Conflicting Expectations

One of the more difficult situations in which to make an ethical decision is when more than one person is potentially impacted by your action and their expectations of how you should proceed are in conflict.

As an occupational health and safety professional, clients and employers often have very different views of what is “appropriate” from those of employees or the public. An example of when this difference in view can arise is when your work involves the assessment of health risk associated with a workplace exposure.

So how do you decide whose expectations you should meet?

For an interesting take on this question, check out Mike Jayjock’s blog post at http://jayjock-associates.blogspot.com/2015/01/acceptable-risk-personal-gut-check.html.

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The ABIH Code of Ethics states:

Follow appropriate health and safety procedures, in the course of performing professional duties to protect clients, employers and employees and the public from conditions where injury and damage are reasonably foreseeable. (provision C.1.)

An interesting question raised by this provision –  Is the key to meeting this ethical provision a duty to “protect” or is it that professionals need to “follow appropriate health and safety procedures”?

If the requirement is to follow appropriate procedures, how is the decision of what is “appropriate” to be made?