Ethics Program Research Articles

Next Level Health: a holistic health and wellbeing program to empower New Zealand women.

Improving equity in women's health requires gender-specific and empowering approaches. However, health programs often disempower women by adopting a 'one-size-fits-all' approach that emphasizes diet, exercise and weight loss over other important aspects like sleep and mental wellbeing. This article reports on the design of Next Level Health (NLH), a program that aims to empower women through developing a wide range of health behaviors to support their holistic wellbeing. NLH is grounded by ethics, theory and evidence to support women to make achievable, sustainable changes that are relevant to their everyday lives. Women utilized the NLH framework to develop an integrative health routine across six domains: physical activity, sleep, nutrition, eating behavior, self-care and stress management. The framework guided them to set small, incremental goals that were adaptive to their needs and built from their existing circumstances. Participants reflected on their progress with a facilitator during monthly meetings, accessed a social media support page and received monthly text messages. Health programs remain an essential approach to improving women's health alongside community- and policy-level strategies. The development of NLH exemplifies how evidence may partner with modern health promotion values to inform relevant and ethical program design for women.

Malpractice Awareness among Surgeons and Surgical Trainees in Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, a country where seeing medical errors is not rare, there is a lack of data concerning the overall awareness of medical malpractice issues among physicians. A recent study showed that 80% of malpractice claims in Ethiopia are related to some form of surgery or operation room activities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among surgeons and surgical trainees. Data were collected anonymously by an online survey using Google forms through a 56-items structured questionnaire. Subsequently, the data were analyzed and reported employing nonparametric statistical methods with SPSS software package 26. In our sample, the overall awareness regarding medical malpractice was relatively low. Surgery on a wrong patient (71.1%) was the most commonly reported form of malpractice, whereas unintended damage to adjacent organs (10.8%) was the most frequently disagreed up on form. In the event of a medical error, the majority (59.6%) reported readiness to disclose their error to the patient. The most common mentioned reason for not revealing a mistake was a threat of physical or verbal assault (68%). A significant number of respondents, i.e., 120(59.1%), reported being physically/verbally assaulted by a patient or their attendants at some point in their practice. The findings of our study provided a general picture of surgeons' and surgical trainees' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding medical malpractice. This study recommends more robust ethics and law training modules to surgical trainees, refresher courses to surgeons, and advanced training programs in ethics and law.

The Role of Human Resource in Ethics and Compliance Programs

Ethics and compliance programs are significantly important for companies and business organizations. That is because they stipulate the regulations that the companies must follow in order to operate lawfully. Failure to adhere to the ethics and compliance regulations may spell doom for a business. For instance, it may lead to litigation issues. Companies may also damage their public images by engaging in unethical behavior. As such, organizations must try their best to ensure employees are compliant. The human resource department is often in a suitable position to ensure compliance. That is because they manage employees, and influence employee behavior. The aim of this study is to prove that human resource departments can promote adherence to ethics and compliance programs. Through the use of a qualitative study in the form of a literature review, the research proves that human resource departments have significant control over compliance. That is because they can influence employee behavior in a variety of ways as well as regulate the recruitment process. As a result, they can create an environment that favors compliance that is filled with individuals with a keen interest in working professionally.

System analysis of the problem of workers' rights in the encyclical “Rerum Novarum” by Leo XIII

The article uses the method of system analysis to analyse the vision of society outlined in the encyclical “Rerum Novarum” by Leo XIII. The system analysis concerned the identification and problem analysis with elements of mathematical analysis (according to the Konieczny division). In the course of the analysis, used were the concepts developed at the Polish School of Cybernetics, the main representatives of which were Mazur and Kossecki. The basics of system analysis, autonomous systems were presented and the division into systems was made for further analysis. System energy/material processes in terms of energy, power and freedom factor of the systems as well as the information processes in terms of social norms were taken into account. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that the system of social control proposed by Pope Leo XIII assumes primacy of ideological norms (Catholicism) and ethical norms, with simultaneous occurrence of economic and vital norms. The system of society proposed by Pope Leo XIII is coherent, resistant to disturbances and striving for effective expansion, and what is more, it solves a given social problem. The weakness of that system is susceptibility to ideological indifference, weakening ethics and disturbing the process of ideological and ethical programming. The implementation of ideological and ethical norms into the society takes place mainly through the educational process. Further research possibilities and limitations of the tools used were also indicated.

