Ethics Program Research Articles

Medical advocacy in the face of Australian immigration practices: A study of medical professionals defending the health rights of detained refugees and asylum seekers.

While medical advocacy is mandated as a core professional commitment in a growing number of ethical codes and medical training programs, medical advocacy and social justice engagement are regularly subordinated to traditional clinical responsibilities. This study aims to provide insight into factors that motivate clinician engagement and perseverance with medical advocacy, so as to inform attempts by policymakers, leaders and educators to promote advocacy practices in medicine. Furthermore, this study aims to provide an analysis of the role of medical advocates in systems where patients' rights are perceived to be infringed and consider how we might best support and protect these medical advocates as a profession, by exploring the experiences and perspectives of Australian clinicians defending the health of detained asylum seekers. In this qualitative study thirty-two medical and health professionals advocating on asylum seeker health in immigration detention were interviewed. Transcripts were coded both inductively and deductively from interview question domains and thematically analysed. Findings suggested that respondents' motivations for advocacy stemmed from deeply intertwined professional and personal ethics. Overall, advocacy responses originated from the union of three integral stimuli: personal ethics, proximity and readiness. We conclude that each of these three integral factors must be addressed in any attempt to foster advocacy within the medical profession. In light of current global trends of increasingly protectionist immigration practices, promoting effective physician advocacy may become essential in ensuring patients' universal right to health.

Innovative ethics officers as drivers of effective ethics programs: An empirical study in the Netherlands

AbstractEthical misconduct and violations seriously harm individuals and organizations and lead to massive fines or the dismissal of employees and CEOs. Many firms have implemented ethics programs to prevent unethical behavior but these are often ineffective and take a traditional approach. Ethics officers are often responsible for running and developing ethics programs, in collaboration with other departments. They can, therefore, play a key role in improving ethics program effectiveness. We postulate that ethics officers need to adopt a more innovative approach in order to achieve ethical behavior among employees and managers, and that such an innovative approach requires certain personality traits. This study investigates how ethics officers’ personality traits and innovative work behaviors relate to the effectiveness of ethics programs and normative ethical behavior through an online questionnaire conducted among 110 ethics officers in large Dutch organizations. Structural equations modeling showed that innovative work behavior mediated the relationship between ethics officers’ openness to experience and ethics program effectiveness which, in turn, is related to more normative ethical behavior. Future research must examine the (partial) mediation effects, including other characteristics of ethics officers in relation to ethics program effectiveness and ethical behaviors at work, and replicate the study multi‐nationally.

Beats Go On

Beats Go On

Designing a Clinical Ethics Education Program for Nurses Based on the ADDIE Model.

The ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model enables educators to create programs using a systematic approach designed to meet learner's needs. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a clinical ethics education program for nurses to improve their ethical confidence, ethical competence, and moral sensitivity. The study was conducted in three steps. In the first step, a seven-session ethics program was developed using the ADDIE model. The themes of each session were as follows: (a) sharing individual ethical issues in clinical settings; (b) understanding a process involved in ethical decision-making; (c) identifying ethical issues in end-of-life care; (d) identifying ethical issues in family caregiving; (e) learning communication skills; (f) developing ethical leadership skills; and (g) reflecting to build self-awareness of the significance of practicing clinical ethics. The second step involved the delivery of the program. In the third step, using a mixed methods design, the effects of the program were evaluated through a quantitative survey administered both before and after completion of the program and focus group interviews. The seven-session ethics program based on the ADDIE model improved ethical confidence, ethical competence, and moral sensitivity in nurses. The ADDIE model can be an effective tool in nursing education, offering an established structure for developing educational programs. In order to validate the effectiveness of the ethics program, it is necessary to conduct repeated measure studies and further studies at the institutional level.

