Ethical Lens Research Articles

Informed consent in decentralised clinical trials through an ethical lens

Decentralised clinical trials raise ethical questions regarding informed consent because the consent process often takes place remotely. This article explores the challenges (such as fewer in-person interactions) and opportunities (including new possibilities for exercising autonomy and engaging a more diverse research population) that a remote informed consent process raises for research participants. In addition, the article contains several approaches for mitigating the ethical problems that obtaining informed consent remotely raises in decentralised clinical trials, including moving toward a more dynamic informed consent process and using teleconference technologies to give regular feedback to participants, which may help increase transparency and foster trust between research participants and the research team.

"The advice? Think bigger": Community perspectives on dairy farming, including surplus calves - an Australian focus group study.

Citizens are becoming increasingly disconnected from food production. Despite this, many people still hold strong values about how food is produced. The aim of this study was to attain an in-depth understanding of Australian public attitudes toward sustainability and animal welfare in dairy production, as well as early life killing of surplus dairy calves and cow-calf separation; issues commonly identified as being out of step with public values. We conducted 3 focus group sessions, each with 8 Australians that varied in age, gender identity, income, and frequency of consumption of dairy products. Thematic analysis of the semi-structured discussions resulted in 2 key themes, each with underlying sub-themes: 1) Animal agriculture as an industry, including sustainability, farmers as people, and farming practices; and 2) Personal impacts and reflections as citizens, including ethical considerations, and consumer behaviors. Participants varied in their attitudes toward sustainability and the consumption of animal products. This variation was influenced by the different ethical lenses through which they viewed the topics, and alignment or otherwise with their personal values. Many participants acknowledged that farmers have a hard life and care about their animals but must also prioritize economics when making management decisions. Most participants were unaware of the common dairy industry practices of early life killing of surplus calves and cow calf separation, but once made aware, there was widespread rejection of the practices. Understanding and correcting where food animal production practices fail to align with the evolving values of the public provides opportunities to preserve the social sustainability of animal agriculture into the future.

From neurorights to neuroduties: the case of personal identity

Background The neurorights initiative has been postulated as a way of ensuring the protection of individuals from the advances of neurotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI). With the advancement of neurotechnology, the human nervous system may be altered, modified, intervened with, or otherwise controlled. However, how do neurorights safeguard legal interests when an individual consciously chooses to modify their experiences using neurotechnology? Neurorights—the protection of cognitive liberty, psychological continuity, free will, personal identity, and mental privacy—are challenged when individuals opt for ‘artificial memories’, implanted experiences, etc., disrupting their natural cognitive dimensions. The present article examines these complex dilemmas through a legal and ethical lens. Furthermore, it introduces the concept of a ‘neuroduty’ to preserve identity, a moral obligation that stands in stark contrast to the individual’s right to self-determination. In the same way that neurorights protect us from external interference in our nervous system, is it possible to think of a neuroduty to preserve our identity? This article explores the tensions between neurorights, neuroduty, and the potential misuse of neurotechnology. Methods First, we explore these dilemmas, investigating the often-blurred lines between neurotechnology, neurorights, and personal autonomy. Secondly, we focus into the concept of voluntary alterations of one’s own brain, assessing the wider implications such actions could have on both individual and societal levels, in the light of the concept of neuroduty to preserve personal identity. Also, we examine the potential repercussions on personal identity and interpersonal relations. Finally, we advocate for a reassessment and potential reformulation of existing neurorights frameworks to account for the personal autonomy to use advancing neuroscientific capabilities. Results Our examination reveals a complex interplay between neurorights and neuroduty to preserve personal autonomy. Conclusions This analysis will provide valuable insights for stakeholders, policymakers, and society at large, guiding the responsible integration of neurotechnology into our lives.

Advancing scaling science in health and social care: a scoping review and appraisal of scaling frameworks

