Sociological investigation of professional values ??from the perspective of employees of Shahr Khalkhal Gas Company (a qualitative study).

Dissertation for Master of Social Sciences (M.A) degree

Trend: Researcher

Abstract

Professional values ??are the basis of employees' performance that guide employees' interactions with citizens, colleagues, other professionals and the general public and provide a framework for commitment to the welfare of citizens and guidance for ethical behavior in the provision of humanitarian services. The existence of increasing value conflicts among the employees of organizations, non-observance of some professional values ??and its consequences such as the dissatisfaction of the employer, have caused many concerns in the governmental and non-governmental sectors. Therefore, the present study was carried out with the aim of determining the basic components of professional values ??from the perspective of Khalkhal gas company employees. This study is a grounded theory qualitative research that was conducted with the participation of 25 employees. The data collection method is a semi-structured in-depth interview, and the Strauss and Corbin method was used to analyze and interpret the data. The analysis of interviews and participants' views showed that the basic components of professional values ??of employees include 4 main themes; It is a personal, professional, social and organizational dimension. Another result of this research is that the values ??related to professional, social, personal and organizational dimensions were among the most important and least important professional values, respectively, with the average scores of 2.62, 2.61, 2.46 and 2.32. Although the average scores of the components of professional values ??were in the relatively important range, the need for more planning and training in order to improve and expand professional ethics and values ??among the employees of organizations is essential. The direction of the application of their goals depends on the people who are actually their main operators. Without the development of human resources, the organization is meaningless, so investigating and studying the behavior of people in organizations can play a very important role in their growth. Contrary to the existence of many differences in organizational culture, some common features can be observed in organizations, and that is that all definitions point to the existence of a set of professional values ??that are maintained with the individual within the organization (Valikhani et al., 1392: 150).

Professional values ??are standards for action that are accepted by professional groups and experts and provide a framework They provide for the evaluation of values ??and beliefs influencing behavior. These values ??are the basis of employee performance that guide employees' interactions with citizens, colleagues, other professionals, and the general public, and provide a framework for commitment to the well-being of citizens and guidance for ethical behavior in the provision of humanitarian services. Currently, value conflicts are increasing and it is necessary to pay attention to the fundamental components of professional values ??in the field of work in organizations (Hosseini et al., 2013: 70). Currently, unfortunately, in our society, according to most economic experts and officials, the work culture and ethics in the workplace is very weak and less attention is paid to professional values. While in the secular West, in the knowledge related to management and organization, there is a branch called professional ethics, but in our religious society, professional values ??have not been given enough attention in management. Today, in many countries in the industrialized world, they have reached such maturity that neglecting moral issues and escaping social responsibilities and obligations will destroy the company. For this reason, many successful companies have felt the need to formulate ethical strategies, and have come to believe that a culture based on ethics should permeate the organization. Therefore, they have tried to give a special place to researches about professional values ??and ethics.

But how can professional values ??be spread in organizations. One of these tools for the application of professional values ??is the formulation, training, and monitoring of compliance with ethical codes.

Ethical codes are more formal expressions of values ??about specific issues. Codes express the correctness of professional behavior in various situations and based on them, it is determined whether there has been a violation of professional ethics and if so, what punishment should be applied.This is an important feature of ethical codes, which are not enough to express moral principles and generalities, and carefully determine right and wrong behaviors in any profession, so that there is not much ambiguity in recognizing unethical behavior (Lashgarbloki, 2017: 2). According to Bates and Rich[1], "Ethical codes are systematic guides that answer questions related to ethical behavior of the norm and outline several functions, including professional identity (external function), guidelines for the performance of care practices (internal function), and how to motivate employees." Codes of professional ethics can be used as an ethical guide in carrying out professional responsibilities based on quality and help service providers in fulfilling their professional duties. Today, all over the world, there is an increasing concern in the society about how to provide services in an ethical way, and in order to solve these concerns, it is necessary to have professional ethics codes containing ethical principles, including ethical obligations and duties, consequences of actions, values, beliefs, ethical characteristics, and cultural and regional characteristics. Since ethical codes provide a suitable basis for improving the quality of service delivery, it is possible to provide services with an optimal standard not only through the development of knowledge and technology of people working in a profession, but also through the formulation of a series of ethical and value standards. They have divided professional values ??into three major areas: 1 defining the fundamental components of professional values ??and testing hypotheses related to their structure; 2 the relationship between professional values ??and other personal, social or organizational variables and 3 the effect of culture on professional values ??(Delkhmosh, 2009: 249). This research has adopted a structural approach in the field of professional values. The structural approach seeks to identify the basic components of a specific structure, provide a framework for defining their territory, and test the definition experimentally (ibid.: 148). 12 problem plans [2]

One of the most important issues that has caused numerous problems for organizations and their clients worldwide, is the problems caused by corruption and unethical activities and lack of clarity. The criteria of professional values ??are in the field of work in organizations.

In countries such as Japan, America, Germany, England and other industrialized countries, high levels of professional values ??prevail. In Iran, according to most economic experts and officials, work culture and ethics are very weak, and the lack of proper work culture and ethics in the society should be considered as an economic and social flaw and problem and should be studied (Tousli and Najjar Nahavandi, 2017: 40). The existence of increasing value conflicts among the employees of organizations, non-observance of some professional values ??and its consequences such as the dissatisfaction of the employer, have caused many concerns in the governmental and non-governmental sectors. The fall of behavioral standards and the lack of clarity of professional values ??in the public sector have forced researchers to search for theoretical bases in this regard and to provide the appropriate implementation path. In our society, despite the presence of many positive elements in the national and religious culture (where work is highly valued), there are values ??prevailing in the general structure of the society that weaken the values ??of work and consequently work conscience. Khalkhal gas company is not an exception to this rule and the aforementioned issues are observed in it.

Given the aforementioned issues as well as the importance of familiarization, institutionalization and application of professional values, we decided to conduct a sociological investigation of professional values ??from the perspective of employees of Khalkhal gas company in this study, as a preliminary study for conducting a wider research at the country level. Therefore, the main research question is, what are the basic components of their professional values ??from the perspective of Khalkhal gas company employees? 13 Importance and Necessity of Research Today, in industrialized countries, professional values ??are known as factors affecting the progress and development of countries, and its study is part of the study of sociology. In this regard, many researchers consider the success of industrialized countries to be their attention to professional values ??and the application and attention to ethical codes in organizations.

The importance and necessity of addressing professional values ??can be examined from different perspectives and formats.