Building an Ethical Organization Final Paper
HSM 230
October 7, 2011

Building an Ethical Organization The community has opened a human service organization that will focus on the treatment of behavioral and mental health disorders. The organization will provide services to individuals of all ages in the community who have been diagnosed with a behavioral or mental disorder. The organization will help treat some common conditions such as anxiety, mood disorders, dementia, personality disorders, bipolar, trauma issues, obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), and many other psychiatric disorders. This organization is a for profit organization that will have counselors, psychiatrist, nursing staff, and a social services department who are trained to help individuals with behavioral and mental health disorders. The organization will also work with other human service organization to help clients and families meet their basic needs. The organization will accept private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. This organization will work federal, state, and local governments to receive financial assistance as well as other stakeholders to help the organization to provide care to the community. Mission Statement As the director of this organization it is my mission as well as the organizations mission to help its clients and his or her families to achieve the highest level of functioning and improve the quality life of each client and his or her family. The organization will help individuals with behavioral or mental disorders by assessing each individual and develop goals that will meet the unique needs for each client. The organizations goal is to help all individuals regardless of age, to improve relationships with family and peers. Staff members will be trained to help clients learn new life skills, build self-confidence, coping skills, communication skills, social skills, and learn about self-awareness. The organization will also work with other human service organizations to help clients with basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, housing, or financial assistance. This organization will be the voice for all its clients. It is the director’s responsibility to be a positive and ethical role model by demonstrating ethical decisions, behaviors, and activities to staff and the clients. A leader has many responsibilities to the organization and its constituents. A leader needs to know how to deal with dilemmas or issues that may arise in the organization with staff or with the clients. A leader cannot think of his or her self-interest within the organization. I will have an open door policy where staff and clients can come to me at any time about any problems or issues that may arise. I will work hard to resolve those problems and issues in a way that will benefit the client and the organization in an ethical manner.
The mission statement will support the ethical system by providing services to all members of the community regardless of race, color, gender, age, national origin, and religion. The organization has a code of ethics that all staff must follow. All client information will be confidential and protected by the Privacy Act (ASPA) and Health Information Privacy (HIPAA).
The mission statement will hopefully send the message to the community that this organization is here to help all members of the community with behavioral and mental disorders that have been overlooked for many years by individuals and practitioners. It is important for the staff member of the organization to have the same or similar values as the director(s) and the organization. This will ensure that the community will receive good quality care from the staff and the organization. The organization hopes that the mission statement and the goals of the organization will help those individuals and his or her families, who have behavioral and mental disorders to come forward and receive help. No one should have to suffer alone with behavioral or mental disorders.

Value Statement The values of this organization will help us achieve our goals, which is to help individuals and his or her families in the community. Staff members will show all clients and families his or hers dedication to client and family needs as well as empathy, patience, courage, compassion, collaboration, and teamwork. The staff and I will work together so we can be a highly competent, professional, resourceful, and a hard-working team that will work well together so we can achieve the individual goals for each client and the organization.
These actions will inspire and influence staff and clients to work together toward improving the quality of life for clients and his or her families. Clients will see that staff members are caring individuals who only want the best for each client and his or her family.
These values relate to the mission statement because the mission is to improve the quality of life for clients and the clients’ families. To do this the staff and the organization must have certain values that will help clients and his or her families. Behavioral and mental disorders can be hard to diagnose, and some are hard to treat. It may take years or even a lifetime to treat an individual and staff members must be able to show the client and his or her family that his or her case is important to the staff and that the staff is willing to do whatever needs to be done to help achieve the clients’ individual goals. Staff members must be patient and convey to clients’ and his or her families that patience is a key role in achieving the clients’ goals to improving his or hers quality of life because there is no simple or easy fix for behavioral and mental disorders.
To ensure that the organization performs to an ethical standard, the organization has created a board of directors to monitor the operations and activities of the organization and its staff. The board of directors are elected to office by the stakeholders. Monitoring will include evaluation and controlling the actions of the organizations top leaders and other staff. The board will be involved in decision-making so that the decision will influence the destiny of the organization. The board will also help create policies and procedures that will guide staff toward achieving personal and organizational goals as well as the goals of the constituents. The policies will clearly state what the board will and will not tolerate in staff behavior.

Code of Ethics The purpose of this code of ethics is to have set standards for administrators, staff, and clients. These standards are enforceable guidelines set by the board of directors and will be reviewed by the board if any staff is alleged to be in violation of those standards.
The ethical guidelines presented in the code of ethics is a set of standards of conduct which the board of directors and staff consider in ethical and professional decision making. It is hoped that these guidelines will be of assistance when the board of directors and staff are challenged by difficult ethical dilemmas. Although these ethical codes are not legal documents, they may be used to assist in the adjudication of issues related to ethical behavior. The code of ethics supports the organizations mission and value statements.

