CPT Professional Standards & Ethics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CPT practitioner is hired to improve call center performance. During analysis, they discover the client is engaging in deceptive sales practices. What is the ethical obligation?
- Ignore the finding and focus only on performance metrics
- Report the finding to the client and decline to support unethical practices (Correct answer)
- Include the deceptive practice in the performance solution
- Immediately report the client to regulatory authorities without discussion
Correct answer: Report the finding to the client and decline to support unethical practices
CPT ethics require practitioners to raise ethical concerns with clients and refuse to support or enable unethical business practices.
Question 2: The ISPI Code of Ethics requires CPT professionals to add value to their clients. Which action BEST demonstrates this principle?
- Recommending the most expensive intervention available
- Aligning solutions to measurable business outcomes and stakeholder needs (Correct answer)
- Implementing every solution the client requests without question
- Focusing solely on learner satisfaction scores
Correct answer: Aligning solutions to measurable business outcomes and stakeholder needs
Adding value means linking performance interventions to measurable business outcomes that matter to stakeholders.
Question 3: When a CPT practitioner disagrees with a client's chosen intervention, the professional standard requires:
- Refusing to work on the project until the client agrees
- Implementing the intervention without comment
- Documenting concerns professionally and presenting data-driven alternatives (Correct answer)
- Escalating the disagreement to ISPI immediately
Correct answer: Documenting concerns professionally and presenting data-driven alternatives
Professional standards require practitioners to voice concerns with evidence and offer alternatives while respecting the client's ultimate decision-making authority.
Question 4: Confidentiality obligations under CPT professional standards apply to:
- Only financial data shared by the client
- All proprietary information, performance data, and organizational details learned during the engagement (Correct answer)
- Only information explicitly marked 'confidential' by the client
- Information shared after the engagement ends
Correct answer: All proprietary information, performance data, and organizational details learned during the engagement
Confidentiality covers all sensitive organizational information encountered during an engagement, regardless of labeling.
Question 5: A performance technologist is asked to evaluate a training program developed by their close friend. The most ethical course of action is to:
- Conduct the evaluation but give the friend's program favorable ratings
- Disclose the relationship and recuse themselves or ensure objective evaluation protocols (Correct answer)
- Decline all evaluation work involving known individuals
- Ask the friend to evaluate their own program instead
Correct answer: Disclose the relationship and recuse themselves or ensure objective evaluation protocols
Disclosure of conflicts of interest and maintaining objectivity are foundational to professional ethics in performance technology.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes 'stewardship' as a CPT ethical principle?
- Managing the client's budget on their behalf
- Acting responsibly toward clients, society, and the profession as a whole (Correct answer)
- Protecting intellectual property owned by the practitioner
- Ensuring clients pay invoices on time
Correct answer: Acting responsibly toward clients, society, and the profession as a whole
Stewardship means being responsible for the welfare of clients, the broader society, and the integrity of the performance improvement profession.
Question 7: A CPT professional discovers mid-project that their initial analysis was flawed and the recommended intervention will not solve the root cause. Ethical standards require:
- Completing the project as planned to honor the contract
- Notifying the client of the error and proposing a corrected approach (Correct answer)
- Quietly correcting the analysis without informing the client
- Blaming the client for providing incomplete initial data
Correct answer: Notifying the client of the error and proposing a corrected approach
Professional integrity demands transparency about errors and proactive communication with the client to correct course.
CPT Professional Standards & Ethics 2
A CPT practitioner is hired to improve call center performance.
During analysis, they discover the client is engaging in deceptive sales practices.
What is the ethical obligation?