As a performer my product is ME so it is easy to loose sight of the bigger picture of the industry and think of ethics as a purely personal thing. I have come to realise how important is is for me to distinguish between personal, professional and organizational ethics in order to move forward with more clarity and understanding of my own practice.
Personal: Values, morals, conscience and character - This is all had ever really thought of ethics as. I saw my personal ethics as the reason I approach my work in the way I do. I still do really and from history it is where it stems from but I can see there is more too it than that in a professional field.
Professional: Systems in place within a particular profession. - I saw this as law but I can now see laws stem from ethics.
Organizational: Ethos of a company - how we do things around here. - My awareness of this related to codes of conduct as a rule base to work from. I always thought I would not be employed by a company or want to work for a company if my personal ethics were not right for them.
So as you can see I had an awareness of all of these but I just had not labelled them in this way or put them all under the bracket of ethics. With this new knowledge it is ethics become clearer in a professional context and how they all in twine but also stay separate. And....ETHICS ARE EVERYWHERE!!
"Ethics pervades all parts of our lives - personal and professional, public and private. It's a matter which governs our actions and guides the decisions we take and things we do."
Reader 5: Professional Ethics, Middlesex University.
The case studies in the reader got me thinking about important aspects of my ethical approach to my professional practice and my inquiry:
- Importance of relationships with my colleagues and senior management. Maintaining good relationships is key to creating a professional work ethic and so important to career progression. You never know who people may know or even who they are and what they do.
- Awareness of the higher powers that are answered to - the chain of accountability. Who does my area manager answer to? Who does the company manger answer to? Who does the artistic director answer to? Important to see the bigger picture to have a better understanding of the company as a whole not just what you see on a daily basis.
- Knowing who monitors my work and how. Important to remember there is a record of everything eg. show reports, feedback forms from workshops - it is easy to forget.
- How wanting to achieve can distort ethics. In relation to my work if in a rush may not do health and safety check every time. In regards to my inquiry wanting to get the answers I want to hear and therefore only asking a certain group would not be ethical research.
- Ethics can be distorted because of fear of truth sharing - it is human nature not to want to be wrong! Especially in our work place as it could loose us our job!
Consequentialist: The consequences of ones conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgement about the rightness of that conduct.
Denotologist: The morality of an action is based on the actions adherence to rule or rules.
Virtue: Character or morals determine evaluation of ethical behaviour. Being rather than doing.
These may be frameworks but I do not believe that many of us fit perfectly into one or the other. I would say I mainly sit within virtue ethics but within my professional practice I also sit in denotologist ethics as there are strict rules and obligations to adhere to that I would not dare break. I am sure I work with consequentialist ethics sometimes too especially when working with children as protecting them is paramount and I also believe in protecting their innocence to a certain point. However the awareness of this framework is essential to be aware of moving forward with my inquiry and dealing with a variety of people who may work in different ways and the tensions that may arise.
Hollie x
Just to let you know i found this blog so informative!
ReplyDeletethrough my research in issue based theatre...ethics within it that are proving to apprear heavily! and this blog has given me so much to think about!
also i commented back on my blog "what is inclusion" so have a read on my comment to you and let me know if it was at all helpful or if there is anything else you need to know
jojox
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ReplyDeleteHi Hollie,
ReplyDeleteReally good post. I read it a couple of times and it prompts me to think ‘what do you do when you can’t apply all of the ethical thinking you might (organisational; personal; professional)? How do you act when there is not enough time? Or where there is time, but one action operates to treat one person ethically while harming someone else? I guess I am driving at the ethical dilemmas; that is when the ‘perfect’ or ‘ideal’ ethical response or action is not possible, or an action or response leads to both a good and bad effect, or a choice between two equally harmful effects?
I’m just thinking about the dancer on a pitching cruise ship, going for that big jump. Do it (professionally, the clients have paid to see the show and you are duty bound to provide the jump) or not (a real personal ethic about preventing likely injury).
Perhaps ethics is not about acting fairly and with probity when all is well … perhaps ethics come in when the situation demands a judgement about the good and ill effects?
I enjoyed reading your blog. I agree that ethics are everywhere and that they influence how we respond to situations.
ReplyDeleteIt is important that we know the hierarchal structure of the organisation we work for and who answers to whom. This, as you stated, helps us to see the bigger picture and to understand the roles that different people play in our organisations. All of this helps us define our roles and allows us to do our work effectively. Our personal ethics define our decisions about the type of organisations we apply to work for. It is important, both professionally and personally, that our workplace shares our moral and ethical values.