BackgroundScaling is typically discussed as a way to amplify or expand a health innovation. However, there is limited knowledge about the specific techniques that can enhance access to or improve the quality of innovations, aiming to increase their positive impacts for the public good. We sought to identify, compare, and contrast scaling frameworks to advance the science and practice of scaling.MethodsUsing a scoping review we asked: 1) What are the attributes of scaling frameworks for innovations that support health outcomes? and 2) What are the similarities and differences of these attributes? Inclusion criteria were 1) primary studies or review articles, 2) a primary focus on scaling innovations for health and social care, 3) articles that developed a framework, and 4) articles were concerned with a health outcome. Starting from an umbrella review, we identified relevant studies and extracted data about the characteristics of the articles, attributes of framework development, attributes of framework components, transferability, and the framework’s underlying ethical lens. Grey literature was included through expert consultation. Data were summarized using frequencies and qualitative description.ResultsFrom 94 potentially eligible articles, we identified 9 unique frameworks and included 4 additional frameworks from the grey literature, resulting in a total of 13 frameworks. Seven frameworks include a definition of scaling, and eight are designed for public health settings. Five of the frameworks were developed for the US/Canada/UK and Australia. Six of the lead authors’ primary institutional affiliation are from North America. Framework developers involved diverse stakeholders in a number of ways to develop their framework. Eight frameworks were developed, but not yet tested or applied, while the remaining frameworks were in the process of being applied or had already been applied to cases. All frameworks use a consequentialist-utilitarian ethical lens. Lastly, a comparison between frameworks found in the grey or published literature show important differences.ConclusionMuch may be learned through further support for, and development of, scaling frameworks by primary authors affiliated with the Global South. Important aspects of framework development were identified, especially understanding the nuances of diverse stakeholder involvement in development.

Justifications and acceptability of coercive public health measures in the COVID-19 response in South Africa: a case study of the jurisprudence of human rights cases.

South Africa implemented a comprehensive response to COVID-19 comprising of several coercive public health measures. As in many countries, COVID-19 measures were subject to a number of legal challenges on the grounds that these measures infringed on individual rights and liberties. Here, courts were required to assess the extent to which these limitations were justifiable against the state's imperative to improve public health. Consequently, the acceptability of different justifications of coercive public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa may be understood and assessed through the lens of its jurisprudence. This paper seeks to outline the approach to allowing, or disallowing, coercive public health measures as adopted by the judiciary as arbiters of allowable human rights infringements and thus permitting or prohibiting the state from exercising coercive powers. Specifically, this analysis aims to identify the principles underpinning the decisions with an expressly ethical lens with a view to providing content for the operationalisation of justifications for coercive state action such as the harm principle, reciprocity, least restrictive means in relation to the promotion of public health and the limitation of individual liberty.

Summary of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) Supplemental Guidance on Influenza Vaccination in Adults 65 Years of Age and Older.

Adults 65 years of age and older are at higher risk of influenza complications, such as hospitalization and death. As a result, seasonal influenza immunization is particularly important for this group. This supplemental statement provides an evidence summary on the preferential use of one or more of the age-appropriate influenza vaccines for adults 65 years of age and older, over other age-appropriate influenza vaccines. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI)'s Influenza Working Group undertook an overview of existing systematic reviews on the efficacy, effectiveness, safety and cost effectiveness of influenza vaccination in adults 65 years of age and older. Additionally, NACI's evidence-based process was used to assess the quality of eligible studies, summarize and analyze the findings and apply an ethics, feasibility and acceptability lens to develop recommendations. The evidence suggests that high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV-HD), adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV-Adj) and recombinant influenza vaccine (RIV) offer increased benefits for adults 65 years of age and older when compared to standard dose influenza vaccines. The IIV-HD had the most supporting evidence, followed by IIV-Adj and then RIV. Evidence comparing these enhanced vaccines was limited. Following a thorough review of the complete body of evidence, NACI recommends that IIV-HD, IIV-Adj or RIV should be offered over other influenza vaccines for adults 65 years of age and older. NACI also continues to strongly recommend the inclusion of adults 65 years of age and older among those for whom it is particularly important to receive influenza vaccination.

The Fertility Fix: the Boom in Facial-matching Algorithms for Donor Selection in Assisted Reproduction in Spain

This article reads the uptake of facial-matching algorithms by fertility clinics in Spain through the lens of ‘the fertility fix’: a software fix to the social reconfiguration of kinship and a fixed capital investment made by competing fertility companies and firms. ‘The fertility fix’ is proposed as a critical, ethical lens through which to situate algorithmic facial-matching in assisted reproduction in the context of the racial politics of the face and phenotype and the spatial politics of market expansion. While an ‘infertility crisis’ is often mentioned when explaining the growth of the assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) industry, the use of donated reproductive cells is tied up in societal, ecological and economic shifts. Combining Software Studies analysis with Marxist Feminist and trans*feminist perspectives on shifting re/production dynamics, the article details the role of computational technologies in promoting certain ideas and beliefs about family and fixing certain territories of capital flow.

