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All Values

Competence and Authority

Many of the codes identify competence or authority to practice in the profession as core values or principles (CFA, 2019; IEEE, 2020: 7.8; IUPSYS, 2008; etc.). This is expressed in several ways: members of the profession may be expected to perform in a competent manner, or they may be required to remain within their domain of competence, or they may be obligated to ensure that unqualified people do not practice the profession (NEA, 1975, as cited above).

For example, behaviour analysts are expected to rely on scientific evidence and remain within the domain of their competence (BACB, 2014:6). Similarly, the Nuremberg Code also determines that the researcher should be a qualified scientist and that the research ought to have scientific merit and be based on sound theory and previous testing (USHM, 2020). And the CPA code (2017) requires that the practitioner be competent.

Sometimes what counts as competence is spelled out in the code. For example, the Royal Society data science ethics in government report (Drew, 2016) advises the use of robust data models in data research. Provisions in the Open University code similarly state that the modeling based on the data should be sound and free from bias, and that it requires "development of appropriate skills across the organisation" (OU, 2014:4.4).

Codes sometimes require that only authorized professionals perform the work. Accenture\x92s Universal Principles for Data Ethics (Accenture, 2016:5) states "practitioners should accurately represent their qualifications (and limits to their expertise)." This is especially the case where expertise is more difficult to establish or where the stakes are higher. The Guyana code of ethics for teachers, for example, requires "honest representation of one's own credentials" (Guyana, 2017) while the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ontario states that "the authority to employ intrusive surveillance powers should generally be restricted to limited classes of individuals such as police officers" (Cavoukian, 2013).

Found In...

  • CFA Institute - Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

    • Examples and Articles

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