Stand-alone Ethics Research Articles

Approaches and Models for Teaching Digital Ethics in Information Systems Courses – A Review of the Literature

The value and importance of teaching Digital Ethics within Information Systems and ICT courses is widely recognized and stand-alone or integrated digital ethics units are broadly implemented across degree courses. However, how such courses should be taught and what content they should include is a little explored topic. Using a narrative literature review methodology, this paper reviews the pedagogical theories underpinning digital ethics courses discussed in the literature and outlines approaches that deploy standalone ethics units, integrated ethics teaching, and hybrid teaching approaches and the use of interdisciplinary models. The paper identifies the employment of, and emphasis given to various moral theories in digital ethics education. The paper then discusses how our findings relating to different pedagogical approaches, degree of integration of ethics teaching, the use of interdisciplinary models and use of moral theories—are related to each other. The discussion explores trends in approaches and models for teaching digital ethics highlighted in the review, and makes recommendations for further exploration and inquiry. It concludes that the effective teaching of digital ethics will likely involve a considered combination of approaches, models and techniques, which may also be tailored to the needs of different roles and industries.

“’Why? Why? Why?’ is the question of the course”: Master’s of Public Administration students’ perspectives on their learning in a standalone ethics course and the implications for ethics education throughout the curriculum

This paper reported the findings from 18 qualitative interviews of students across two sections of an elective, standalone ethics course in a Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) accredited Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) program at a northeast university. The findings suggested that a survey of normative ethical theories and opportunities to practice applying those theories to case studies in public administration led students to uncover the values upon which they stood and consider the strengths and deficiencies of those values in practice. Students generally described the value of this learning experience as developing the ability to identify and systematically consider the reason and logic of their ethical perspectives, consider alternatives presented by others, and take a principled stance. Implications of these findings for embedding ethics education across the curriculum in NASPAA accredited programs was considered.

Impact of Teaching Accounting Ethics on the Ethical Decision-Making of Future Managers

This study aims to emphasize the necessity of dealing with cognitive moral development from the undergraduate level and contribute to the literature by testing two major ethical decision-making models considering perceived overall harm and perceived social pressure concepts that emerge from the literature with a combined approach. For this purpose, the ethical decision-making processes (Rest Model) and moral intensity components (Jones Model) are used to better understand individual factors as well as a standalone ethics course impact on the moral sensitivity and ethical decision-making process. So, the ethical differences between business undergraduate students who took the accounting ethics course, undergraduate students, and MBA students who did not take this course are compared. To do the research, the participants responded to scenario-based questions where an accounting officer is forced to capitalize expenses fraudulently. The analysis is realized using T-test, One-Way Anova and Two-Way Manova tests to shed light on the interaction and the differences between groups. Generation, work experience, and gender are other individual factors used for cross-group comparison. Overall, all hypotheses of the research are partially accepted. The results highlight that the students who do not take the ethics course are significantly negatively different from the MBA students and the students who take the ethics course in terms of overall harm. Other findings conclude that a student who has taken an ethics course is as aware of ethical decision-making processes and moral sensitivity as someone in professional life. Keywords: Accounting Ethics Course; Ethical Decision-Making; Moral Intensity; Individual Factors

How Interactive Visualizations Compare to Ethical Frameworks as Stand-Alone Ethics Learning Tools for Health Researchers and Professionals