Learning From Community-Based Efforts Toward Shared Responsibility for Climate and Environmental Justice

In this exploratory inquiry, the research team investigates community-based data practices in climate and environmental justice initiatives. We set out to learn from the long history and current activities of communities seeking to hold corporate and government actors responsible to enact care for the climate and environment (e.g., monitoring air quality and waterways affected by petrochemical industries). Through a critical intersectional care ethics lens, we follow how groups respond to harms to ecosystems and seek healing, positioning their epistemic authority as they work with data (e.g., Ottinger, 2023; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017). This work draws insights from inquiries which have examined how communities engage with climate action and efforts toward environmental sustainability (e.g., dos Santos et al., 2024; Kaczmarek, 2023; Nathan, 2012). Through a poster reporting on preliminary research, we share early analyses highlighting communities’ labor of resisting corporate delay, denial, and other dis- and mal-information practices, which slow or block urgently needed action and truth-telling. Methods involve analysis of archival records created by and about communities affected by the Love Canal toxic waste crisis in Western New York. The project aims to appreciate differences and similarities in community-based data practices, identifying further possibilities for information professionals and libraries, archives, and museums to uphold these data practices and associated knowledge and memory work, research, and storytelling. In turn, the team proposes future work to trace the development of community-based practices with climate and environmental data over time.

Environmentally sustainable person-centred care: Occupational therapy students' attitudes, perceptions and self-perceived preparedness for practice.

Climate change threatens the environments in which person-centred occupational therapy occurs. Environmental sustainability is directly linked with the health and wellbeing of current and future generations, presenting occupational therapists with a unique advocacy and activist role. As practitioners of the future, there is an urgent need to understand students' attitudes, perceptions of, and self-perceived preparedness for, dealing with environmental determinants of health and intergenerational occupational and climate justice. A cross-sectional exploratory descriptive survey collected United Kingdom (UK) based allied health professional students' attitudes, perceptions, and self-perceived preparedness for advocating for environmental sustainability in the context of person-centred care. The survey was distributed to 48 gatekeepers in UK institutions with approved allied health professional training programmes (44 offered occupational therapy); 62 occupational therapy students responded. Descriptive and non-parametric inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative data. Text and short answers were analysed qualitatively via inductive content analysis. The study was co-designed and implemented with MSc (pre-registration) occupational therapy students. Participants (94%) expressed concerns for climate change, with 84% feeling responsible for addressing environmental sustainability in health care. While 64.5% identified climate justice as a top priority, a perceived challenge emerged between person-centred care and sustainability, with only 18% of participants feeling prepared for environmental sustainability in occupational therapy practice. Participants requested education on personal and professional sustainability practices, as well as collective action. Sharing personal climate change experiences, advocating with family and friends, and facilitating connections for collective action were highlighted as potentially transformative educational tools in this area. Occupational therapy curricula should address environmental sustainability through pragmatic, critical, and ethical lenses to enhance students' preparedness for this advocacy and activist role. Reflection and continuous professional development for environmentally sustainable practices is recommended. Occupational therapists believe that it is important to support people to participate in occupations that matter to them. However, the activities that some people choose to participate in may have negative effects on the environment and the planet. It is important to ensure that when occupational therapists support people in their choices of activities, this does not lead to unequal access to healthy and meaningful occupations of others, now or in the future. That is because occupational therapists also have a responsibility to prevent occupational injustice. Occupational therapy students are the professionals of the future, so it is important to include them in research about this topic. They need to develop skills that allow them to simultaneously make sure that they are delivering person-centred care, which is not environmentally detrimental and that does not lead to occupational injustice. Making sure that occupational therapists provide person-centred care while also managing risks of occupational injustice may be seen as a profession-specific dilemma. In this study, occupational therapy students in the UK completed a survey about their feelings, views, and readiness for managing this dilemma. Results showed that most respondents are concerned about climate change, but do not feel that their occupational therapy education sufficiently prepared them to practise in an environmentally sustainable way. They were asked to propose ideas for addressing this issue, and the article discusses how occupational therapy curricula might be changed in accordance.

