Exam 1: What Is It to Be a Professional the Professions, Leadership, and Work

Samuel Gorovitz | Good Doctors According to Gorovitz, medical schools ought to impart not just technical knowledge but also ethical values and practical experience. He offers a number of suggestions on how best to achieve this goal to ensure that future doctors are equipped not only with the best of current knowledge and skills but also with the moral sensitivity necessary to communicate well with patients in complex situations. -Since medical science changes through time, medical ethics should NOT be taught as a

Michael D. Bayles | The Professions In this reading, Bayles discusses the characteristics of being a professional and the complex relationship between generally autonomous professionals and their supervisors. He distinguishes between consulting and scholarly professions, concluding with a discussion of how professions monopolize services in order to keep out untrained practitioners. -In large bureaucratic organizations, supervisors may seek to limit the ___________ of professionals if their personal judgments are seen to exceed the bounds of acceptable practice.

Michael Davis | Professional Responsibility: Just Following the Rules? Davis criticizes the view that professional responsibility goes beyond merely following the rules of one's code of ethics by necessarily involving certain character virtues. Rather, if a code of ethics is well-written, following these rules means that a professional is acting responsibly. He discusses seven different interpretations of "just following the rules": blind obedience, strict obedience, malicious obedience, negligent obedience, accidental obedience, stupid obedience, concluding with a positive discussion of interpretative obedience. -According to Davies, a comprehensive interpretation of a professional code of ethics should include all but

Preston Stovall | Professional Virtue, Professional Self-Awareness, and Engineering Ethics Stovall introduces Aristotle's main arguments and definitions from the Nicomachean Ethics and discusses how professional virtue can best be seen as a subset of Aristotle's ethical virtues. He uses the example of professional engineering virtues to make his case, further emphasizing the role of professional self-awareness in developing a flourishing and successful professional career. -Which of the following is NOT a hazard of professional development, according to Stovall?

Michael D. Bayles | The Professions In this reading, Bayles discusses the characteristics of being a professional and the complex relationship between generally autonomous professionals and their supervisors. He distinguishes between consulting and scholarly professions, concluding with a discussion of how professions monopolize services in order to keep out untrained practitioners. -Which type of professional has traditionally practiced on a fee-for-service basis?

Michael Davis | Professional Responsibility: Just Following the Rules? Davis criticizes the view that professional responsibility goes beyond merely following the rules of one's code of ethics by necessarily involving certain character virtues. Rather, if a code of ethics is well-written, following these rules means that a professional is acting responsibly. He discusses seven different interpretations of "just following the rules": blind obedience, strict obedience, malicious obedience, negligent obedience, accidental obedience, stupid obedience, concluding with a positive discussion of interpretative obedience. -"Working to rule" most resembles ___________ obedience.

Henry Mintzberg | The Professional Organization Mintzberg first discusses the basic structure and uniqueness of professional organizations and how they differ from machine bureaucracies and innovative organizations. He then presents various forms and models of professional organizations. Finally, he shows how the characteristics of being both democratic and autonomous can lead to favorable as well as unfavorable conditions among professionals. -Administrators maintain power over professionals only as long as they

Joanne B. Ciulla | What Is Good Leadership? Ciulla discusses the importance have having both an ethical and an effective leader and why it is often difficult to find both qualities in the same individual. When one is emphasized without the other, a leader may have moral character but not be able to effect genuine change or be able to produce end results by questionable means. -If a leader is ___________, good moral intentions can still lead to an unethical outcome.

Joanne B. Ciulla | What Is Good Leadership? Ciulla discusses the importance have having both an ethical and an effective leader and why it is often difficult to find both qualities in the same individual. When one is emphasized without the other, a leader may have moral character but not be able to effect genuine change or be able to produce end results by questionable means. -A leader who is both ethical and effective is

Only one of the seven different instances Davis provides for "following the rules" lives up to his conception of what students should be taught in learning their respective professional codes of ethics. Explain how Davis arrives at this conclusion. Do you think he has argued adequately against his original criticism of the legalistic view of "merely following the rules"? Why or why not?

Case 1.2: Nick Denton, "Less Heat, More Light" -Nick Denton mentions a number of positive characteristics of part-time as opposed to full-time workers. How did he arrive at these views? Do you find them convincing? Offer reasons of your own that either support or undermine Denton's views about part-time work.

Richard A. Wasserstrom | Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues Wasserstrom discusses moral issues that arise when examining the lawyer-client relationship, focusing in particular on role-differentiated behavior among professionals. Providing a number of supporting reasons, he makes a case for a type of "deprofessionalizing" the legal profession that would counter the effects of the usual paternalistic and impersonal relationship between lawyers and clients. -Compelling a rape victim to submit to a psychiatric examination before trial is an example of the court ___________ a defense procedure that a lawyer may personally find morally objectionable.

Do you agree with Wasserstrom that the unequal relationship between lawyers and clients leads to viewing clients not as adult persons but more as children or even objects? Why or why not?

Joanne B. Ciulla | What Is Good Leadership? Ciulla discusses the importance have having both an ethical and an effective leader and why it is often difficult to find both qualities in the same individual. When one is emphasized without the other, a leader may have moral character but not be able to effect genuine change or be able to produce end results by questionable means. -According to Ciulla, which of the following is a case of Robinhoodism as opposed to Machiavellianism?

How does Davis argue against critics who distinguish between the letter of a rule and the spirit of a rule? Do his general and specific answers fit with his overall argument about what it means to follow a professional code of ethics? Why or why not?

Richard A. Wasserstrom | Lawyers as Professionals: Some Moral Issues Wasserstrom discusses moral issues that arise when examining the lawyer-client relationship, focusing in particular on role-differentiated behavior among professionals. Providing a number of supporting reasons, he makes a case for a type of "deprofessionalizing" the legal profession that would counter the effects of the usual paternalistic and impersonal relationship between lawyers and clients. -The special relationship between professionals and clients, according to Wasserstrom, is generally due to ___________ behavior.

Henry Mintzberg | The Professional Organization Mintzberg first discusses the basic structure and uniqueness of professional organizations and how they differ from machine bureaucracies and innovative organizations. He then presents various forms and models of professional organizations. Finally, he shows how the characteristics of being both democratic and autonomous can lead to favorable as well as unfavorable conditions among professionals. -In which way does the professional bureaucracy differ from the machine bureaucracy?

Joanne B. Ciulla | What Is Good Leadership? Ciulla discusses the importance have having both an ethical and an effective leader and why it is often difficult to find both qualities in the same individual. When one is emphasized without the other, a leader may have moral character but not be able to effect genuine change or be able to produce end results by questionable means. -Unethical leaders sometimes come to think that they are ___________ the rules.

Preston Stovall | Professional Virtue, Professional Self-Awareness, and Engineering Ethics Stovall introduces Aristotle's main arguments and definitions from the Nicomachean Ethics and discusses how professional virtue can best be seen as a subset of Aristotle's ethical virtues. He uses the example of professional engineering virtues to make his case, further emphasizing the role of professional self-awareness in developing a flourishing and successful professional career. -Stovall states that the exercise of professional virtue requires, above all else,

Mintzberg states that we can best understand professional organizations as upside-down or inverse pyramid structures, in which the workers "manage their own bosses." Do you agree with this assessment of how these organizations function and the roles administrators play with respect to professionals, support staff, and outside agencies? Why or why not?