RSHI Code of Ethics

PREFACE

The Board of Directors of the Robert S. Hartman Institute has established the following ethical guidelines for all Board Members, for all persons listed as a Service Provider and their affiliates, and for all members in general. Signing a copy of these guidelines is an essential condition for being a Board Member, Officer, Service Provider, or Member.

The Institute does its best to provide an open forum for formal and applied axiology and to be of service to its members. We do this through our website, including its special section offered as a benefit for “Members Only,” as well as by hosting Annual Conferences where we encourage all members and attendees to share axiological research and data with each other. We also list axiological “Books and Publications” on our website, many authored by Institute Members; and we publish the Journal of Formal Axiology: Theory and Practice, to which all members are invited to contribute.  We publish Hartman’s unpublished works also.

The following ethical principles were designed to affirm and protect the values of our non-profit Institute and its open forum culture. They ensure that all members understand and recognize that the RSHI takes no position regarding relationships between Service Providers, Consultants, and their affiliates and marketing activities.

They affirm that the Institute does not endorse any member’s axiological products, instruments, interpretations, activities, or educational/training/certification systems, and that its name may not be used in the marketing of such.

They endorse responsible, respectful, and ethical and legal behaviors that will reflect positively on the RSHI and its associates. 

They ensure that members do not profit directly from Institute activities.  In fact they encourage members to contribute both money and services to further the mission of the Institute.  (This does not eliminate reimbursement where appropriate.)

The Hartman Institute itself does not interpret the Hartman Value profile; and it does not approve of or endorse any alternative or parallel forms or derivatives thereof, or any interpretations of any of these.

All Officers and Board members serve in their positions and carry out their responsibilities as unpaid and elected volunteers, and by signing this code of ethics, they agree to not hold the Hartman Institute and its Officers and Board Members responsible for any and all damages, attorney fees, and/or court costs that may result from the services they  provide.

In the spirit of Axiological Science, we divide these ethical principles into systemic, extrinsic, and intrinsic categories.  

 Download a Copy of the RSHI Code of Ethics Here

I. SYSTEMIC PRINCIPLES
Systemic Principles affirm and protect the intellectual, conceptual, or systemic values of the Institute, its Members, their potential and actual clients, and all relevant others.

I agree:

• I assume full personal responsibility for my interpretations of Hartmanian Axiology, including the writings of Robert S. Hartman, the Hartman Value Profile, and all axiology related activities, training, publications, and promotional materials; and I acknowledge that the Hartman Institute does not certify, sponsor, or in any way back or assume responsibility for my uses of these.

• I will not hold the Hartman Institute and its Officers and Board Members responsible for any damages, attorney fees, and/or court costs that may result from any of the services I provide.

• I will not present anyone else’s work in theoretical or applied axiology as my own. I will acknowledge my sources explicitly when drawing from anyone else’s work.

• I will abide by all federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the sale or presentation of the HVP, alternate or parallel forms thereof, and all products and publications relating to Hartmanian Axiology.


II. EXTRINSIC PRINCIPLES

Extrinsic Principles affirm and protect practical and behavioral values of the Institute, its Members, their potential clients, and all relevant others. Extrinsic guidelines pertain largely to behaving and performing work or service-related roles in an ethical manner.

I agree:

• I will act and conduct business in legal and ethical ways that maintain and increase the goodwill and positive reputation of The Robert S. Hartman Institute.

• I will not share with non-members any “Member Only” parts of the Institute’s website intended as benefits for dues-paying members only; this includes the Manual of Interpretation for the HVP, certain contents of the Special Collection of Robert S. Hartman’s papers, and other published and unpublished materials.

• I will protect the confidentiality of my clients, and will discuss and disclose the limits of confidentiality where appropriate.

• I will not disclose without their permission confidential information that could lead to the identification of my clients in my writings, lectures, public media, or elsewhere, unless proper release forms have been signed by respondents.

III. INTRINSIC PRINCIPLES

Intrinsic Principles affirm and protect the intrinsic value of individuals, Intrinsic guidelines involve relations to persons and enjoin respect for and behavior in accord with the dignity and intrinsic worth of all persons, whether clients, patients, customers, trainees, affiliates, other Service Providers, or any others affected.

I agree:

• I will try to increase scientific, professional, and philosophical knowledge relevant to appreciating all human beings as ends in themselves having immense inherent worth.

• I will respect and act in accord with those civil and human rights that protect the inherent intrinsic worth of individual persons, such as the rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, justice, privacy, and confidentiality.

• I will do my best to build relationships of trust and trustworthiness with those with and for whom I work, and take care to do no harm.

 Download a Copy of the RSHI Code of Ethics Here