List of Titles

Sartrean existentialism and ethical decision-making in business

- West, Andrew

Authors: West, Andrew
Date: 2008
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Business Ethics Vol. 81, no. 1 (2008), p. 15-25
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Description: A wide range of decision-making models have been offered to assist in making ethical decisions in the workplace. Those that are based on normative moral frameworks typically include elements of traditional moral philosophy such as consequentialist and/or deontological␣ethics. This paper suggests an alternative model drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism. Accordingly, the model focuses on making decisions in full awareness of one’s freedom and responsibility. The steps of the model are intended to encourage reflection of one’s projects and one’s situation and the possibility of refusing the expectations of others. A case study involving affirmative action in South Africa is used to demonstrate the workings of the model and a number of strengths and weaknesses are identified. Despite several weaknesses that can be raised regarding existential ethics, the model’s success lies in the way that it reframes ethical dilemmas in terms of individual freedom and responsibility, and in its acceptance and analysis of subjective experiences and personal situations.

Developing a Framework for Ethical Leadership

- Lawton, Alan, Páez, Illiana

Authors: Lawton, Alan , Páez, Illiana
Date: 2015
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Business Ethics Vol. 130, no. 3 (2015), p. 639-649
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Description: Interest in ethical leadership from academics and practitioners has grown enormously in recent years. This article addresses this literature through a framework that identifies three interlocking questions. First, who are ethical leaders and what are their characteristics? Second, how do ethical leaders do what they do? Third, why do leaders do as they do and what are the outcomes of ethical leadership? Different dimensions to ethical leadership are examined and presented as three interlocking circles; Virtues, Purposes and Practices. This framework presents an integrated approach to ethical leadership and argues that future research take this holistic framework and apply it to different sectors or contexts. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Problematising autonomy and advocacy in nursing

- Cole, Clare, Wellard, Sally, Mummery, Jane

Authors: Cole, Clare , Wellard, Sally , Mummery, Jane
Date: 2014
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Nursing Ethics Vol. 21, no. 5 (2014), p. 576-582
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Description: Customarily patient advocacy is argued to be an essential part of nursing, and this is reinforced in contemporary nursing codes of conduct, as well as codes of ethics and competency standards governing practice. However, the role of the nurse as an advocate is not clearly understood. Autonomy is a key concept in understanding advocacy, but traditional views of individual autonomy can be argued as being outdated and misguided in nursing. Instead, the feminist perspective of relational autonomy is arguably more relevant within the context of advocacy and nurses' work in clinical healthcare settings. This article serves to highlight and problematise some of the assumptions and influences around the perceived role of the nurse as an advocate for patients in contemporary Western healthcare systems by focusing on key assumptions concerning autonomy inherent in the role of the advocate. © The Author(s) 2014.

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Making a difference with a discrete course on accounting ethics

- Dellaportas, Steven

Authors: Dellaportas, Steven
Date: 2006
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Business Ethics Vol. 65, no. 4 (2006), p. 391-404
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Description: Calls for the expansion of ethics education in the business and accounting curricula have resulted in a variety of interventions including additional material on ethical cases, the code of conduct, and the development of new courses devoted to ethical development [Lampe, J.: 1996]. The issue of whether ethics should be taught has been addressed by many authors [see for example: Hanson, K. O.: 1987; Huss, H. F. and D. M. Patterson: 1993; Jones, T. M.: 1988-1989; Kerr, D. S. and L. M. Smith: 1995; Loeb, S. E.: 1988; McDonald, G. M. and G. D. Donleavy: 1995]. The question addressed in this paper is not whether ethics should be taught but whether accounting students can reason more ethically after an intervention based on a discrete and dedicated course on accounting ethics. The findings in this paper indicate that a discrete intervention emphasising dilemma discussion has a positive and significant effect on students' moral reasoning and development. The data collected from interviews suggest that the salient influences on moral judgement development include: learning theories of ethics particularly Kohlberg's theory of cognitive moral reasoning and development; peer learning; and moral discourse. The implications from the findings in this study suggest that moral reasoning is responsive to particular types of ethics intervention and educators should carefully plan their attempts to foster moral judgement development. © Springer 2006.
Description: C1
Description: 2003001773

Organizational citizenship behavior and the public service ethos: whither the organization?

- Rayner, Julie, Lawton, Alan, Williams, Helen

Authors: Rayner, Julie , Lawton, Alan , Williams, Helen
Date: 2012
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Business Ethics Vol. 106, no. 2 (2012), p. 117-130
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Description: Public services worldwide have been subject to externally imposed reforms utilizing tools such as financial incentives and performance targets. The adverse impact of such reforms on a public service ethos has been claimed, but rarely demonstrated. Individuals within organizations work beyond their formal contracts of employment, described as Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), to further organizational interests. Given New Public Management reform and the subsequent contextual changes in the way in which public sector organizations are managed and funded, the present study theorizes that OCB directed towards the organization may be ‘crowded-out’. This article tests the relationships between public service ethos and OCB and it presents empirical evidence from a study in England (n = 433) of the ability of each dimension of this ethos to predict OCB.