Ethical Principles 1. Service- The services provided by the organization and its staff members will use their knowledge, skills, education, and values to help constituents in need and to achieve individual goals set by the organization and its staff. 2. Integrity- Staff members will be continually award of the organizations mission, values, ethical principles, and standards and practice those in a consistent manner. 3. Competence- Staff members will continue to strive to increase his or her professional knowledge and skills through education and training of any new techniques that could help clients meet his or her goals. Staff members should represent themselves as competent individuals within the limits of his or her training and education. Staff members should perform job duties or use techniques within his or her appropriate study and training. It is the staffs’ responsibility to exercise careful judgment and take the necessary steps to ensure the competence of his or her work and to protect clients from harm. One way to do this is to seek appropriate training, education, research, and supervision on all new techniques and services. 4. Commitment to clients- The primary responsibility is to promote the health and well-being of clients. Clients interest and loyalty are primary to staff. Staff does however, have specific legal obligations that may supersede the clients interest such as- staff members are required by law to report child abuse and/or threats of harm against self and/or others. 5. Informed Consent- ALL staff members must have a valid consent form from the client before providing any services to the client. A) Staff must use clear and understandable language to inform clients of the purpose of the organization, the services provided, any risks involved in those services, costs, the client’s rights, the right to refuse services, and the right to withdrawal consent. B) If a client cannot give consent because of illness, incapacity, learning disabilities, or language barriers, staff must seek permission from an appropriate third party such as a family member or social worker who has legal consent to speak on the clients behave such as A Power of Attorney.

Rules, Laws, and Regulations 6. Privacy and Confidentially- Staff members should not solicit private information from the client unless it is necessary for providing appropriate services to the client. A) All information provided by the client is confidential with the expectation that if the information provided is information that poses a threat or harm to the client or others, staff members have a legal obligation to report this information to authorities under federal, state, and local laws. B) Staff must inform clients of confidentiality and the limitation of clients rights to confidentiality. C) Staff should review with clients any circumstances which confidential information may be disclosed due to legal requirements. D) Staff members must have consent from client before disclosing confidentiality to other staff members and consultants. 7. The organization prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, gender, religion, disability, or national origin under the Nondiscrimination Laws, Regulations, and Standards under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and enforced by the Office for Civil Rights. 8. Clients are covered under the Health Information Privacy (HIPAA). This rule is a national standard that is set to protect individual’s medical records and other personal health information. The Rule requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of personal health information, and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without patient authorization. The Rule also gives patients’ rights over their health information, including rights to examine and obtain a copy of their health records, and to request corrections (www.hhs.gov.) 9. Sexual Harassment- Staff should not sexually harass clients, client’s family members, or other staff. This includes sexual advances, request of sexual favors, verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. 10. Unethical Conduct of Colleagues- All staff members are encourage to report any unethical behaviors of colleagues so the manner can be corrected by the supervisor and the board of directors. 11. Performance Evaluation- Staff members will be evaluated on his or her job performance by his or her immediate supervisor. Evaluations will be submitted to the board for review and determined if an award or raise is warranted. If not the supervisor and staff member will work together to develop a plan of action to improve the quality of work of the staff member.

Organizational culture is “the set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environment” (Schein, 1996, pp. 229-240). The type of organizational structure this organization will use is the clan structure. This type of structure includes teamwork, participation, employee involvement, and open communication and supports the beliefs and values of the organization. The board of directors believes that this type of cultural structure is the best type for this organization because the services that the organization provides need to have the corporation and collaboration of all staff members so the organization can achieve its mission and the goals of its clients. This structure is internally oriented and is a flexible structure. Studies have shown that organizations that use the clan structure have happier employees and have better attitudes about his or her job.
The goal of the organization is to achieve the highest level of functioning and improve the quality life of each client and his or her family. Through the policies and standards set by the board that the organization will achieve its goal. This human service organization will continue to work with clients and families to improve their quality of life.

References
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Hartnell, C. A., Ou, A., & Kinicki, A. (July 2011). Organizational culture and organizational effectiveness: A meta-analytic investigation of the competing values frameworks theoretical suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 677-694.
Schein, E. H. (1996). Culture: The missing concept in organization studies. Administrative, 1(41), 229-240.
Spillan, J. E., & Ziemnowicz, C. (2011). Who is in charge? Cases of not managing internal controls in nonprofit organizations. Journal of Business, Society and Government, 3(1), 4-20.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from www.hhs.gov.