PART 1
Implicit bias or rather unconscious biases entails the attitudes and stereotypes that impact peoples comprehension, deeds and decisions in unconscious ways. This type of bias is also known as social cognition. These biases comprise of both the favorable and unfavorable evaluations and are always triggered involuntarily without the consciousness or the intentions of a person committing the bias. This type of bias is very different considering the common kinds of biases that people usually have thus they are not often perceived in introspection. It is imperative that professionals become aware of this kind of biases in the course of providing inclusive, person-centered, information regarding career both when it comes to advise and guidance and lastly in inter-professional activities (Holroyd, Scaife and Stafford 2017, 5).
It is imperative for professionals to take responsibility by acknowledging and comprehension the varied kinds of biases. By doing these, professionals within career guidance counseling sector will be in a position of taking the correct action in the course of managing the effect on their behavior and how they come about making decisions (Johnson and Neary 2015, pg 162).
Additionally, when a professional has a full understanding of implicit biases, they become ethical in their practice, a key significance piece within the guidance field of practice. In this way, they will be able to conduct themselves properly and within policy and legislation among other important codes such as ethical, employer and organizational codes. When professionals do not have an understanding of their unconscious biases, they will tend to classify people based on their outward observations (Marshall, 2015, Np). This is very disadvantaged since when providing advice, it is important that decision making is based on factual information drawn from the accounts of a client and professional expertise. In the occasions whereby professionals lack understanding of implicit biases, they will base their actions on these biases and thus impact a client negatively which is not the primary mission of counselors. When delivering inter-professional and person-centered counseling, proper diagnosis ought to be carried out.
Research, particularly one conducted by Mandelbaum (2016, 630) asserts that professionals who base their decisions without consideration of unconscious bias will often depict prejudices and often fail to admit that they are unfair in judgment. Therefore, there is evidence in their study showing that due to these kinds of biases, people might discriminate others at work and thus affect different elements in their work performance. Diversity is a key element that shows a person has taken into consideration on the varied unconscious bias that might exist in their professional life thus increase their levels of adaptability, offer better customer services and also they might become very innovative when offering guidance. Therefore, it is important that when offering guidance of any kind especially career guidance, professionals become aware of the existence of biases as it will help them to be creative and offer better services to their clients thus creating a better image for themselves and the company. In conclusion, it is apparent that it is very essential for people in different careers to understanding the importance of being fair and rational make making different kinds of decisions significant to work practice (Noon, 2018, 201)
PART II
The question of whether complying with legislation renders a person ethical has been of many contradictory debates for a long time. The code of conduct established for registered nurses asserts that practitioners should at all times act in line with the law ensuring that they are conscious of their responsibilities as put within the constitution (Career Development Institute, 2019). However, an evaluation practitioners code of conduct depicts that the law does not explore issues relating to professional ethics or rather provide guidance on how ethical matters should be handled. According to the career development institute’s code of ethics, there is need for provision of accessibility in terms of promoting access to the development of career’s services and activities. Moreover, accessibility also incorporates inclusion though there is no much coverage of these aspects within the legislation of many countries in the Middle East as many women are still facing barriers accessing employment. Another ethical conduct mentioned is accountability denoting that practitioners ought to be responsible for their practices through the specifics of accountability are not outlined within the law (Career Development Institute, 2019). As a result, many practitioners often adhere only on the legislation since they form the basis on which an employee can be punished with the notion that as long as one adheres to all the legislation, then they are similarly in compliance with the ethical conducts.
The equity and anti-discrimination law were formulated so as to protect citizens from facing discrimination from the basis of gender, ethnic group, religion, race and also physical outlook. However, the debate on whether compliance is directly related to a professional being ethical has to first begin with evaluating whether professionals and the government as a body comply with the legislation. It is apparent that there are numerous cases within the Middle East whereby the law in itself is not being complied with thus making it challenging to explore the relationship between legislation and ethics. The law plays a significant role in ensuring that people in a workplace receive equal treatment regardless of the existing diversity (Fredman, 2017, pg 127). The equity and the anti-discrimination law was also created with the basis of protecting the protected groups such as women and people with disability. Equity asserts that all people are free and deserve to be treated equally. It further points out that all human beings have the same privileges and should be awarded the same amount of respect. Therefore, all the policies and laws should be formulated with overlooking the rights of any individual or group. On the other hand, anti-discrimination is the integral part that carries the policies set upon to guide equity in a country, region or any other geographical location governed by the same set of laws. These principles of equity are in existence so as to ensure that all people are never denied to access their rights with the basis of gender, disability, ethnic group or race (Syed, Ali and Hennekam 2018, pg 165).
