Individual and organizational ethics

Abstract

The interaction of the National Association of Social Workers Code, treating of individual ethics, and the Catholic Charities USA Code, treating of organization ethics, is examined in reference to compatibility and conflict. A major difference lies in the purpose of the codes: the NASW Code is prescriptive, the Catholic Charities USA Code is normative. Ethics represents the translation of values into action and both codes identify the value of the person as fundamental. However, whereas the Catholic Charities USA Code identifies and elaborates the biblical and natural law source of basic values, the NASW does not qualify these values by suggesting source or context. Two dimensions of difference in the codes emerge as particularly significant. They are the social ethics‐individual ethics dimension and the religious‐secular dimension.