National Groomer Association of Canada

Professional Ethic

The foundation of a professional ethic rests on a profession's existing traditions and values. Ethics tends to be understood in terms of the practices already present within the profession and of the attitudes, reasoning, and actions of its members. Although a professional ethic is open to change to address new issues, it tends to require that the profession's existing approach to ethics be the framework for all change. It typically includes formal and informal codes expressing rules and standards governing the conduct of members of a professional group: formal codes are written down and published in some form and informal codes are perpetuated through training and example.

National Groomer Association of Canada written codes for Professional Ethic:

The purpose of a code of ethics is to make explicit the primary goals, values and obligations of the Association.

It is a succinct statement of the ethical obligations of every individual who is employed or volunteers for the Association. It is an expression of NGAC’s own understanding of its commitment to the clients we serve, to each other, and to society as written in its vision, mission, core values, principles and philosophy statements.

The NGAC Canada Code of Ethics consists of two parts: a NGAC value statement and an interpretive statement. They provide a framework for ethical analysis and decision-making and are intended to support professional codes of ethics.

A code of ethics is a dynamic document that provides guidelines for decision- making and self-evaluation for volunteers, service providers and administrators. As the pet grooming delivery environment and social context change, the code may need revisions to reflect these changes and will be revised and posted.

RESPECT

NGAC employees and volunteers practice with compassion and show consideration for the autonomy, rights, dignity, worth and uniqueness of individuals, groups and communities.

Interpretive Statement

We respect the worth and uniqueness of individuals and the pet companions we serve by:

• Acknowledging the right of all animals we serve in the pet grooming industry:

• to live and die in comfort with dignity;

• to develop and enhance the capacity of knowledge for self-care;

• Promoting sensitivity to and knowledge about cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity;

• Refraining from discrimination or harassment in the areas of culture, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, or socio-economic status;

• Respecting privacy and maintaining confidentiality;

• Advocating for respectful treatment for all persons including safety, competence, individual rights, fairness;

• Building caring and compassionate relationships with colleagues and others with a commitment to fair treatment of individuals, integrity-preserving compromise, and to resolution of conflict;

• Declaring a conflict of interest and striving to resolve conflicts to ensure the safety and integrity of parties involved.

PARTICIPATION 

NGAC employees and volunteers collaborate with each other and those external to NGAC to promote a healthier society.

Interpretive Statement

We collaborate with each other and those external to NGAC by:

• Inviting members to partner in decisions about their profession;

• Acknowledging the capabilities and resourcefulness of members, employees, volunteers and community partners;

• Creating trust;

• Building accountability;

• Participating in identifying and responding to personal learning needs and the communities we serve;

• Bringing key stakeholders into the decision-making process;

• Collaborating with communities, government, professional Associations and each other to promote our shared goal of meeting the needs of the Pet Grooming Community and the Public.

RESPONSIVENESS

NGAC employees and volunteers respond in a timely manner to opportunities to promote health and well-being.

Interpretive Statement

We respond in a timely manner to opportunities to promote knowledge and well-being by:

• Seeking out, listening to and working with communities and members to address needs they identify;

• Providing the right service, by the right provider in the right place;

• Being vigilant in seeking opportunities, through our charitable role, to respond to those who cannot access mainstream;

• Maintaining updated knowledge on current grooming practice, trends and issues in order to respond to changing individual and community needs using current best practices;

• Responding to issues and feedback, both positive and negative, to pursue continuous quality improvement;

• Responding to a changing environment.

COURAGE

NGAC employees and volunteers act with courage when they advocate for change, stand firm in adversity, challenge injustices, and support innovation in the pet grooming environment.

