Ethics In Sw

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL WORK

FINAL PROJECT

“Ethical Situation in México”

María de la Paz Mastretta López

Calgary, AB. December 10, 2007

INTRODUCTION

Trough this semester we have been learning how to develop critical thinking and analyze diverse ethical situations; in order to use concepts of class and demonstrate the knowledge acquired this document willpresent a situation where ethical dilemmas play an important role on the behavior of the Social Worker. Despite it is not a real situation that has happened to me, it’s still very similar to other situations that co-workers have experienced.

The context will be placed in México and we will take international standards to provide an adequate analysis.

ETHICAL SITUATION IN MÉXICO

In México,Social Work is recently starting to develop in different areas. The perspective evolved in this country about the role of the Social Worker may vary significantly with other countries, so this document will start explaining the context of the situation to then express the dilemma, the ethical basis and stand points and finally, the possible solutions.

One of the recent roles of Social Workers isthe business area. The managers are just realizing how important is for companies to think about human resources; in Monterrey, México the USEM[1] (Social Union of Mexican Business) lately declared that economic progress will only be obtained if we start working in balance with people´s needs and political stability. Also COPARMEX[2] (2007) is recognizing the value and the importance that socialresponsibility has on business, they declared that it is time to stop thinking about utilities and start caring about social growth and progress.

On the other hand, Drucker[3] also stated that the management of business must accomplish three main objectives: the company must be understood as a service to clients, a direction for managers and a direction for workers. Having this background, wheremanagers are worried about their workers but they are still interested in the growth of the company and the benefits that they will obtain is when the idea of Social Work in business takes relevance.

According to Domínguez Mendoza and Others (2003)[4] the objectives that a Social Worker would have in this area are primarily inquire in the organization to detect the main social factors that areconditioning the production and seek for the integral development of, the worker as a human being and, of the business as a community, where the interests become mixed in order to satisfy diverse necessities. The levels of intervention are three different ones:

• Manager: making laborer diagnosis focused on human relations, socio-cultural diagnosis detecting needs and capacities of theworkers and serving groups of workers and their families.

• Supervisor: administrative development, opportunities of ascending and descending with personnel and giving general orientation.

• Worker: case-work and motivation in the personnel.

With this general idea of the ideological movements about social responsibility in México and the intervention of Social Work we would say thatthe reality is about to change and oppression of workers will finish soon. However, there is still one issue that is more and more common in this country, especially in Monterrey. Being an industrialized city in a capitalist country, there are rich families that possess big companies and sons of these families are the ones that are inheriting the already mentioned corporations, sometimes withoutenough preparation and with arrogance. The USEM [5] stands out the constant dilemma that young managers frequently have about how to harmonize administration and social actions. But despite all the promotion that diverse organizations are doing about being humanitarian, there is still lack of conscience and sensitivity about social needs. The culture and ancient traditions promote a foreman that...