3CO03 Core Behaviours for People Professionals covers the key behaviours for people professionals, emphasising ethical practices that create value. It explores how consistent thinking and actions, even in new and challenging situations, should help promote well-being and inclusivity within the organisation.
Table of Contents
Task 1 – Case Study and Questions
AC 1.1 You have increasingly felt that Jez, one of your team members, is behaving in a way that you consider to be unethical and unprofessional. Using two examples of what this behaviour could be, explain how your own ethical principles and professional values might conflict with this.
Ethical principles are the fundamental moral standards, such as honesty, fairness, integrity and respect for others, that guide how a person distinguishes right from wrong conduct at work. Professional values are the standards specific to the people profession that define competent and trustworthy practice. The CIPD Profession Map places ethical practice at the heart of these core behaviours, describing it as building trust by role-modelling ethical behaviour and applying principles and values consistently when making decisions (CIPD, 2024a). Working within Plyton’s people management and L&D team, I have a particular responsibility to model these behaviours, because people professionals influence how the whole workforce is treated (CIPD, 2025a). Two examples of behaviour Jez could be displaying illustrate how his conduct might conflict with my own principles and values.
The first example is Jez sharing confidential employee information as workplace gossip. As part of a small people team, Jez has access to sensitive records such as salaries, disciplinary histories and health-related absence data. If he casually discusses this information with colleagues on the factory floor, or uses it to entertain or influence others, this conflicts directly with my ethical principle of confidentiality and my professional value of integrity. The CIPD Code of Professional Conduct requires members to safeguard information obtained through their role and to act with honesty and discretion (CIPD, 2024b). This behaviour would also undermine the trust that employees across Plyton’s southern region place in our team; once employees believe the people team cannot keep information secure, they stop raising sensitive issues, which damages wellbeing and inclusivity. The conflict for me is a practical one: my values would compel me to challenge Jez and, if the behaviour continued, to escalate it to the people director, even though doing so could create tension inside a small, previously harmonious team of five, and even though we are all now competing for the same team leader role.
The second example is Jez taking sole credit for work produced collectively by the team, and misrepresenting his contribution to the people director ahead of the team leader selection. Because the director is based at head office in the north and sees the team infrequently, she relies heavily on what she is told. Exaggerating achievements and claiming shared successes as personal ones is dishonest and conflicts with my ethical principles of honesty and fairness, and with the professional value of valuing people, which requires giving colleagues due recognition. It also conflicts with professional courage and influence, a core behaviour in the Profession Map that requires practitioners to speak up when something is wrong rather than remaining a bystander (CIPD, 2024a). My performance review praised my respectful and inclusive approach, and I have worked hard to build the confidence to voice opinions; this situation would test both. The tension is that challenging Jez could be perceived as self-interested given the forthcoming promotion, so I would need to raise the issue in a measured, evidence-based way, focusing on the behaviour and its effect on team effectiveness rather than on the competition between us. Ethical practice means applying values consistently even in new and challenging situations, not only when it is comfortable (CIPD, 2024a).