Leadership and the ethics of hope: Václav Havel and the Charter 77 human rights movement in Czechoslovakia

Hope as a feature in both authentic and spiritual leadership theory has become a diminished moral concept, departing from its philosophical and theological roots, and distorted by excessive positivity, success, instrumentalization, cultural bias, and ideology. Following Ciulla’s (2014) assertion that biography can do much to inform leadership theory, this paper contributes a richer understanding of hope through the though case of Václav Havel and the Charter 77 human rights movement in Czechoslovakia using French existentialist Gabriel Marcel’s ethics of hope. Five elements of Marcel’s philosophy demonstrate hope’s transforming vulnerability amidst technological control, relationship with despair, active presence, creative fidelity, and transcending power in love. Examining Czechoslovakia’s human rights movement through the lens of Marcellian ethics provides insight into the role of absurdity and truth-telling as a precursor to hope, taking responsibility for failure, overcoming fear through the “solidarity of the shaken,” creative fidelity through living in truth and using humor, and love manifesting as sacrifice and openness to seeing one’s contribution to the moral contamination of society under totalitarianism.

Preparing the Workforce for Ethical, Responsible and Trustworthy AI

This article proposes a holistic multi-pronged strategy for establishing an ethical workforce ready for the rise of AI, beginning with examining the current AI landscape and projections of jobs impacted to understand organizational preparedness needs. Key elements include developing an ethical framework through stakeholder engagement outlining shared principles for responsibility; implementing comprehensive technical and soft-skills training programs; creating new dedicated ethics and data governance roles while expanding existing functions to oversee AI accountability; and integrating metrics and career pathways tied to system and process assessments through an ethical lens to drive cultural normalization. Continuous self-evaluation through qualitative and quantitative metrics aids transparency, justification of investment, and framework improvement. The goal of proactively cultivating stewardship abilities across all functions through values clarification, tailored learning, distributed responsibilities, and self-reflection is positioned as exemplary leadership guiding technology's societal impacts amid workplace transformations from emerging technologies.

When the public does not trust science: What can journalists do about it?

While overall levels of trust and interest in science are high, a significant proportion of audiences are distrustful of or disinterested in science. This is not an esoteric concern. Science literacy is important for the meaningful participation of the public in discussions about the impact of science on society at a time when many key global problems have some basis in science. There are also private benefits for individuals, like preventing them from being misled by misinformation and disinformation. What can science journalists do to address these issues? Using a global media ethics lens, this study deployed a mixed methods approach including surveys and semi-structured interviews, to evaluate how science journalists can produce stories that better engage audiences with science, thereby potentially increasing science literacy. By revealing the cultural barriers holding science back, inherent tensions between journalistic working practices and conveying the true nature of science but also how these might be overcome, the project outlined what strong science journalism could look like in Australia in 2024.

Dark Side of Connectivity: A Socio-Ethical Exploration of Internet Fraud and Nigerian Youth

Internet fraud, popularly known as ‘yahoo-yahoo’ in the Nigerian parlance, reverberates across the Nigerian state and keeps gaining approval as somewhat permissible as days go by. Humongous media reports abound as well as other surreptitious or conspicuous activities of internet fraudsters in Nigeria. A great deal of Nigerian youths have embraced it and has jettisoned hard work, process, building from the scratch, integrity, compassion and pay little or no attention to education. This state of affairs has social and ethical implications for Nigeria as a state. With insights drawn from Robert Merton’s structural strain theory and Aristotle’s virtue ethics, this paper qualitatively examines the spate of indiscreet deals by criminally minded Nigerian youth and particularly mirrors its social and ethical implications. Data is gathered through interviews, observations and literal readings. Findings show that internet fraud, which is eating deep into the fabric of Nigeria has exacerbated the get-rich-quick syndrome, disrupted the smooth running of the nation and holds dire socio-ethical consequences for the future of the nation. This paper recommends that the government, family unit, as well as religious organizations must play salient roles in sensitizing, educating, guiding and sanctioning internet criminals for the good of society. This research contributes to existing knowledge by exploring the phenomenon of internet fraud in Nigeria through the lenses of sociology and ethics, yielding recommendations that stem from these disciplines to combat the problem.

How Can Newborn Toxicology Testing Be More Equitable? An Interactive Ethics Workshop.