The Significant of Fashion Ethics Education on Young Fashion Designers and Entrepreneurs

The research aimed to examine the relationship and understand the significance of ethical fashion education to young fashion designers and entrepreneurs’ value systems and ethical behavior. The research applied a descriptive qualitative method based on focus group discussion using purposive sampling. Data were collected from six young fashion designers and entrepreneurs, who graduated from Fashion Design and Business at Universitas Ciputra Surabaya and had ever attended Fashion Ethics class on their seventh semester. The research result shows that Fashion Ethics education is important and gives a positive impact on participants’ ethical values and behavior. Furthermore, some existing personal traits that came from family, as well as previous formal education, significantly influence people’s value system and ethical behavior, which cause different impacts and results of the program among participants. Meanwhile, the religious background does not have a significant influence on the result. In conclusion, the Fashion Ethics program has a positive effect on young fashion designers and entrepreneurs’ ethical values and behavior.

Towards Agent-Based Corporate Ethics Programs

Corporate ethics programs can be designed with different orientations. The literature distinguishes rules-based (or compliance-based) and values-based (or integrity-based) programs. Compliance-based programs are detailed formal rules whose motivational force comes from the rewards and penalties associated with such rules. Integrity-based programs focus on principles, whose motivational force comes from self-control. This paper develops a third approach, which is less concerned with outcomes, rules, values, and principles and is more concerned with the cultivation of the excellences that make employees choose (and be) better.

Factors influencing students' reactions to ethical dilemmas in advertising'

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to extend existing research on ethics in advertising through investigating the key factors that influence students' reaction towards ethical dilemmas.Design/methodology/approachSeveral hypotheses are developed and tested across twenty three ethical dilemma scenarios relative to advertising and business. Using information collected from business students (1297 useable responses) at a large Western Australian university.FindingsThe results indicates significant differences amongst culture, educational background, gender, work experience and corporate culture towards students' reactions to ethical dilemmas.Practical implicationsThis research suggests that providing a stronger emphasis on ethics in educational institutions will increase the likeliness for students in behaving ethically. The managerial implications of these findings are also discussed, including the development of a potential ethical work context and programmes that enhance ethical sensitivity. Managers and executives would also benefit from this study by encouraging better ethical performance through understanding employees' behaviour.Originality/valueExtant studies on ethical dilemmas in advertising highly focus on European's and North American's ethical beliefs. Thus, this paper look at the Western Australian sample of students at a broader context through acknowledging East Asian student sample in Western Australia; Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian and Taiwanese.

Relations of Blood: Hunting Taboos and Wildlife Conservation in the Idu Mishmi of Northeast India

Hunting is one of the leading causes of declines in tropical wildlife. Yet, for many traditional and Indigenous Peoples, hunting and associated rituals are integral to establishing and maintaining social identities and reciprocal relations with nature. Taboos that restrict hunting and forest use are widely prevalent in traditional societies and have been likened to informal culture-based conservation mechanisms. However, where taboos have been formally co-opted by conservation programs, the results have been largely ineffective. A recent study showed that taboos in the Idu Mishmi community of Northeast India significantly reduced wild meat consumption and contributed to biodiversity protection, including an endangered tiger population. In this study, we explore what motivates Idu taboos, their role in everyday Idu life, how they impact hunting, and whether they will endure with changing circumstances. We find that by conditioning social and personal prosperity on ancestrally mandated, morally correct behavior in the forest, Idu taboos ensure that people understand that human well-being is inextricably linked to restrictive hunting. Violation of taboo does not just bring misfortune to the violator but to all kin, forging interdependence and cohesion in the society. Taboos form the moral and practical basis of interaction between and among humans, spirits, and animals. Taboos are not an isolated component of the Idu culture; they make the Idu the Idu, the reason why they have endured through rapidly changing times. Conservation should pay careful attention not just to the outcomes of cultural institutions, but to their meanings and processes to co-create sustainable and ethical programs.

