results.Provide for our own accountability by evaluating and assessing the effects of our work.Make all reasonable efforts to determine if our activities have accomplished the agreed-upon goals and have not had any undesirable consequences; seek to undo any undesirable consequences, and do not attempt to cover them up; use such experiences as learning opportunities.Actively solicit and respond with an open mind to feedback regarding our work and seek to improve our work accordingly.Cease work with a client when it becomes clear that the client is not benefiting or the contract has been completed; do not accept or continue work under a contract if we cannot do so in ways consistent with the values and ethics outlined in this Statement.Establish mutual agreement on a fair contract covering services and remuneration.Ensure mutual understanding and agreement about the service to be performed; do not shift from that agreement without both a clearly defined professional rationale for making the shift and the informed consent of the clients and participants; withdraw from the agreement if circumstances beyond our control prevent proper fulfillment.Ensure mutual understanding and agreement by putting the contract in writing to the extent feasible, yet recognize that:The spirit of professional responsibility encompasses more than the letter of the contract.Some contracts are necessarily incomplete because complete information is not available at the outset.Putting the contract in writing may be neither necessary nor desirable.Safeguard the best interests of the client, the profession, and the public by making sure that financial arrangements are fair and in keeping with appropriate statutes, regulations, and professional standards.Deal with conflicts constructively and minimize conflicts of interest.Fully inform the client of our opinions about serving similar or competing organizations; be clear with ourselves, our clients, and other concerned stakeholders about our loyalties and responsibilities when conflicts of interest arise; keep parties informed of these conflicts; cease work with the client if the conflicts cannot be adequately resolved.Seek to act impartially when involved in conflicts among parties in the client system; help them resolve their conflicts themselves, without taking sides; if it becomes necessary to change our role from that of impartial consultant, do so explicitly; cease work with the client if necessary.Identify and respond to any major differences in professionally relevant values or ethics between ourselves and our clients; be prepared to cease work, with explanation of our reasons, if necessary.Accept differences in the expectations and interests of different stakeholders and realize that those differences cannot always be reconciled; take a whole-win approach to the resolution of differences whenever possible so that the greatest good of the whole is served, but allow for exceptions based on more fundamental principles.Work cooperatively with other internal and external consultants serving the same client systems and resolve conflicts in terms of the balanced best interests of the client system and all its stakeholders; make appropriate arrangements with other internal and external consultants about how to share responsibilities.Seek consultation and feedback from neutral third parties in cases of conflict involving ourselves, our clients, other consultants, or any of the systems’ various stakeholders.Define and protect confidentiality in our client relationships.Make limits of confidentiality clear to clients and participants.Reveal information accepted in confidence only to appropriate or agreed-upon recipients or authorities.Use information obtained during professional work in writings, lectures, or other public forums only with prior consent or when disguised so that it is impossible from our presentations alone to identify the individuals or systems with whom we have worked.Make adequate provisions for maintaining confidentiality in the storage and disposal of records; make provisions for responsibly preserving records in the event of our retirement or disability.Make public statements of all kinds accurately, including promotion and advertising, and give service as advertised.Base public statements providing professional opinions or information on scientifically acceptable findings and techniques as much as possible, with full recognition of the limits and uncertainties of such evidence.Seek to help people make informed choices when they refer to statements we make as part of promotion or advertising.Deliver services as advertised and do not shift without a clear professional rationale and the informed consent of the participants or clients.
4 Responsibility to the OD-HSD ProfessionContribute to the continuing professional development of other practitioners and of the profession as a whole.Support the development of other professionals by various means, including:Mentoring with less experienced professionals.Consulting with other colleagues.Participating in reviews of others’ practices.Contribute to the body of professional knowledge and skill, including:Sharing ideas, methods, and findings about the effects of our work.Keeping our use of copyright and trade secrets to an appropriate minimum.Promote the sharing of professional knowledge and skill.Grant use of our copyrighted material as freely as possible, subject to a minimum of conditions, including a reasonable price based on professional as well as commercial values.Give credit for the ideas and products of others.Respect the rights of others in the materials they have created.Work with other OD-HSD professionals in ways that exemplify what the OD-HSD profession stands for.Establish mutual understanding and agreement about our relationships, including purposes and goals, roles and responsibilities, fees, and income distribution.Avoid conflicts of interest when possible and resolve conflicts that do arise constructively.Work actively for ethical practice by individuals and organizations engaged in OD-HSD activities and, in case of questionable practice, use appropriate channels for dealing with it.Discuss directly and constructively when possible.Use other means when necessary, including:Joint consultation and feedback (with another professional as a third party)Enforcement procedures of existing professional organizationsPublic confrontationAct in ways that bring credit to the OD-HSD profession and with due regard for colleagues in other professions.Act with sensitivity to the effects our behavior may have on the ability of colleagues to perform as professionals, individually and collectively.Act with due regard for the needs, special competencies, and obligations of colleagues in other professions.Respect the prerogatives and obligations of the institutions or organizations with which these colleagues are associated.
5 Social ResponsibilityAccept responsibility for and act with sensitivity to the fact that our recommendations and actions may alter the lives and well-being of people within our client systems and within the larger systems of which they are subsystems.Act with awareness of our own cultural filters and with sensitivity to international and multicultural differences and their implications.Respect the cultural orientations of the individuals, organizations, communities, countries, and other human systems within which we work, including their customers, beliefs, values, morals, and ethics.Recognize and constructively confront the counterproductive aspects of those cultures whenever feasible, but be alert to the effects our own cultural orientation may have on our judgments.Promote justice and serve the well-being of all life on earth.Act assertively with our clients to promote justice and well-being, including:Constructively confronting discrimination whenever possible.Promoting affirmative action in dealing with the effects of past discrimination.Encouraging fairness in the distribution of the fruits of the system’s productivity.Contribute knowledge, skill, and other resources in support of organizations, programs, and activities that seek to improve human welfare.Accept some clients who do not have sufficient resources to pay our full fees and allow them to pay reduced fees or nothing when possible.Engage in self-generated or cooperative endeavors to develop means for helping across cultures.Support the creation and maintenance of cultures that value freedom, responsibility, integrity, self-control, mutual respect, love, trust, openness, authenticity in relationships, empowerment, participation, and respect for fundamental human rights.Withhold service from clients whose purpose(s) we consider immoral, yet recognize that such service may serve a greater good in the longer run and therefore be acceptable.Act consistently with the ethics of the global scientific community of which our OD-HSD community is a part.
Finally, we recognize that accepting this Statement as a guide for our behavior involves holding ourselves to standards that may be more exacting than the laws of any countries in which we practice, the ethics of any professional associations to which we belong, or the expectations of any of our clients.
Source: Gellermann, W., Frankel, M. S., & Ladenson, R. F. (1990). Values and Ethics in Organization and Human Systems Development: Responding to Dilemmas in Professional Life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reprinted with permission.
Case Study 2: Analyzing Opportunities for Organization Development Work at Northern County Legal Services
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