Practice variation in newborn toxicology testing during the birth hospitalization exists across institutions and legal jurisdictions. While testing can provide benefits, indiscriminate testing has been shown to perpetuate health care inequities. In the backdrop of an opioid epidemic and a charged medicolegal landscape, this workshop guides participants to reexamine newborn toxicology testing through a shared ethical lens. We conducted a live, 90-minute workshop in English at an international pediatric conference. Physicians, residents, and fellows participated in large- and small-group breakout sessions to learn relevant clinical and bioethical frameworks, share their own local context and expertise, and explore ethical applications through case-based discussions. We administered two anonymous online follow-up surveys to assess self-perceived impact on participant knowledge, behavior, and clinical practice. Seven facilitators and 45 individuals participated in the workshop. Eighteen participants completed survey 1 immediately following workshop conclusion, and six participants completed survey 2 after 3 months had elapsed. Immediately following the workshop, 94% of respondents reported that they had been introduced to a new idea, and 82% were considering practice change. A low response rate to survey 2 limited interpretation, but some respondents reported self-perceived change following workshop attendance. This workshop facilitated conversation between physician participants on a complex pediatric health care inequity issue using an ethical framework.

Teaching ethics and ethical leadership with the Harvard Everest simulation

PurposeThis is a step-by-step guide for teaching Ethics and Ethical Leadership utilizing the Harvard Everest Leadership and Teams Simulation, V.3. The suggested approach is focused on facilitating a discussion and coaching students to recognize and solve problems by applying moral theory explicitly and deliberately. Applying this approach can also help them develop a habit of analyzing one’s own and others' behavior using ethical lenses and principles of authentic leadership. It offers practical debrief steps and specific discussion questions that can be used as a standalone resource or alongside the Harvard teaching note accompanying the simulation.Design/methodology/approachThis innovative approach enables teaching and coaching students on the ethical aspects of their leadership and decision-making based on this hands-on experience with the Harvard Everest Leadership and Teams Simulation. This approach enriches the original HBR teaching suggestions by enabling students to recognize moral dilemmas, confront typical rationalizations and practice ethical actions and decision-making in real time.FindingsIn-class discussion and student reflection assignments provide evidence of the method's effectiveness in translating values into impactful insights and enhanced likelihood of ethical behaviors in real-life scenarios. Students’ end-of-class feedback and course evaluations often cite the benefits of using the Everest simulation as a backdrop for raising self-awareness and practicing ethical decision-making.Practical implicationsThe approach discussed in the paper can serve as a flexible framework for analyzing and debriefing the HBR Everest simulation and other simulations, “survival scenario” exercises and activities designed to teach and facilitate practicing ethical leadership, authentic leadership and ethical decision making. It is adaptable and can be effectively applied across various disciplines centered around ethical leadership, teamwork, communication and decision-making in higher education and business.Originality/valueHarvard Everest Leadership and Teams Simulation is among the most popular ones in business education and is used by teachers worldwide (Roberto & Edmondson, 2017). While a comprehensive teaching note on communication and group dynamics is available through Harvard Business Publishing, it still needs to address the ethical issues students face during the simulation. This paper provides a roadmap for instructors who want to improve the student experience with ethical decision-making and ethical leadership.

National Security Intelligence Activity and the Just Intelligence Theory

National security intelligence (NSI) activity is considered through a normative (ethical) lens and the application of a normative theory to NSI collection, analysis, and dissemination undertaken. The currently favored normative theory is the Just Intelligence Theory (JIT), derived from the Just War Theory, applicable to waging war. Whereas JIT has provided a useful starting point to normative theorizing about NSI activity as well as several specific insights, it has several significant deficiencies as a general overarching normative theory of NSI activity and, therefore, should be abandoned by qua general theory. For instance, NSI activity is largely epistemic (or knowledge-focused) activity, whereas waging war is kinetic activity, and this has important ethical consequences, such as that the principle of last resort applicable to waging war is not applicable to NSI activity. Moreover, other principles, such as the principle of discrimination, are applicable in a radically different manner.

Political Organisational Silence and the Ethics of Care: EU Migrant Restaurant Workers in Brexit Britain

In this paper, we explore the experiences of EU migrants working in UK restaurants in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. We do so through a care ethics lens, which we bring together with the integrative approach to organisational silence to consider the ethical consequences of the organisational policies of political silence adopted by the restaurant chains in our qualitative empirical study. We develop the concept of political organisational silence and probe its ethical dimensions, showing how at the organisational level it falls short of constituting a practice of caring for migrant workers in politically divisive and hostile times. We argue that organisational policies of political silence emphasise the exploitative nature of the business of (im)migration, which prioritises concern for profits over care for the needs of others. Organisations refuse caring responsibility for migrant workers, leaving care to the migrants themselves and their co-workers and managers. Whilst peer-care practices partially fill this politically silent care-vacuum, this leaves individuals to negotiate difficult tensions without institutional support at a time of increased uncertainty, complexity, hostility, violence, and vulnerability. Drawing lessons from our study and its aftermath, we call for a care manifesto to inform the business of (im)migration, which would need to include caring political responsibility towards migrant workers exercised through caring political organisational voice as well as silence.

