Building an Ethical Organization Part 2 Tara Kelly University of Phoenix, Axia HSM 230 Ethical Issues in Human Services Organizations Sara Trovatore, MSW September 8, 2010 As the new director of Community Ties, a nonprofit social services organization, it is my duty to write a mission statement and a value statement for our organization as well as an explanation of each and how they tie together. The basis of the organization is to provide strength and support to our local community. Our aim is to grow and become a leader within our community that the people will respect and depend on.
To meet this challenge, Community Ties needs to create a strong code of ethics, define the role of leadership, and create a solid ethical board of oversight. By creating a strong ethical base, Community Ties will become successful, sustainable, and a respected member of the community. With all these basics in place, it is the goal of Community Ties to engender an organizational culture that thrives on teamwork and celebrates diversities both within the organization as well as the diversities within the community we serve.
Community Ties needs to do outreach and research regarding what and where the needs of the community are. We also need to attend and participate in community meetings, advertise our newly formed organization, and create pamphlets and flyers with information about local, state, and federal laws as well as facts sheets. Description Community Ties members consists of community-based organizations, professionals, and other community members.
Community Ties is a community-based, nonprofit organization that helps individuals gain access to community supports and services for individuals in need of services such as counseling, rape crisis, behavioral health services, domestic abuse services, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, Salvation Army, Red Cross, and other such services. We aid and assist those individuals to take their first step toward a better everyday life, in doing so we help to find the community supports and services that best meets the individual’s needs. We elp individuals who are mentally and developmentally disabled, people going through traumatic situations, and abuse victims not only get out of a situation they are in but also to help them cope with everyday life. For those who are homeless and are seeking assistance, we get the information on the different organizations such as Salvation Army and the Red Cross as well as soup kitchens and homeless shelters. A piece of this assistance will be in the form of attending and participating in the community meetings to help guide understanding of those we serve, and providing flyers, and fact sheets.
Another piece of the assistance we provide will be in the form of bringing in top researchers and professionals to educate all stakeholders involved in the issues. Mission Statement Community Ties exists to provide supports and services to individuals seeking assistance through a coalition of united efforts of community members, community-based organizations, and professionals to improve the quality of life, enhance opportunities, and to instill hope for the future for the individuals and families we serve.
The mission statement will support the ethical system by ensuring non-bias, equal opportunity for all individuals seeking help regardless of sex, age, race, and religion. Community Ties makes it part of their mission to only work with ethically-based organizations. By helping these individuals, Community Ties’ hope is to enable these individuals become successful at accessing these services on their own and becoming independent. This mission statement hopes to send the message that the community is tied together, to help strengthen every community member, and comes together to support every member.
Values Statements Do What’s Right: We are committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct in all that we do. We believe that honesty and integrity engender trust, which is the cornerstone of our business. We abide by the local, state, and federal laws in which we do business, we strive to be good citizens, and we take responsibility for our actions. Respect Others: We recognize that our success as an organization depends on the talent, skills and expertise of our people and our ability to function as a tightly integrated team.
We appreciate our diversity and believe that respect – for our colleagues, partners, and all those individuals with need- is an essential element of all positive and productive business relationships. Perform With Excellence: We understand the importance of our missions and the trust our clientele place in us. With this in mind, we strive to excel in every aspect of our business and approach every challenge with a determination to succeed. By providing this value statement we encourage positive growth and achievements for all staff and board members.
We encourage and support every staff and board member to work with the highest standards of ethical conduct, honesty, and integrity. We provide training to educate the staff to value the diversity of all members of the organization and the community. We encourage staff to seek outside training to stay updated on the laws and regulations that governs our business and organization. We encourage staff to strive for excellence in every aspect of their position and encourage them to see every challenge as mountable and become successful.
These values are the backbone to our mission statement. By encouraging our staff to follow our value statement it will directly affect not only their ability to become successful in the organization but also successful in helping the individuals and families we serve. By learning to respect diversity we enable our staff to understand different cultures within our community and their needs. By being honest and working with integrity we build our relationship and confidence within the community and those we serve.
The proof of our staff following our value statement will be shown in the ability of those we serve to become successful, independent, and to gain hope for their future. Our value statement engenders an organizational culture that thrives on team work to be successful and inspires other organizations to do the same. Code of ethics 1. “Commitment to Clients-workers’ primary responsibility is to promote the wellbeing of clients, in general clients’ interests are primary. 2. Self Determination-workers respect and promote the right of clients to elf-determination and assist clients in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals. 3. Competence-workers should provide services and represent themselves as competent only within the boundaries of their education, training, license, certification, consultation received, supervised experience, or other relevant professional experience. 4. Cultural Competence and Social Diversity-workers should understand culture and its function in human behavior and society, recognizing the strengths that exist in all cultures. 5.