Background Despite the bourgeoning of digital tools for bioethics research, education, and engagement, little research has empirically investigated the impact of interactive visualizations as a way to translate ethical frameworks and guidelines. To date, most frameworks take the format of text-only documents that outline and offer ethical guidance on specific contexts. This study’s goal was to determine whether an interactive-visual format supports frameworks in transferring ethical knowledge by improving learning, deliberation, and user experience. Methods An experimental comparative study was conducted with a pre-, mid-, and post-test design using the online survey platform Qualtrics. Participants were university based early-stage health researchers who were randomly assigned to either the control condition (text-only document) or the experimental condition (interactive-visual). The primary outcome variables were learning, (measured using a questionnaire), deliberation (using cases studies) and user experience (measured using the SED/UD Scale). Analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and mixed-effects linear regression. Results Of the 80 participants, 44 (55%) used the text-only document and 36 (45%) used the interactive-visual. Results of the knowledge-test scores showed a statistically significant difference between participants’ post-test scores, indicating that the interactive-visual format better supported understanding, acquisition, and application of the framework’s knowledge. Findings from the case studies showed both formats supported ethical deliberation. Results further indicated the interactive-visual provided an overall better episodic and remembered user experience compared with the text-only document. Conclusions Our findings show that ethical frameworks formatted with interactive and visual qualities provide a more pleasing user experience and are effective formats for ethics learning and deliberation. These findings have implications for practitioners developing and deploying ethical frameworks and guidelines (e.g., in educational or employee-onboarding settings), in that the knowledge generated can lead to more effective dissemination practices of normative guidelines and health data ethics concepts.

Ethics ex Nihilo

ABSTRACT This essay considers the “invention” of Jewish ethics as an academic field following the rise of Jewish Studies scholarship in the American academy. Following this historical argument, this essay argues that universal, stand-alone ethics is as ill-suited to Judaism and its characteristic morality as it is to the ethos of any particular culture. Unique to Judaism is the combination of theology and law pushed by quirks specific to Talmudic reasoning. Underscored is the incapacity of religious ethics to maintain itself as a coherent discourse based upon “common sense” conjoining of things human and divine.

Perceptions by employed accounting students of ethical leadership and political skill: Evidence for including political skill in ethics pedagogy

Using a sample of 703 full- or part-time employed students from two U.S. universities, we conducted an empirical investigation of the relation between perceptions of ethical leadership and perceptions of political skill. The sample was composed of 141 accounting majors and 562 non-accounting students. The results indicated that the two concepts were highly correlated. Our findings also indicate that perception of both ethical leadership and political skill significantly dropped with age and work experience. Moreover, accounting seniors who had previously completed a standalone ethics course had higher perceptions than their counterparts on both constructs, which were still highly correlated. This finding suggests that the ethics education of these students may not have positively impacted their discernment in the area of ethical sensitivity. Thus, accounting students may enter the workforce with inadequate ethical sensitivity, and entry-level accountants may therefore be prone to cognitively confuse the leadership attributes of political skills and ethics. The ability of accountants to differentiate between the ethical leadership and the political skill of leaders, and/or knowledge of how the political skills of leaders could mask their unethical guidance, is posited as an area of ethical sensitivity worthy of inclusion in accounting ethics pedagogy.

Incorporating Ethics Content Throughout an Integrated Pharmacy Curriculum

Objective. To incorporate ethics content into nine courses across three years of the didactic pharmacy curriculum and in introductory and advanced pharmacy practice experiences to ensure Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students are prepared to address ethical issues.Methods. A free-standing, one-credit ethics course from the existing curriculum was eliminated. Partnering with course directors from nine required PharmD courses across all three years of the didactic curriculum and with the Office of Experiential Education, an Integrated Ethics syllabus was created that provided each class of approximately 170 students with at least one credit of didactic ethics instruction and added ethics activities to the experiential curriculum. Learning approaches included lecture, case analysis, and discussion with preceptors. Assessment approaches included written case analyses, tests with multiple-choice and true/false questions, case vignette-based short-answer essay questions, and student discussions with preceptors.Results. The newly integrated curriculum provided students with opportunities to discuss and apply ethics concepts several times throughout their coursework. The integration also ensured that ethics topics were relevant to the material students were learning in the host course at the time. The majority of students consistently rated the ethics sessions as useful, but some found the repeated application of the ethics problem-solving framework to be tedious and duplicative.Conclusion. It is possible to embed ethics topics within different courses in the PharmD curriculum rather than offering a stand-alone ethics course at a single point in the curriculum. Challenges remain to assessing students' ability to apply ethics principles once they are presented.

Are Minnesota Business Colleges and Universities Preparing Students for Ethical Decision- making in the Workplace?

This paper explores the teaching of ethics in business colleges and universities in Minnesota, reviews the need for ethics, discusses the research that summarizes best practices in colleges and universities, and reviews strategies for teaching business ethics. Stand-alone ethics classes and ethics integration are discussed, as well as pedagogy, case studies, and service learning are also explored. The authors make recommendations about future research in teaching ethics in business curricula.