Qualitative migration research ethics: a roadmap for migration scholars

PurposeThis article aims to set a roadmap for an ethical programme, which we call “qualitative migration research ethics” (QMRE). It is a scoping review that maps current ethical challenges that migration scholars often face and provide guidance, while acknowledging the fact that many researchers deal with ethical issues on a case-by-case basis.Design/methodology/approachBy connecting three lines of debates – ethics in social sciences, in qualitative research and in migration studies – this article addresses the following core questions: What are the particular ethical dilemmas in qualitative migration research (QMR)? How do migration researchers deal with these ethical dilemmas? What is the role of universal ethical codes of conduct and case-by-case ethical considerations in dealing with particular situations?FindingsThis review demonstrates that special aspects of migration research context, e.g. participants' mobility, potential vulnerability and migration as a politicized issue as well as the flexible and exploratory nature of qualitative research require particular ethical awareness that cannot be sufficiently addressed by standardized guidelines.Originality/valueIt proposes that efforts to raise ethical awareness must go beyond researchers' ethical confessions or blind adherence to pre-fixed guidance. Researchers must have critical “ethical radar” before, during and after their fieldwork; not only while working on extreme and vulnerable cases but also while doing all kind of research regardless of the level of vulnerability. Last but not least, this article claims the need for including critical ethical consciousness substantially in higher education programmes at the very beginning of the research career.

Negative emotions, positive actions: Food safety and consumer intentions to purchase ethical food in China

Although ensuring food safety is still an urgent social issue in China, ethical consumption practices are relatively new, and ethical food is not widely consumed. Chinese consumers often face confusing information about a particular food product's safety and are concerned about the situation. Drawing upon stress coping theory, this study examines whether consumer confusion and negative emotions drive intentions to adopt ethical food. Data collected from a sample of 505 consumers were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that consumer confusion has a significant impact on negative emotions, which in turn influence intentions to purchase ethical food products. This research advances the food preference literature by providing a new perspective on ethical consumption based on coping strategies. The findings are important for policymakers and business leaders seeking to develop and better promote safer and more ethical food programs in China.

Finding the fit: Why compliance and ethics programs should seek to match individual and corporate values

Job seekers would like guidance on how to find a job with a firm whose values reinforce their own, a place that would be a good personal fit. At the same time, because of legal compliance requirements, it is crucial that employers find employees that fit the company’s value system so that the company can maintain an effective ethics and compliance program. This article looks at the legal, regulatory structure in both the U.S. and E.U. with an emphasis on reflexive corporate governance. It also reports the findings of a survey of E.U. and U.S. executives with a reputation for nurturing ethical business culture to discover what virtues and factors are most important and, thus, something a job seeker might look for in finding a strong, ethical company. Finally, the article raises the cognitive issues of the importance for job seekers to examine their own psychological biases so they are evaluating a position based on what really fits their values.

Does ethical leadership boost nurses' patient-oriented organizational citizenship behaviours? A cross-sectional study.

To examine the relationships between perceived ethical leadership, perceived interactional justice climate, and patient-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour. A cross-sectional non-experimental design was employed. The convenience sampling was adopted. Data were collected in July and August 2018. A total of 738 nurses were recruited from eight Chinese hospitals. The survey included instrument scales of ethical leadership, interactional justice climate, and patient-oriented organizational citizenship behaviour. SPSS version 22 was used to compute means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations. The partial least squares structural equation modelling was chosen to estimate the path coefficients of the relationships. Relationships among perceived ethical leadership, perceived interactional justice climate, and organizational citizenship behaviours were statistically significant. Perceived interactional justice climate mediated the relationship between perceived ethical leadership and nurses' organizational citizenship behaviours. Ethical leadership is related to interactional justice climate, which, in turn, increases nurses' organizational citizenship behaviour. Nurse leaders are encouraged to exhibit ethical behaviours and to create justice climate. Ethical leadership scale can be used to select, train, and evaluate the nurse supervisors and managers. Hospital administrators are encouraged to recruit and promote those with both moral compass and leadership potential to nursing leadership positions. Nursing managers should create a justice climate in their hospitals. Hospital administrators could use ethical leadership scale to develop ethical leadership training programmes.