Conflicts of Interest-workers should be alert to and avoid conflicts of interest that interfere with the exercise of professional discretion and impartial judgment. 6. Privacy and Confidentiality-workers should respect clients’ right to privacy and should not solicit private information from clients unless it is essential to providing services or conducting social work evaluation or research. 7. Physical contact-workers should not engage in physical contact with colleagues or clients when there is a possibility of psychological harm to the clients as a result of contact. 8.
Derogatory Language-workers should not use derogatory language in their written or verbal communications to or about colleagues and clients. 9. Respect-workers should treat colleagues and clients with respect and should represent accurately and fairly the qualifications, views, and obligations of colleagues and clients. 10. Confidentiality-workers should respect confidential information shared by colleagues in the course of their professional relationships and transactions” (NASW). With the code of ethics set for the workers, it will help to keep them on track and within the law.
The code of ethics will help to inspire the workers to not only bring their best service to the clients but also to help keep them on track with the best of their abilities. The ethical board of oversight will help to maintain or improve on our code of ethics and ensure that these codes are followed. By ensuring Community Ties has a solid ethical foundation we will be successful in our goal of becoming a leader in our community. The mission, values, and ethics all work together to make the organization work to its full capacity as well as the workers themselves.
If the mission, values, and ethics did not coincide the organization would not run efficiently or ethically and there would be no trust within our community or with other service providers. It is imperative that these basics are in place and strongly tie together for Community Ties to become successful. Organizational Culture “Culture is typically defined in terms that stress a pattern of learned and shared basic assumptions, framing how organization members perceive, think, and feel.
It is presumed that if you forged a strong culture, one that incorporates all organization members in shared beliefs and commitments, then everything else good morale, performance, and results should follow” (Peters, 1982). I believe this to be true for all organizations. Every organization should have the mission statement of their organization out where everyone will be able to read it every day. With everyone being able to see this everyday it will help to keep the workers tied to the organizations culture, and keeping their work reliable and within the mission, values, and ethics of Community Ties.
Leadership “One common approach is to focus on the individuals who practice leadership… leaders commonly conduct assessments of their organizations and the environments that provide the context, note their constraints and priorities, take stock of their abilities, and ultimately act concretely (behaviors) and in patterns (styles)” (Van Wart, July/August 2010). This is the best leadership style for Community Ties. This will help every employee to work together and help improve the organization to the best it can be.
In order to help maintain organizational culture and leadership, it will take the collective working of all employees. With everyone working together and noticing the areas that need work, we as a nonprofit organization will be able to thrive and grow. The moral responsibilities as a leader in our organization are not only to the employees but also to the people of the community we serve. Without the community support there would be no organization out there to help them. Oversight Community Ties will develop an ethical board of oversight to help measure the organizations performance in maintaining an ethical standard.
The board will oversee the programs the organization is doing and how they are implementing these programs. This will help to ensure Community Ties is following their mission, values, and ethics statements. The oversight board is also responsible for the internal system encompassing policies, processes, and people, which serve the needs of other stakeholders and clientele, by directing and overseeing management activities with good business savvy, objectivity, accountability, and integrity.
Every nonprofit organization has to have a board. “…the basic role and purpose of all nonprofit boards remain the same. There are legal, ethical, and practical reasons to build a board when a nonprofit is created. These reasons shape the foundation for good governance” (Board Source). With an ethical board of oversight in place, Community Ties will be grounded in following ethical standards with everything they do. With the mission, value statements, and ethics Community Ties have a strong foundation to start off with.
By providing flyers about organizations as well as fact sheets about the issues at hand this will help to tie the community together in understanding and valuing all of our diversities. As we begin to work with the individuals we serve, the community-based organizations, and within the laws, we expect there to be both positive and negative changes to occur. By sticking to our value statements, believing in our code of ethics, and following the direction of our ethical board of oversight, we will be able to continue our work within an ethical atmosphere.
Attending community meetings will help our knowledge and network grow. In time we may find we need to become involved with helping to guide the laws that govern supports and services for those we serve. As our organization grows, our stakeholders will be encouraged to provide their input and help to shape our services as well as our mission and value statements. With their input this will help to improve not only our organization but also the success of the individuals we serve.
References Board Source, Building Effective Nonprofit Boards; http://www. bridgestar. org/Library/WhyDoYouNeedBoard. aspx National Association of Social Workers (NASW) code of ethics; http://www. socialworkers. org/pubs/code/code. asp Peters, T. and Waterman, R. ’s In Search of Excellence, 1982, (n. d). organizational culture. Retrieved from XRefer XML database. Van Wart, M. (2010). Two Approaches to Leadership Studies. 70(4), 650-653. doi:10. 1111/j. 1540-6210. 2010. 02191. x.
