Collective responsibility in interdisciplinary collaboration: an ethical perspective for social workers.

This paper analyzes the meaning of collective responsibility in interdisciplinary collaboration in health care from a social work perspective. Three questions about collective decision making are considered: (1) How ought moral agency and responsibility be allocated in collective decision making? (2) How does each member of a collective decision making group exert his/her own moral agency and what is the extent of the responsibility to do so when one disagrees with the group's decision? (3) In the face of conflicting obligations, to whom is moral responsibility primarily due? Preliminary guidelines for enhancing collective responsibility in teams are suggested.