Basing on a fact sheet provided La Hovary (2004), the author explores discrimination at work in the Middle East and North Africa. In his study, the author notes that it is a fact that gender is still an area of urgent concern for connecting the total productivity potential within the entire Middle East region. However, women still face challenges in the labor market their rate standing at 32% while there is an upward trend in other regions around the world statistics showing that the rate is 56.6% (Syed, Ali and Hennekam 2018, pg 166). This is an aspect showing that equality and discrimination laws are still not upheld yet it is an obligation stated with an ethical code of conduct of healthcare practice. On the contrary, the increase in women entrance in the labor market is an indication that there is an effort made to merge legislation with ethics thus there are some validity in the statement “I comply with legislation; therefore I am an ethical practitioner.” On the other hand, the equality law affirms that both men and women have the same rights and should be awarded the same respect in all walks of life. The clause that covers employment legislation states that employers ought to formulate a fair criterion used in employing and providing promotions. The sector further asserts that no workplaces should be designated to a specific gender but instead opportunities should available to all without any existence of discrimination activities or favors (Syed, Ali and Hennekam 2018, pg 170). However, this is not the case as it is evident that cases of women in discrimination are countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran is still very high. In Saudi Arabia’s medical code of ethics formulated by the state, institution asserted that women’s agreement is enough validation for them receiving healthcare. However, this is not the case in reality as the necessities for guardian consent relies on a specific hospital’s internal regulation while the government fails to punish healthcare organizations that demand the consent of the father or husband before offering care to their women patients. Therefore, it is apparent that in such cases that there is lack of compliance with the legislation and the notion of relating compliance with ethical practice is invalid in this case within countries in the Middle East particularly in Saudi Arabia (Zuhur, 2016, pg 21).
There is a huge misinterpretation of the terms ethics and compliance and this is evident even within the corporate world. Within the professions of ethics and compliance, Khoja et al (20170, pg 9) conducted a study in the Middle East and found out many companies either compliance officer or chief ethics to represent the same role within these organizations. This is an apparent insinuation that the two terms are often used interchangeably thus breeding the notion that when one is compliant, then they are equally ethical thus making the distinction of the two terms insignificant. However, the two terms are different in meaning and misinterpretation can severely affect an organization. Compliance regards adherence of set legislations while legislation entails practicing what is right without considering the law. Compliance is often associated with the requirements of the government while ethics is solely what a practitioner considers the right and fair thing to do based on the responsibilities accorded to him or her.
Complying with law means that a person is ethical since following the law is the right thing that a practitioner ought to do. However, not complying with the law is not always unethical since there are some ethical that do not fall within the boundaries of ethical principles. For instance, it is a law that practitioners ought to bill the fees for every client they serve. However, failure to bill the records of a particular client is not unethical. From this example, it is clear that the law requires practitioners to bill all their clients. On the other hand, ethical conducts do not include the issues of billing in its guidelines thus when one fails, they do not break ethical principles but only break the legislation. Moreover, deducing from the case of Dubai, in 2013, Dubai Health Authority (“DHA”), a body that regulates all matters regarding healthcare in Dubai set that health insurance coverage is mandatory for every resident in Dubai. Considering such a case, it is ethical for all residents to comply with this regulation. However, for those residents who are not well economically and might not be in a position of affording healthcare insurance coverage, it will not be unethical for them not attaining one. This proves the point that complying with the law can be ethical but still not complying is not unethical since the cause can be out of reach. (Khoja et al. 2017, pg 16).On the other hand, many countries in the Middle East are currently under siege since cases of violence at workplaces, which mostly affects women, are still rampant. Furthermore, some privileges that go along with being employed are still not accessible to all individuals. In the Middle East, access to loans is still limited to some individuals. The salaries in the country are not also equally offered. Most employers still pay their workers with the basis of gender, race or ethnic groups. This shows that compliance is still a challenging issue that needs to be addressed before the evaluation of ethical conduct are examined (Zuhur, 2016, pg 22).
