This paper examines the findings of an exploratory study of emerging ethical issues and practices reported by a sample of human service managers and practitioners in public and non-profit agencies in Queensland, Australia.• Findings: The contemporary context in which human services are delivered in Western societies is characterized by increased marketization, contractualism and managerialist practices, all of which entail different ethical values from those traditionally embraced by the social work profession. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative methodologies, this research identifies current and emerging challenges to ethical practice and existing organizational responses to it. Widespread concern about the negative aspects of changed structural arrangements on ethical practice in the contemporary human services is highlighted. Differences in the ways in which organizations and practitioners are responding to these changes are examined. The limitations of existing approaches and ethics codes are noted. • Applications: Implications for organizations, practitioners and educators are explored, and more pro-active management and training strategies are advocated. Further research is required to identify the often-understated negative effects on ethical practice of the market-based reforms of human service structures and processes.Keywords ethical practice human services managerialism marketization social work 345

Australian academics and practitioners in the human services are particularly susceptible to social, political and economic in uences in respect of their relevance, viability and operations. In fact, it can be argued that the impact of these in uences has placed human service practitioners and academics in a perpetual state of vulnerability. Australian universities have been challenged to make their programmes more relevant and viable to the community at large, and practitioners face increasing workloads with limited resources based on restricted scal allocation, and the changing relationship between government and service providers. Drawing on interview data from twenty-one (n = 21) practitioners, this article highlights their identi ed problems regarding the notion of professionalism in the human services with a particular focus on ethical dilemmas in human service practice. Gleaning these details will be a basis for recommending necessary professional ethics curricula content in human services programmes offered in Australian universities. Moreover, while the research data is Australian based, the authors contend that the universal theories and principles underpinning human service practice justify the signi cance and value of the data as an important source for international consideration in curriculum development of human service academic programmes. KEY WORDS professional ethics; social work and welfare curricula; university reform; curriculum development.