Influences of employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility on job satisfaction – A study in Hochiminh City

The present study aims to explore the influences of employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their satisfaction in different sectors. The results of the literature review show that there are three components in employees’ perceptions of CSR, including Philanthropic CSR, Ethical CSR, and Environmental CSR; and it is impacted by Perceived CSR capability, Ethical program, and Perceived fit between corporate culture and CSR activities. The research findings have confirmed the proposed hypotheses; and it is obvious that Employees’ perceptions of CSR have a significant impact on Employees’ satisfaction. From the research findings, there are some crucial points to note. Firstly, firms should design their own ethical programs. Secondly, firms should communicate their CSR practices to improve employees’ perceived CSR capabilities. These points are quite important to increase employee satisfaction.

Building ethical leadership through training and development approach at a higher education institution in South Africa

The research has shown that many leaders lack ethical practice, but training and development geared towards ethical leadership can serve to bridge this gap in theory and practice. This paper focuses primarily on the key aspect of training and development to promote more ethical leadership within a higher education institution setting. The data were drawn from a mixed-method study adopting both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Simple random sampling constituted a sample of 312 academic and administrative staff members at the institution. The purposeful sampling for the qualitative component was a realized sample of 3 executive management leadership and 9 line management leadership participants, indicating a total response rate of 67%. The results for executive management leadership reflect poor leadership style from the employees’ perspective in relation to respect and fairness, transparency, behavior, and other ethical leadership-related items (of M = 2.74, SD = 0.033). In addition, there was a clear need for leadership to attend ongoing training courses (M = 4.20, SD = 0.904). From the qualitative perspective, more than 50% of the leadership respondents indicated no appropriate university leadership programmes or ethical leadership programs. Therefore, the investment in training and development can promote more ethical leadership style, which in turn can have a positive impact on employees (M = 4.43, SD = 0.740). In light of this, the results provide a strong inclination towards more training and development programs to ensure that leaders develop ethical considerations in their role as leaders.

Whose History? What Theory?

Whose History? What Theory?

Can Ethics Be Taught? Examining the Impact of Distributed Ethical Training and Individual Characteristics on Ethical Decision-Making

In this study we examine multiple antecedents of business students’ ethical decision-making. We first describe, and examine the effectiveness of, an ethical training program in which ethical reason...

Confucius Institutes: A Planetary Philosophical Gift

The article discusses the philosophical component of the Chinese project for the harmonization of cultures promoted by modern Confucius Institutes. The author research the formation of the Confucian culture of Tao, the creation by Confucius (551–479 BC) of the first Chinese philosophical school as well as the dictionary of universals of Confucian culture. In Confucianism, on the basis of the archetype of the Tao culture, a model of “moderate prosperity” ( xiaokang ) is built. This model involves the implementation of five programs: the global foreign policy program (pacification of all four cardinal points around the Middle Country), the cultural program (the Middle Country is chosen as the meeting place for all peoples), the internal political capital-government program (the calming and integration of internal provinces around the Capital of the Middle Country), the moral and ethical program (peace of mind and peace of the people of the Middle Country), the program of state unity (ensuring the integrity of the Middle Country). The key role in the xiaokang project is played by the perfection of man, the achievement of a harmonious balance of physical and mental virtues, the formation of personality of junzi as the ideal person of future civilization. Although the concept of xiaokang appeared in separate medieval treatises of the epochs of Jin (265–420) and Song (960–1279) dynasties, the xiaokang returns to the forefront of Chinese history at the end of the 19 th century during the movement for the modernization of the country. Xiaokang is interpreted by the reformers of China, in particular, Kang Youwei, as a necessary stage in building a society of “great unity” ( datong ). The “Architect of Chinese Reforms,” Deng Xiaoping, introduced the concept of “modestly prosperous family” ( xiao kang zhi jia ), the xiaokang of the “Four Chinese Modernizations.” The project of the formation of “community with shared future for mankind,” currently implemented by China, is based on a Confucian vision of the development of society and the world. In 1994, the International Confucian Association was created in China, and, since 2004, the deployment of a network of Confucius Institutes around the world began. The author concludes that Confucian culture has a supra-ethnic value because it opens the prospect of a new type of globalization, when cultures, preserving their originality but complementing each other by archetypes, form a single universal human paradigm.

