Beyond Deterministic Thinking Embodiment of Ethics in Process Design and Execution

Abstract

This article maintains that a strong sense of ethics and ethical awareness is essential to help promote and cultivate adequate and appropriate (human sensitive) approaches during the development, implementation and execution of business processes. Businesses and their corresponding processes, and science in general have leaned on tenets of deterministic philosophies which gave rise to mechanistic thinking. As such technologically-based proposals and/or enactments—like modern business processes to a point—do not have within themselves the means to be ethically self-aware. It is in a technologically driven culture where mechanistic/deterministic approaches may trivialise the dignity of humans, ethics are able to mediate technology by helping to reflect on its purpose and usefulness. The authors propose a model that is a more holistic approach—including an ethical review phase—during the design, implementation, and execution of computer-based business processes so as to avoid an overtly mechanistic approach that devalues humans.