The Relationship Between Fitness for the Profession and Ethical Development: An Undergraduate Human Services Program Model

The human services profession calls for practitioners to be fit for the profession, a concept reflected in its ethical standards. It is imperative that human services students understand and abide by these ethical standards. However, many students might not receive adequate training and experience with Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals (ESHSP) or ethics in addition to facing fitness issues during their training and beyond. This article describes a human services program’s professional fitness policy and ethical programming and reviews the need for attaining and maintaining professional fitness and adequate ethical development for human services students. Implications of such fitness policies and ethics programming for the profession are discussed along with limitations to these practices.

Psychological Factors to Consider When Adopting an Ethics and Compliance Program

Ethics and compliance programs are imperative for all types of business organizations. That is because they ensure that businesses operate according to the demands of the law, and that they maintain their reputation among their customer bases. For instance, ethics and compliance programs may require organizations to conduct external audits on their financial information every once in a while, to ascertain that they are compliant with financial fair play regulations. As such, it is important for businesses to ensure their human power follows the ethical and compliance guidelines to avoid any legal or reputational issues. For businesses to ensure that their employees are compliant, it is important for them to consider the psychological factors that influence human behavior. That is because they will indicate whether the human factor will remain compliant with the set rules and regulations. In this study, the objective will be to prove that psychological factors are essential when adopting ethics and compliance programs, so as to show the psychological factors for organizations to consider. Ideally, human behavior is significantly influenced by motivation, attitudes, and perception, and these are the factors that the research will focus on analyzing.

Ethical Leadership and Program Performance in the Community Development Context: A Review of Literature

Ethical Leadership and Program Performance in the Community Development Context: A Review of Literature

Small Business Leadership and Ethical Attributes That Influence Employee Job Satisfaction

Organizational leadership studies acknowledge that leadership styles positively affect job satisfaction. Currently, there are limited ethical, theoretical studies to investigate the relationship with job satisfaction. Therefore, there is a need for additional ethical leadership theories to explain conditions that may improve on negative organizational phenomena. This study investigated the relationship between the foundational leadership theory and job satisfaction. Foundational leadership is an inward (internal) and outward (employee perceived) examination of ethical decisions based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism. The findings were based on 330 full-time entry and mid-level employees between ages 18 - 60+ across various industries in the United States. Cronbach’s alpha confirmed that integrity, assurance, and pragmatism is reliable measurement for ethical leadership. Pearson correlation revealed that the foundational leadership attributes of integrity, assurance, and pragmatism significantly correlate with employee job satisfaction. Finally, multiple linear regression results determine that ethical leadership training programs can teach Foundational Leadership to create job satisfaction. However, recurring leadership training should reinforce foundational leadership assurance (FLA) to foster job satisfaction within the leader-member exchange relationship.

What an Ethics Management Program Cannot Sufficiently Address in an African Context

Ethics management programs have become a popular first step for organizations to manage ethical risks and employee behaviors. However, such programs may fail to foster moral responsiveness or acknowledge broader societal issues. This article contributes to this discussion through an analysis of qualitative data from an ethics survey of fifteen South African companies. Results indicate employees experience persistent unethical behaviors in the form of the disrespect, bullying and discrimination. Reflecting on these results, the article explores the limits of ethical management programs, and whether a compliance approach undermines the transformative ethics that is most needed in organizations struggling with diversity and inclusion. Drawing on Levinas, the article shows that openness to the face of the Other does not lend itself to instrumental orientations, nor to formalized, standardized responses. Instead, moral responsiveness to particular Others is required, and it is this aspect that may be absent from South African ethics initiatives.

