Social work values and ethics is the basis of social work practice and has
been central to social work since its formal inception. Social work is deeply
rooted in fundamental set of values that ultimately shapes the profession's
mission and its practi...
Social work values and ethics is the basis of social work practice and has
been central to social work since its formal inception. Social work is deeply
rooted in fundamental set of values that ultimately shapes the profession's
mission and its practitioner's priorities. In Korea social welfare circumstance
has changed rapidly and ethical dilemmas in social work practice may have
tended to increase and become complicated. This study inquires into an actual
condition of ethical dilemmas in Korean social work practice settings and
social workers' recognition of it. And based on it, the purpose of this study
lays out a scheme for intensifying social workers' ethical consciousness, and
ultimately contributes to establish social position as profession in Korea.
In details, the objectives of this study is as follows. 1) through referring to
documents, to explore what is social work values, ethics, and ethical
dilemmas in social work practice 2) to examine what kind of ethical
dilemmas is chiefly occurred in Korean social work practice settings and to
find out its features and causes 3) to investigate Korean social workers'
recognition of ethical dilemmas and what factors are considered preferentially
in their ethical decision making 4) to examine social workers' perception and application of KASW code of ethics.
To achieve this objectives, both qualitative and quantitative data is collected
and analyzed.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows.
First, the ethical dilemmas chiefly occurred in Korean social work practice
settings involve the worker-client professional relationship and that the service
provided to client is not on a high standard.
Second, in social workers' recognition of ethical dilemmas, the intense
recognition items are mainly related to the agency, on the other hand, infirm
recognition items are mainly related to the client.
Third, the factors considered preferentially in ethical decision making are
clients' situation and ability, clients' need and resource in order.
Fourth, this study found that education and training related to social work
values and ethics is lacking. It is educated just in the degree of knowledge. So
social workers fail to internalized it.
Finally, social workers' perception and application of KASW code of ethics
is at a low level. And KASW code of ethics can't be the sufficient guideline
in ethical dilemmas.
On the basis of results of the examination, this study will suggest the
following ideas.
First, the education and training for professional ethics must intensify. The
education and training are a prerequisite for ethical practice so the education
concerning ethics will be a standard component in professional education
course. Moreover, the reeducation and reorientation for the social work
practitioners have to go on together with.
Second, the social service agency should improve its operating rationally and democratically so become more devoted to its fundamental purpose. And
the agency should provide staff with training on values and ethics to ensure
that social workers are equipped to identify and address ethical issues
encountered in practice. The agency will make the ethical standards for itself
and it will reflect the feature and the characteristics of the agency concerned.
Third, current KASW code of ethics need to reinforce. KASW code of ethics
must change in the direction to more substantially helpful to practitioners in
the field.
In Korea, the ethical issues in social work practice will increase continuously
with the mature of social work profession. Needless to say, for the ethical
practice, the change of the circumstances in social work practice settings is
important but before everything, social workers' attitude and perception is
most important. Social workers ought to preserve the fundamental social
welfare mission and to try to practice it. In addition, social workers should
not shirk away the ethics, display more active and voluntary attitude, and
enhance their involvement in discussion of ethical issues.