Professional Ethics in Geography

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For any professional establishment, ethics is considered an important aspect within the work place. Ethics are a set of concepts and principles that guide us in determining what behavior helps or harms others. For professional ethics, they encompass the personal, organizational, and corporate standards of behavior expected. These may include honesty, integrity, accountability, respectfulness, confidentiality, etc. For professional geographers - whether it is non-profit, profit, or a government agency – it is important to ensure that these ethics are being used and that we treat the products/data, the people we work with, and the work place with respect.
The issues relating to professional geographers include control of and access to information, privacy and misuse of data, and international considerations. All of these extend to electronic networks, electronic databases, and to professional geographers using geographic information systems. When working as a professional geographer, it is important to address any concerns to the appropriate department. Issues to report are theft, fraud, conflicts of interest, threat to employee safety, unauthorized access to customer or employee information, and unlawful practices.
When working with others, it requires respect for opinions and rights of others – which is not spreading accusations and/or rumors about colleagues and allowing an open and honest ability to discuss differences and concerns. According to the Association of American Geographers, there are three areas in which help create high ethics and value and help avoid tarnishing corporations’ credibility and likeness: avoiding discrimination and harassment, sustaining community, and promoting fairness in hiring. (1) These three...

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...place. When addressing unethical behavior, I will make sure that I am reporting it to the proper personnel; manager, team leader, and/or human resources.
Overall, ethics in the workplace is important for maintaining work flow and making everyone involved satisfied with their fellow colleagues. Not only that, but strong ethics helps keep your company, agency, or corporation credible to others using your products. If you participate in unethical practices, many consumers will not trust your product and you will not have repeat business. The same thing goes for professional geographers; if you participate in unethical practices, your information, data, and/or research will be discredited due to the unvalued approach. It is important to ensure that these ethics are being used and that we treat the products/data, the people we work with, and the work place with respect.

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