Adapting Ethics and Compliance Programs for Modern Management Tools

Six Sigma is one of the modern management tools in use today. Corporates utilize it in designing and improving their systems in a bid to reduce costs, improve quality, lower defects, and other advantages. The methodology is built on specific steps that knowledgeable teams in order to deliver quality outcomes. On the other hand, corporates cultivate ethics so that they can foster healthy relationships, improve brand image, maintain trust and others. Unethical behaviors usually result in the tarnishing of reputation and should be met with severe punishment. Business ethics can be integrated into Six Sigma to catapult the tool’s effectiveness. By incorporating ethics in every Six Sigma stage, companies are set to benefit from genuine results and quality goods.

There Has Never Been “Old” Wars, or, Drone Ethics

The article challenges traditional notions of war and war ethics from the standpoints of a terrorist attack victim and of a drone strike victim, of the decentralized opposition of “old” and “new” wars, “major” wars and “small” ones, combatants vs. non-combatants, soldiers vs guerilla fighters, friends vs enemies, victors vs defeated. Accordingly, the authors consider the political status and social role of ethnographic, anthropological and ethical research within the context of “new wars,” which include guerilla warfare and resort to terrorist tactics. Building on current research in sociology, anthropology, ethics and political studies (Hugh Gusterson, Mary Kaldor, Jeff McMahan, Lucy Sachman, Emran Feroz, Grégoire Chamayou, Kirill Martynov, Victor Vakhshtayn et al.), the authors regard whether drone technologies and other automated weapons conform to the Russia’s military ethics. They also speculate upon prospects of some technologies being socially adapted in different world cultures. The article brings up to date critique of violence by Walter Benjamin and problematizes the concept of the political by Carl Schmitt through the lens of the present-day military ethnography (see Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov’s Hybrid Peace: Ethnographies of War in this issue of Logos). Analyzing historical transformations and inversions of guerillas, suicide pilots, UAV operators and suicide bombers deconstructs the notion of “hybrid war” as well as “hybrid peace.” Finally, the authors introduce a project of a less rigoristic and not purely prohibitive ethical program (“drone ethics”) which might serve as a basis for automated systems’ algorithms to make decisions during military crises and states of emergency. The article continues to address the range of problems brought up in the Logos issue on war (Vol. 29 #3 2019).

Ethical leadership and program to reduce unethical behaviour among public employees

ABSTRACT Ethical leadership has been considered the central source of ethical guidance for employees in the workplace. Our study tested the effects of ethical leadership on unethical behaviour of public employees through ethics programsbased on social learning theory and reinforcement theory. Using survey data obtained from U.S. federal agencies, we found that ethical leadership reduced unethical behaviour among public employees. Furthermore, the use of ethics programs mediated the positive relationship between ethical leadership and the ethical behaviour of public employees. These results indicated the importance of ethical leadership and effective ethics programs in reducing unethical behaviour by public employees.

The Nigerian Girl Child and Reality of An Abusive Absurdity: A Reflection on Philosophy for Children in Higher Educational System