Interpretive Statement

NGAC employees and volunteers courageously shape the future of pet grooming by:

• Empowering individuals, groups and communities to take action and resolve needs and issues;

• Advocating for change on behalf of pet companion animals and local communities on health, animal crulety and social justice issues relating to the Pet Industry;

• Encouraging others to challenge us in the way we work to achieve/promote safe quality, ethical practice;

• Supporting those who, in good faith, speak out against incompetent, unsafe or unethical practices within the NGAC Association;

• Accepting and/or challenging changes in the internal and external pet grooming environment with innovation and resolve;

• Being leaders in developing health and social policy relating to the Pet Grooming Industry..

Ethical decision-making is a process. There are seldom simple answers available to resolve complex questions. All of the NGAC community can access professional codes of ethics, the NGAC Canada Code of Ethics, support of colleagues and the NGAC Ethics Committee to provide support with difficult ethical questions.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

“Six-Step Decision-making Framework” and a “Glossary of terms: A Companion to Ethical Decision Making” that will assist employees and volunteers to translate the code into action.

6 Steps to Decision-making Process

These 6 steps to decision-making process may, at first, seem very complicated. However, these are essential decision-making techniques that would aid you in taking proper decisions in your personal as well as professional life. Moreover, decision-making is an ongoing process and will never come to a standstill.

All human beings are faced with certain situations in their everyday life, where they need to take important decisions. However, decisions that are made without any planning have a risk of leading to failure. To avoid such problems, it is necessary to take decisions in an organized way. This can be done by following these 6 steps of decision-making.

Decision-making is usually defined as the act of making up your mind about something. However, the process of decision-making is not as easy as it sounds. There are certain important decisions that you have to make which can change the course of your life. Even at a workplace, one is confronted with problems or dilemmas, where the solutions should cater to the need of others around you. Such decisions have to be made in a careful way, especially if it is going to affect you monetarily, or if it is going to bring major changes in your life. Thus, it is important to take decisions in a systematic way, so that the decision you make has high chances of being successful. The article here discusses the 6 steps to decision-making process, that can help in clarifying certain things in your mind before you take the final decision. These steps will also help enhance your decision-making skills for different types of decision making.

How to Make a Decision in Six Steps

Defining the Problem: The first step towards a decision-making process is to define the problem. Obviously, there would be no need to make a decision without having a problem. So, the first thing one has to do is to state the underlying problem that has to be solved. You have to clearly state the outcome that you desire after you have made the decision. This is a good way to start, because stating your goals would help you in clarifying your thoughts.
Develop Alternatives: The situation of making a decision arises because there are many alternatives available for it. Hence, the next step after defining the main problem would be to state out the alternatives available for that particular situation. Here, you do not have to restrict yourself to think about the very obvious options; rather you can use your creative skills and come out with alternatives that may look a little irrelevant. This is important because sometimes solutions can come out from these out-of-the-box ideas. You would also have to do adequate research to come up with the necessary facts that would aid in solving the problem.
Evaluate the Alternatives: This can be said to be one of the most important stages of the decision-making process. This is the stage where you have to analyze each alternative you have come up with. You have to find out the advantages and disadvantages of each option. This can be done as per the research you have done on that particular alternative. At this stage, you can also filter out the options that you think are impossible or do not serve your purpose. Rating each option with a numerical digit would also help in the filtration process.
Make the Decision: This is the stage where the hard work you have put in analyzing would lead to a proper decision. The evaluation process would help you with clearly looking at the available options and you have to pick whichever you think is the most applicable. You can also club some of the alternatives to come out with a better solution instead of just picking out any one of them.
Implement the Solution: The next obvious step after choosing an option would be implementing the solution. Just making the decision would not give the result one wants. Rather, you have to carry out on the decision you have made. This is a very crucial step because all the people involved in implementation of a solution should know about their implications. This is very essential for the decision to give successful results.
Monitor your Solution: Just making a decision and implementing it, is not the end of the decision-making process. It is crucial to monitor your decision regularly once they are implemented. At this stage, you have to keep a close eye on the progress made by implementing the solutions. You may need to measure the results of implementations against your expected standards. Monitoring of solutions since early stage may also help you to alter your decisions, if you notice deviation of results from your expectations.

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