An ethics analysis of antipsychotic dose reduction and discontinuation: Principles for supporting recovery from psychosis.

To examine the evidence and practice of antipsychotic dose reduction from the lens of biomedical ethics (specifically principlism) to support evidence-based practice and patient choice and self-determination. An overview of the evidence from randomized controlled trials of antipsychotic dose reduction versus maintenance is presented. This is followed by a theoretical examination of the four key biomedical ethical principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice and how they apply in the case of antipsychotic dose reduction. Existing clinical trial research is dominated by relapse as the primary outcome, with dose reduction associated with a higher risk of relapse than maintenance. Few studies have measured other patient-centered outcomes but have shown preliminary evidence for superior cognitive functioning, lower negative symptoms, and better functioning following dose reduction. Respect for autonomy is a cornerstone of psychiatric rehabilitation, and this includes the right of people to choose to reduce or discontinue antipsychotic medication. Reduced capacity for treatment decision making can be supported. Autonomy and appraisal of nonmaleficence and beneficence associated with dose reduction can be facilitated through shared or supported decision making. Clinicians should continue to strive for justice through the fair allocation of resources to support all people who request antipsychotic dose reduction. Clinicians have a responsibility to balance the four core ethical principles to the best of their ability when supporting a person in their recovery journey. Exploring, trialing, and supporting antipsychotic dose reduction may be part of this process if that is the patient's choice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

EDI in academic–policy engagement: lived experience of university based knowledge brokers and marginalised academics

Background: Discourse surrounding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) has received significant attention within the UK academy and knowledge brokerage contexts, and more recently within academic–policy engagement spaces (Walker et al, 2019a; Fawcett, 2021; GOV.UK, 2021; Morris et al, 2021). Key players in this space identify the need for diversifying academic participation, as well as diversifying knowledges (GOV.UK, 2021; UK Parliament, 2018; UKRI, 2023). However, conceptual and practical insight on embedding EDI principles (and what they mean in this context) within academic–policy engagement processes is missing. Aims and objectives: Underpinned by feminist and decolonial epistemological concepts, this article addresses this gap by outlining strategies, and surfacing ways in which EDI within academic–policy engagement is experienced, conceptualised, understood and considered. Methods: Two parallel qualitative studies, with a total of 20 semi-structured narrative and realist interviews conducted with marginalised researchers (n=10, Study A) and university based knowledge brokers (n=10, Study B), and a rapid literature review. The analysis used a narrative and thematic framework. Findings and discussion: We found a want for EDI to go beyond just diversity of people and representation, towards fostering foundational principles of epistemic justice, equitable access, value-driven engagement and plurality. Academics and knowledge brokers reported both negative and positive experiences within this space that related to known EDI issues. We conclude that EDI cannot be standardised across higher education contexts, and emphasise the need for holistic, relational and plural approaches to EDI across academic–policy engagement systems through a value-led, equitable and ethical lens.

Greatest Good for the Greatest Number – the Role of Managers’ Ethical Meaning-Making and Subjective Wellbeing Complexity

AbstractDespite the appeal of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ as an ethical ideal for businesses to pursue, applying this utilitarian principle in practice proves challenging. This is not least due to fundamental disagreements as to what constitutes the ‘greatest good.’ For example, the concept of ‘wellbeing’ now commonly proposed as a way of apprehending the greatest good is itself subject to widely varying interpretations. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of 64 managers in different sectors and country contexts, we explore this variation through the lens of constructivist ethics, asking how and why managers systematically differ in their ethical meaning-making around wellbeing. Our theorizing advances constructivist ethics by relating these differences to developmental stages identified in constructivist psychology, finding that systematic variations in ethical meaning-making are shaped by differences in actors’ capacities to process complexity. Our analysis reveals that managers’ ethical meaning-making about wellbeing is subjective, socially constructed, dynamic, and evolutionary, progressing in stages that we differentiate with a novel concept of ‘subjective wellbeing complexity.’ We contribute to practice by discussing how managers’ ability to work with more complex conceptions of wellbeing can be purposefully enhanced through stage-by-stage capacity-building in the form of ‘vertical development.’