Governing with ignorance : Understanding the Australian food regulator’s response to nano food

- Lyons, Kristen, Smith, Naomi

Authors: Lyons, Kristen , Smith, Naomi
Date: 2018
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: NanoEthics Vol. 12, no. 1 (2018), p. 27-38
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Description: This paper examines regulatory responses to the presence of previously undetected and unlabelled nanoparticles in the Australian food system. Until 2015, the Australian regulatory body Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) denied that nanoparticles were present in Australian food. However, and despite repeated claims from Australia’s food regulator, research commissioned by civil society group Friends of the Earth has demonstrated that nanoparticles are deliberately included as ingredients in an array of food available for sale in Australia. This paper critically examines how nanoparticles have come to be integrated into Australia’s food system under the radar of Australia’s food regulator. Our case study of FSANZ—including its responses to the civil society-led science that determined the existence of nanoparticles in Australian food—raises a number of important questions about the governance of risk in relation to emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. In this paper, we argue that FSANZ’ response to the presence of nanotechnology in Australia’s food system is an example of ‘governing with ignorance’. This is demonstrated via the denial and dismissal of science claims as a basis for limited regulatory intervention. FSANZ’ response intersects with the centrality of commercial interests in shaping science research and commercialisation, alongside the ‘hands off’ approach to regulation that is characteristic of neoliberal governance approaches. We conclude by arguing that in the current food governance framework, and alongside a paucity of impact science, civil society plays a vital role in attempts to democratise the Australian food system. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature.

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Resolving ethical challenges when researching with minority and vulnerable populations : LGBTIQ victims of violence, harassment and bullying

- Roffee, James, Waling, Andrea

Authors: Roffee, James , Waling, Andrea
Date: 2017
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Research Ethics Vol. 13, no. 1 (2017), p. 4-22
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Description: This article provides an analysis of the issues and ethical challenges faced in a study with LGBTIQ student participants concerning their experiences of violence, harassment and bullying in tertiary settings. The authors detail the ethical challenges behind the development of the project, and around conducting research with a minority and vulnerable population. The article illustrates how the utilization of feminist and queer theory has impacted the process of conducting ethical research, including approaches to recruitment and participant autonomy. The dilemmas of confidentiality within a self-labelled and easily identifiable population are resolved. Further, unexpected challenges and risks to participant safety created through adherence to institutional ethical research frameworks are rectified. Importantly, the authors seek to avoid revictimization of participants and to instead empower students in their responses to violence, harassment and bullying that they may have experienced. The authors point to utilization of theoretical foundations and continual reflexive improvement as elements of best practice for those seeking to research minority populations, and in projects marked by the participation of those deemed vulnerable and high-risk. © 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.

'To die, to sleep' - assisted dying legislation in Victoria : A case study

- Gilbert, Julia, Boag, Jane

Authors: Gilbert, Julia , Boag, Jane
Date: 2019
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Nursing Ethics Vol. 26, no. 7-8 (2019), p. 1976-1982
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Description: Background: Assisted dying remains an emotive topic globally with a number of countries initiating legislation to allow individuals access to assisted dying measures. Victoria will become the first Australian state in over 13 years to pass Assisted Dying Legislation, set to come into effect in 2019. Objectives: This article sought to evaluate the impact of Victorian Assisted Dying Legislation via narrative view and case study presentation. Research design: Narrative review and case study. Participants and research context: case study. Ethical considerations: This legislation will provide eligible Victorian residents with the option to request access to assisted dying measures as a viable alternative to a potentially painful, protracted death. Findings: This legislation, while conservative and inclusive of many safeguards at present, will form the basis for further discussion and debate on assisted dying across Australia in time to come. Discussion: The passing of this legislation by the Victorian parliament was prolonged, emotive and divided not only the parliament but Australian society. Conclusion: Many advocates for this legislation proclaimed it was well overdue and will finally meet the needs of contemporary society. Protagonists claim that medical treatment should not provide a means of ending life, despite palliative care reportedly often failing to relieve the pain and suffering of individuals living with a terminal illness.

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Implied consent and nursing practice : Ethical or convenient?

- Cole, Clare

Authors: Cole, Clare
Date: 2012
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Nursing Ethics Vol. 19, no. 4 (2012), p. 550-557
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Description: Nursing professionals in a variety of practice settings routinely use implied consent. This form of consent is used in place of or in conjunction with informed or explicit consent. This article looks at one aspect of a qualitative exploratory study conducted in a Day of Surgery Admission unit. This article focuses on the examination of nurses' understandings of implied consent and its use in patient care in nursing practice. Data were collected through one-on-one interviews and analysed using a thematic analysis. Nurses participating in this study revealed that they routinely used implied consent in their nursing practice. This article will look at whether implied consent supports or impedes a patient's autonomy. © The Author(s) 2012.

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Human-aligned artificial intelligence is a multiobjective problem

- Vamplew, Peter, Dazeley, Richard, Foale, Cameron, Firmin, Sally, Mummery, Jane

Authors: Vamplew, Peter , Dazeley, Richard , Foale, Cameron , Firmin, Sally , Mummery, Jane
Date: 2018
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Ethics and Information Technology Vol. 20, no. 1 (2018), p. 27-40
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Description: As the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) systems improve, it becomes important to constrain their actions to ensure their behaviour remains beneficial to humanity. A variety of ethical, legal and safety-based frameworks have been proposed as a basis for designing these constraints. Despite their variations, these frameworks share the common characteristic that decision-making must consider multiple potentially conflicting factors. We demonstrate that these alignment frameworks can be represented as utility functions, but that the widely used Maximum Expected Utility (MEU) paradigm provides insufficient support for such multiobjective decision-making. We show that a Multiobjective Maximum Expected Utility paradigm based on the combination of vector utilities and non-linear action–selection can overcome many of the issues which limit MEU’s effectiveness in implementing aligned AI. We examine existing approaches to multiobjective AI, and identify how these can contribute to the development of human-aligned intelligent agents. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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