted on the reason of possible gaining material values in case of breaking the rules of professional ethics is very important. Such determination may help the person to preserve one’s working position and even be emboldened by some premium or bonus to the salary for the honesty. Thus, wisdom is seen in sticking to the standards of professional professionalism even under the conditions of possibly gaining something using some illegal schemes and strategies.
Conclusion
Concluding on all the information discussed above, it should be stated that being a professionally responsible person requires a lot of effort on the part of any individual. In particular, a professionally responsible person is to know how to demonstrate one’s practical and theoretical skills during the working process. In addition, the person is to be able to maintain healthy and respectful relationships with one’s director and fellow workers. One more important point is in sticking to moral regulations as moral responsibility is directly connected to professional responsibility. Moral responsibility includes avoiding moral conflicts even under such complicated situations as when the employee is challenged by the necessity to inform his/her authority about one’s fellow worker’s incompetence at work. The other important area where professional responsibility is very important is adhering to a professional hierarchy which might be very difficult at times on the reason of someone’s incompetence or conflict with this person. Under any circumstances when the person’s determination is challenged by the desire to forget about one’s professional responsibility for some reason, it is important that it is connected to a number of issues, and on the contrary, professional responsibility is acknowledged in many ways including excellent reputation, a promotion at work and material bonuses. In addition, facing the temptation to fail to stick to one’s professional responsibility one is to remember the danger of being terminated, fined, or even imprisoned at times.
Works Cited
Bok, Sissela.”Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility,” New York University Education Quarterly (Summer 1980): 2-7. Print.
Hare, Richard. “Can I BE Blamed for Obeying Orders?” War, Morality and the Military Profession (1979): 1-11. Print.