Reflection

This personal and institutional discrimination assignment fits competency 2.1.2.

Competency 2.1.2 is to apply social work ethical principles to guide professional
practice. This personal and institutional discrimination assignment is a great
example of recognizing ethical principles and being able to handle situations where
unethical issues are presented. In this assignment I discussed a time when I was
younger where institutional discrimination worked in my favor. When I was
seventeen years old I applied for employment at a fast food restaurant facility. After
I was hired, I discovered that the manager only hired pretty females, because it was
good for business. The manager only hired Hispanic males. The manager believed
that males that were not Hispanic were lazy. At the time I was happy because I was
able to find a place of employment but I knew that the managers perception on
different races and gender were a form of discrimination. I learned that even when it
is beneficial for on self it is wrong to allow discrimination to occur. As future social
workers we must be fair and very conscious of discriminatory behaviors such as the
one I experienced with my manager at the time. I learned to stop unethical
behaviors. Goals for future development include advocating for those who are
being discriminated against to create equal opportunity and fairness in life. After
experiencing discrimination that benefited me, I learned that unethical behavior is
wrong regardless of the benefits and convenience it may have upon an individual.
As social workers we must advocate for the fair treatment and equal opportunity for
all of society. The practice behaviors achieved were to recognize and manage
personal values in a way that allows professional values to guide practice. A
personal value that I managed in this assignment was the value of equal
opportunity and fairness, placing value on these things will display better ethical
behavior. Another practice behavior is to make ethical decisions by applying
standards of the NASW Code of Ethics which was achieved by recognizing unethical
behavior and advocating for change. The tolerance of ambiguity in resolving
conflicts was displayed by the recognition of unethical behavior in the work place.
The application of concepts of ethical reasoning to arrive at principled decisions was
displayed realizing unethical behavior was occurring and the process that had to
take place in order to change the unethical behavior by bringing awareness to the
issue at hand. Overall this personal and institutional discrimination assignment
fulfills competency 2.1.2 because it addresses social work values as well as ethical
issues experienced in the work place from the NASW Code of Ethics. Applying
competency 2.1.2 will provide a better future for those who are often discriminated
against due to the stereotypes that exists in society. Stopping unethical behavior
and advocating for equality are the major lessons I learned from this assignment.
From this assignment my consciousness for ethical and unethical behavior
improved. I am now aware of the process that I have to take in order to prevent this
type of behavior from occurring.