One of the social ills in contemporary Nigeria state is the abusive condition of the girl child. She has been abandoned, starved, beaten, enslaved and sexually molested by the society that ought to care about her but instead tames and guides her. Hence the paper attempts a social re-engineering process through philosophy for children dimension in higher education with a view to minimising, if not curbing, this ugly tragedy. The study employed both philosophical analysis and descriptive survey type. Philosophy for children is not an effort at teaching children the philosophical jargons but rather towards enablement of philosophical skills and its applications to questions of personal significance to the student. Findings revealed that the girl child abuse, though on the rise recently, but could be reversed where she is well trained in philosophical mindset at early age. Also, justice prevails when the abuse is timely reported to the law enforcement agents. Further, the establishment of victim-friendly court system would go a long way in facilitating quick dispensation of justice. Nevertheless, the vigorous pursue of ethical genuine poverty alleviation programmes would undoubtedly reduce the trend of the abuse in the society. The paper concluded that society should endeavour to nip the problem in the bud through conscientious philosophical guidance of Nigerian girl child at all time by all stakeholders. It is stated that the involvement of higher educational system will assist the parents, guardian, girl child, law enforcement agents, the law makers, the clinicians, the theoretician, the researcher and all other concerned with children’s welfare in such a way to shed light on a path of progress in decreasing and preventing this affront on our girl child in particular and children in general.

Dating in the age of AI

This article discusses the use of AI, machine learning and data processing technology in online dating applications for matching people together. Methods include facial recognition technology, key personality markers based on objects/activities detected in pictures, AI enabled chatbots, Myers-Briggs personality types, and natural language processing to generate language synchronicity scores. Societal impacts are also alluded to such as: should you take advice from AI, should you let AI process your data and take control of you love life, does AI let you think how you usually would in the real world and is the experienced emotion the same. Ethical aspects are explored such as: propensity for bias, ethical AI programming and who is in control of the AI. It finishes with a discussion on the application of virtual reality and avatars in dating applications, and the impact of these AI technologies in online dating on society.

Interdisciplinary Ethics Certificate Program for Graduate Medical Education Trainees.

Ethics education is an essential component of developing physician competency and professionalism. Although prior studies have shown both a wide interest and a need for ethics education during residency, structured learning opportunities are not widely available at the graduate medical education (GME) level. Through the Vanderbilt Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, we developed a 1-year certificate program offering a Distinction in Biomedical Ethics, open to all active trainees in GME programs at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This certificate program provides advanced education in biomedical ethics and can be completed without additional cost to the trainee or time away from training. This certificate program has been offered each academic year since 2017-2018. The program curriculum includes case-based seminars, a rotation on the Ethics Consultation Service, participation on the hospital ethics committee, and a capstone project. Outcomes were assessed using a post-course evaluation. During the first 4 years of the program, 65 trainees participated from 19 different specialties. Course evaluations were obtained from 58 participants (89.4% response rate) and were strongly favorable in most domains. All participants agreed that this program enhanced their knowledge of biomedical ethics and they would use something they learned in their future practice. Most participants (57 of 58, 98.3%) would recommend this course to a friend. We designed and implemented a Distinction in Biomedical Ethics program to provide advanced training in clinical Bioethics, which has been favorably received by participants.

Human-animal studies in psychology: The history and challenges of developing clinically based ethical programs involving animals.

Human-animal studies in psychology: The history and challenges of developing clinically based ethical programs involving animals.

Moral Awareness: A Source of Improved Sustainable Performance

Despite the increasing realization of the significance of work ethics and moral awareness (MA) in businesses after mega scandals, such as those of Enron and Tyco, few studies have investigated the relationship between MA and employees’ performance and the intermediate mechanisms that explain this relationship. This study proposes that as employees’ work ethics are calibrated through ethical training, their MA increases, in turn affecting employees’ job performance. This experimental study is aimed at investigating the impact of MA, increased through ethical training, on employees’ job performance. Based on institutional theory, the multidimensional work ethic profile (MWEP) and strategic human resource management literature, it is hypothesized that MA of employees’ is positively correlated with employees’ performance and that this relationship is moderated by the age, gender and education level of the employees. In particular, the moral awareness component of ethical decision-making (EDM) models is considered as coextensive with work ethics in experimental design, and work ethics is depicted by a multidimensional work ethic profile (MWEP). The study used a sample of 100 employees of a golf club, divided into an experiment group and a control group with 50 employees each. The experiment group was subjected to an ethical training program focused on increasing MA. Employees’ performance for both groups was evaluated based on eight sub-variables. The study concluded that increasing MA increases employees’ performance, with no significant moderation effect of age, gender and education level on this relationship. The results of this study will go a long way in helping managers to increase the productivity of their employees through increased MA.