Examining the issue of whether there is a relationship between legislation compliance and ethical conduct is challenging since many countries fail to practice set legislations which renders the question invalid. For instance, in the Middle East, the law requires all employers inclusive of counselor’s employers’ to provide housing for their employees or provide them with allowances that will enable them to acquire houses outside their companies (Zuhur, 2016, pg 23). However, the issue of allowances is a complicated matter since the amount being provided is determined by an individual’s job position and the amount of salary. This means that individuals who work in small organizations or those working for low paid jobs are given less housing allowances which forces them to live in uncomfortable areas. The less housing allowances issue majorly affects workers from India and Pakistan among other groups but despite all these challenges the individuals still save a reasonable amount they use in sustaining their families. From this, it is clear that the issue of compliance cannot be valid since the employers within the Middle East do not comply with the law and thus it becomes challenging even for the employees to comply with the same.
Both compliance and ethical practice are part of what makes a professional identity. Basing on a study conducted by Neary (2014), the researcher found out that there is a need of consideration to be put to complexity professionals find themselves in forming their identity in their occupations. There are varied factors that contribute to the formation of personal identity which varies from internal and external terms thus making the subject of professional identify extremely complex. From this finding, it can be denoted that the nature of counseling practitioners is challenging thus making professionals have a hard time differentiating between compliance and ethical practices.
Bradley (2013) conducted a study on the assumptions that are taken for granted and the state of professionalism among Information, Advice, and Guidance (IAG) practitioners. In his study, he notes the significance of evaluating various things that are being taken for granted within the counseling profession. According to him, this subject is of significant importance to IAG practitioners since it has broad ramifications even to the society that they serve. Therefore, this study is significant since numerous practitioners are not aware of the different assumptions that they take for granted while they tarnish their reputation and that of their organization and at the same time affecting the effect of their therapy to their patients (Johnson and Neary 2015, pg 60).
In conclusion, the question “I comply with legislation; therefore I am an ethical practitioner” in relation to equality and anti-discrimination legislation in the middle east countries remains a controversial subject due to the nature of complexity in the subject. The counseling profession calls for practitioners to comply with both the law and the ethical codes of conduct, however, a major challenge is brought about by a lack of compliance by both organizations and the government. Therefore, there is some degree of validity in the statement when not linked to the equality and discrimination legislation which are highly abused. The statement lacks validity on the basis that compliance is rarely practiced in many organizations by the employers in terms of salaries, recruitment, and punishment. Therefore, there is a need for the government to ensure that they implement the formulated legislation for the statement to be valid both in the Middle East and across the world.
References
Bradley, E. (2013). Taken-for-Granted Assumptions and Professionalism in IAG practice (Doctoral dissertation, Lancaster University).
Career Development Institute (2019). CDI Codes of Ethics. [online] Thecdi.net. Available at: https://www.thecdi.net/Code-of-Ethics [Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].
Fredman, S., 2017. Disability equality: A challenge to the existing anti-discrimination paradigm?. In Disability and Equality Law (pp. 123-142). Routledge.
Holroyd, J., Scaife, R. and Stafford, T., 2017. Responsibility for implicit bias. Philosophy Compass, 12(3), p.e12410.
Johnson, C. and Neary, S., 2015. Enhancing professionalism–progressing the career development sector. Journal of the National Institute for Career Education and Counselling, 35(1), pp.57-62.
Khoja, T., Rawaf, S., Qidwai, W., Rawaf, D., Nanji, K. and Hamad, A., 2017. Health care in Gulf Cooperation Council countries: a review of challenges and opportunities. Cureus, 9(8).
La Hovary, C. (2004). Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work.
Mandelbaum, E., 2016. Attitude, inference, association: On the propositional structure of implicit bias. Noûs, 50(3), pp.629-658.
Marshall, E. (2015). Unconscious bias: An Introduction To How Our Biases Affect Our Lives and Work. Retrieved from https://marshallelearning.com/blog/unconscious-bias-an-introduction-with-dan-robertson/
Neary, S., 2014. Reclaiming professional identity through postgraduate professional development: careers practitioners reclaiming their professional selves. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 42(2), pp.199-210.
Noon, M., 2018. Pointless diversity training: unconscious bias, new racism and agency. Work, employment and society, 32(1), pp.198-209.
Syed, J., Ali, F. and Hennekam, S., 2018. Gender equality in employment in Saudi Arabia: a relational perspective. Career Development International, 23(2), pp.163-177.
Zuhur, S., 2016. Criminal law, women and sexuality in the Middle East. In Deconstructing Sexuality in the Middle East(pp. 29-52). Routledge.
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