Using Organizational Architecture to Lead Change

Effective leadership involves more than developing and communicating the right strategic vision for the company. To encourage employees to carry out the corporate vision, companies must ensure consistency among the following three main components of their organizational architecture: (1) the allocation of decision‐making authority; (2) performance measurement systems; and (3) reward systems.The authors illustrate the application of this framework with the case of Xerox's (eventually) successful attempt to create a customer‐oriented workforce in the 1980s. But a more effective demonstration of the importance of these principles, as the authors go on to suggest, might well be the same company's well‐known failure to harvest the commercial promise of the many inventions by its research group in Palo Alto, one of which became the basis for Steve Jobs' success at Apple.This organizational framework is especially useful for evaluating the likely effects of major corporate initiatives such as “Six Sigma” or the “Balanced Scorecard.” For example, it could be used to help top management determine whether, and under what circumstances, decentralization is likely to improve decision‐making and performance, as well as the changes in the firm's performance management and incentive systems that would be required to make decentralization work.Finally, the authors apply the framework to another important leadership issue: corporate ethics. Since the scandals of the early 2000s and the passage of Sarbanes‐Oxley, many, if not most, U.S. companies have issued formal codes of conduct, appointed ethics officers, and instituted training programs in ethics. But a key question for top management is whether the incentives established by the company's organizational architecture reinforce or undermine the code of conduct. Ensuring consistency in organizational design is an important leadership function—one that is critical to encouraging ethical behavior as well as the pursuit of shareholder value.

The compliance and ethics officer of the future: What skills are necessary?

This paper discusses the attributes of and the skills necessary to achieve an effective compliance and ethics programme. In doing so, it explores how and some of the reasons why the role of compliance has evolved over the past 20 years and how the role of a Compliance and Ethics Officer has expanded from being a knowledgeable, technical expert over legal and regulatory requirements to leading a corporate-wide programme containing several disciplines. The paper may help regulatory and supervisory agencies guide the institutions they supervise to understand the valuable role and appropriate organisational position of Compliance and Ethics Officers to encourage a full seat at the executive table. It may also help institutions of higher education develop curricula to help better prepare the Compliance and Ethics Officers of the future.

A Listening Tour: Pediatric Clinical Ethics Rounds

A two-year rounding program was initiated by the clinical ethics consult service (CECS) to improve ethics program integration and utilization at our 323-bed tertiary care pediatric hospital. Two critical variables were identified for improvement. One: identification of cases in which an ethics consult would have benefited clinical care but was not requested. Two: earlier detection of cases for which the medical team and/or family eventually sought ethics consultation but that worsened during the delay. Improvement relied on eliciting dialogue with the CECS by the medical team and/or patients and families, when it had either not occurred before or had not occurred when it would have been most beneficial. The indirect nature of the improvements sought posed a specific challenge: how does one elicit such action from others? How does a small program with less than one full-time equivalent position that is dedicated to clinical ethics, and little funding, effect such a process change across an organization with more than 600 physicians, 2,000 nurses, 600 medical students, and thousands of other clinicians and staff? The following accounts such an effort and the accompanying two-year study undertaken to document the results. The data presented demonstrate improvement in both identified variables: increased overall utilization of the CECS and earlier detection of cases in which the CECS is typically engaged.