Crossing the Innovation Chasm: Identifying Facilitators and Barriers to Early Adoption of the Global Health Starter Kit Curriculum.

Purpose:The Global Health Starter Kit (GHSK) is an interdisciplinary, competency-based, open access global health curriculum covering global disease and demographic trends, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the connection between oral health and overall health, social determinants of health, and concepts of sustainable and ethical global health programs. In this study, we evaluate and describe barriers to and facilitators for using and implementing the GHSK curriculum across a variety of new users.Methods:This two-phase study uses the Roger’s Adoption Curve concept to standardize this evaluation and inform a strategic plan for continuing to move the curriculum across the chasm from early adopters to an early majority of global oral health educators and learners. We utilized a theoretical adoption framework to identify facilitators and barriers under the domains of innovation and curricular, educator and learner, and institutional and structural factors. Under qualitative Phase 1, five early adopter institutions were interviewed to elicit understanding of factors that contribute to adoption of the GHSK curriculum. Common themes identified were next used to create a Phase 2 quantitative survey for early majority subscribers of the GHSK (N = 27).Results:These qualitative and quantitative results showed an overall high satisfaction with the quality of the GHSK materials, but also effectively identified barriers to its adoption, including inexperience of faculty in teaching global oral health, a lack of awareness and marketing, and absence of global health accrediting requirements.Conclusions:By identifying the barriers and facilitators of GHSK curriculum integration, this study provides concrete and specific opportunities to improve its format, relevance, content, and delivery. This study outlines next steps to creating a standardized approach to successfully adopting competency-based global oral health teaching and learning.

Patient Safety Silence and Safety Nursing Activities: Mediating Effects of Moral Sensitivity.

Among the factors that threaten patient safety and quality of care due to the diversification and complication of hospital environments, nurses play a pivotal role regarding patient safety in the clinical setting. This study investigates the mediating effects of moral sensitivity on the relationship between nurses’ patient safety silence and safety nursing activities and contributes to developing strategies. Nurses (n = 120) employed for at least one year in two university hospitals in Korea between 1 September and 30 October 2020 participated in the study. Data were analyzed using t-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and multiple regression using the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program. Additionally, the mediating effects were analyzed using Baron and Kenny’s method and bootstrapping. Safety nursing activities were significantly negatively correlated with patient safety silence and significantly positively correlated with moral sensitivity. Patient safety silence was significantly negatively correlated with moral sensitivity. Moral sensitivity partially mediated the relationship between patient safety silence and safety nursing activities. There is a need to develop and implement individualized ethical programs that enhance moral sensitivity in nurses to promote patient safety nursing activities.

An Entropy/TOPSIS based Model for Financial prioritization of professional ethics teaching methods in accounting

The collapse of large corporations such as Enron and WorldCom caused much concern about the ethical behavior of accountants among users of accounting service. Ethical behavior in accounting is one of the distinguishing features of accountants, which enable them to make the best decisions for stakeholders. Professional ethics learning plays a major role in the development of ethical behavior. Also, TOPSIS method is a well-known methodology that is applied in a various decision making problems. On the other hand, in order to determine the importance of criteria, the Entropy method is known as a powerful tools. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ethics teaching methods on the development of ethical behavior in accounting. This is done by means of an integrated Entropy/TOPSIS based Model for Financial prioritization of professional ethics teaching methods in accounting. The findings of the study showed that the variables of ethics education, style of teaching ethics and ethics textbook content respectively had a 1, 24 and 55 percent impact on the development of ethical behavior in accounting. The results of this study indicate that an ethical training program in accounting is needed to provide accountants with guidance on ethical issues and the importance of ethical standards.