Ethics is a discipline about what is morally good or right.
In this time of much religious celebration, we note that most religions are based on specific spiritual principles. These are behaviors that most recognize as being healthy for the individual and for society.
Ethics easily touches other areas of study, including anthropology, biology, economics, history, politics. Sociology, and theology.
Professional ethics (according to the quasi-governmental Appraisal Foundation) specify four parts: nondiscrimination, conduct, management, and confidentiality.
Spiritual principles can be counted in different ways. Twelve principles, as expressed in successful recovery plans, comprise the following: honesty, hope, faith, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, love, discipline, persistence, awareness, and finally – service. Wow! Quite an assignment.
In overview, the four ethics in the “appraisal standards” — seem quite specific and authoritarian, rather than philosophic or behavioral.
“Nondiscrimination” on racial and other groupings is set out, as well as the requirement that governmental laws and regulations be observed. This section feels more like rules, not ethics.
“Conduct” prohibits bias, predetermined or misleading results, criminal conduct, bad record-keeping, and negligence. It does promote impartiality, objectivity, and independence – positive acts and attitudes which promote some of the spiritual values noted.
“Management” specifies some do’s and don’ts about payment, advertising, and contingent results (repeating some of the “conduct” elements above).
“Confidentiality” emphasizes protection of the client, in terms of confidentiality of information and the analytic results (opinions). This section sets out the exceptions to this requirement.
It appears that the ethical rules are just that: rules. They do not focus on ethical behavior, underpinned by spiritual principles of behavior. Unfortunate. It appears that this profession is governed by rules to be broken, rather than personal principles to follow.
Is there a payoff to living a life based on the spiritual principles?
We think so.
The 12 spiritual principles listed above end with one intent: service. Now we have a connection. A profession, such as appraisal, is a service. Good service should produce good payoff.
If ethical behavior can be learned, it can be taught. It should be taught, along with good science, critical thinking, and modern analytical technology.
What can get in the way? On a personal level, it can be the decision to not be honest, to avoid humility with awareness, and to escape discipline. On a social level, it can be the plague of expanding regulations and bureaucracies. Rules by rule-makers, regulators, oligopolistic users, habit, and by reinforcement through regurgitated training/education. A vicious counter-spiritual self-reinforcing loop.
At times, the “ethical” rules, enforced by more layers of rules, can become part of the problem. If the rules and practices push against people who truly work at service; and if principles run counter to the financial rewards – it works to undermine critical thinking, the public good, of working economic principles, and even the moral survival of society.
Happy holidays!
December 23, 2024 @ 2:37 am
Well written Thanks for your commitment to the profession. Be Blessed
December 23, 2024 @ 4:11 am
Thank you for this thoughtful article, George! I agree with you here. While I am very religious and spend a great deal of time trying to share spiritual principles with people outside of my work,I don’t usually talk about spiritual matters in my secular work. I do believe that a large part of the problem in our industry is a failure to apply spiritual principles on many levels. It is sad. The problems we face as an appraisal profession is more of a spiritual and societal problem, in my view, and not a “rule” problem. If everyone applied the principles you mentioned, things would be better in the world. That’s the very reason I’ve lost the fire to blog or talk about our profession. The issues are larger than any standards rule can fix. Thank you for your thoughtful post here. I appreciate all your articles and all you do for our profession and for me personally. You and your classes have made me a much better appraiser for which I am grateful to you for. Have a great rest if the year my friend!
December 24, 2024 @ 3:16 pm
My father instilled the concept of being of service. When I first went to work for a bank, after management training, they encouraged us to join service clubs. I picked the Jaycee’s whose creed I agreed with. After aging out, I joined the Rotary Club and served on multiple committees, chaired events, etc..
I do volunteer work on holidays, like serving food at the Salvation Army.
It would be interesting to hear how many ways appraisers are of service.
December 28, 2024 @ 3:22 pm
Ethical behavior boils down to doing the right thing. For a real estate appraiser, doing the “right thing” requires a clear understanding of the scope of work that the client and appraiser need to come to terms on. It pre-supposes the entire discipline of ethics.
Unfortunately, the reality of AMC’s, which came into being, due to unethical behavior of appraisers pressured into values beyond market support in the belief/hope values were on a continuous rise, have thrown a monkey wrench into the works. I can, tell the AMC, who sends me a request for a bid on an appraisal, that in order for me to provide them an appraisal report honestly and reliably telling the client what they have, it will require more time and money. Since the AMC has typically already quoted the client a fee, they are hesitant to go back and re-negotiate that, being afraid the client will simply go to another AMC. They don’t want to lose business, so they either tell me to like it or lump it, which usually means I (or whomever appraiser they are dealing with) takes the assignment and either spends more time and effort than what they are getting paid for, producing a credible report; the other option is the appraiser cuts corners in time and effort and produces a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am” report and on to the next one. The appraiser who refuses to work like that either gets kicked off the AMC’s list or gets bid requests, but never gets assignments.
There are always appraisers out there who willl grab any tid-bit of a scrap for work. I do not believe they can produce a reliable, responsible and credible appraisal for tid-bit fees and turn-times. That’s a dangerous and sad situation, similar to the one we found ourselves back in the 1980’s, after which AMC’s became (somewhat) mandated.