The purpose of this study was to ascertain how Israeli social workers make ethical decisions. Areas studied included types of ethical dilemmas encountered by social workers, the decisions they made, their education and training in ethics, knowledge and use of the Israel Association's code of ethics, the systems that support staff decision-making in ethical dilemmas and demographic characteristics. One of the anticipated outcomes was the need to educate future social workers to identify and resolve ethical dilemmas.
Literature reviewA code of ethics is one of the major attributes of a profession. It is a central component of professional status that includes a systematic body of theory, professional authority, community sanction, service to society and a professional culture (Greenwood, 1957). This article attempts to contribute to the professional knowledge of social work by ascertaining how social workers make ethical decisions and the role of the code of ethics in professional practice.Although Linzer (1999) and Congress (1999) offer models of ethical decision-making, no surveys have explored how social workers
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