The Leopard
Experienced member
- Messages
- 1,877
- Likes
- 1,021
Out of interest, would you apply that principle to all industries ?
It seams to me that in practice, different sectors apply different ethical standards. Its all a bit confusing, if you take a pimp as an example, they're totally upfront about the nature of their business relationship when they reccommend a tart for example. You find ethical behaviour in the most sleazy of circumstances.
On the other hand, there's often a right load of shinnanagins associated with professions that are seen as respectable (I was going to give a specific example of a lawyer of my aquaintance, but I fear they'd sue, and cause Mr Sharky a few sleepless nights, so I'll remain uncharacteristcally silent on that point)
Should ethics be context sensitive ?, or are they an absolute ?
I think if someone is promoting the services of another provider, and gives many reasons for this, but neglects to mention the financial incentive he has for doing so, then yes, this is always unethical.
This is so because the behaviour is misleading. The prospective customer might be led to believe that the only interest the recommender has is that of helping the prospective customer. In this case he may view the advice to use the services of the other provider as being unbiased. Whereas (let us put this as kindly as possible) in fact this might not be the case.