ABSTRACT

In this chapter, we present research results about disagreement among social workers. These results challenge the idea that common values are influential in social work practice and that general ethical guidelines are helpful for social workers handling ethical dilemmas in practice. We review empirical research that shows widespread disagreement among social workers about judgments and attitudes regarding concrete situations and ethical dilemmas. Empirical studies show that social workers are often unaware of the existing disagreements within their profession. Hence, controversial issues are latent and seldom discussed. We propose that social workers have an important ethical obligation to recognize those disagreements, express their own judgments, listen carefully to divergent views, and be willing to discuss the emerging ethical issues. Moreover, we suggest that the vignette method can be used to train these competencies and study social workers’ responses to ethical dilemmas.