Developing ethical managers for future business roles: a qualitative study of the efficacy of “Stand-Alone” and “Embedded” University “Ethics” courses

Purpose While the problem of unethical leadership is undoubtedly a global one, the urgency of generating ethical leadership to advance the development of Africa has never been more evident than it is today. The challenge for higher education in developing ethical leaders is of core importance, as it is responsible for providing the main recruiting ground of business leaders. The current paper reports findings of a qualitative study of postgraduate students’ ethical development at the end of courses in business ethics aimed to enhance moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. The paper aims to ascertain whether stand-alone ethics courses are more effective than integrated ones in achieving academic ethical competency. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an idiographic approach which aims at eliciting individual student subjective perceptions of the effects of the direct and indirect courses of ethical instruction on their moral reasoning and ethical practice. The research design broadly follows Mill’s (2017) method of difference. Findings Findings indicate perceived differences in the relative effectiveness of stand-alone and embedded ethics courses among students but also show that most students hold positive overall evaluations of the effectiveness of the both types of ethics instruction. Research limitations/implications Limitations to the study include that it is cross-sectional, involves a small sample of postgraduate students and is restricted to two management courses at one institution of higher learning. Furthermore, while Mill (2017) provides a useful research design in this context, it is not able to indicate causality, as there are other possible unidentified “third variables” that may be the actual cause of student differences between embedded and stand-alone ethics courses. The study is not able to show the durability and transfer of ethical competencies into students’ later working lives. Practical implications The study provides a useful practical educational contribution to the extant knowledge in the field in that it suggests that ethical courses aimed at giving students a moral reasoning “toolkit” for ethical decision-making are more effective when delivered in the stand-alone format, whereas practical decision-making skills are best honed by embedded business ethics courses. Social implications The problem of corruption in business and politics in South Africa is widely documented and has been regarded as responsible for creating a serious developmental drag on the alleviation of poverty and quality of lives of the majority of people in the country. The moral/ethical competency and behavior of future business leaders is partly the responsibility of institutions of higher learning. The study aims to find the most effective means of imparting moral awareness in postgraduate students who are likely to take up business leadership positions in their future careers. Originality/value The study provides useful contribution to the extant knowledge in the field in the African context in that it suggests that ethical courses aimed at giving students a moral reasoning “toolkit” for ethical decision-making are more effective when delivered in the stand-alone format, whereas practical decision-making skills are best honed by embedded business ethics courses.

A Content Analysis Revealing MPA Students’ Unquestioning Followership as their Ethical Stance and the Implications for Ethical Competence

This articled reported the findings from a content analysis of two iterations of 131 Master of Public Administration (MPA) students’ essays wherein they described their ethical stance for a standalone ethics course at a northeastern university. The analysis of the first iteration revealed that 35 of the students exhibited one or more of three follower archetypes; conformist, moralist, and/or relativist. A comparative analysis with the second iteration, revealed that 16 of these students never identified the deficiencies of their unquestioning followership perspective despite the interventions of the course. The findings suggested that prevailing definitions of ethical competence ought to explicitly include one’s intentions to (a) evaluate all conduct in terms of consequences, (b) judge the virtuousness of the conduct based upon public service principles separate from organizational influence, (c) act virtuously, and (d) take full personal responsibility for all outcomes. The findings also suggested that inculcating ethical competence might be better achieved by creating cognitive dissonance with cases that demonstrate the deleterious effects of unquestioning followership. Areas for future research to understand how intent is shaped and evidenced in practice were identified.

Exploring the development of professional values in an online RN-to-BSN program.

Development of professional nursing values is critical within registered nurse-to-bachelor of science in nursing programs to prepare nurses for increasingly complex and diverse work environments. The results of previous studies have been inconsistent, with few studies focusing on online registered nurse-to-bachelor of science in nursing programs. In addition, little is known regarding the effectiveness of the educational methods used to support advancement of professional values and ethical practice. The object of this study was to gain an understanding of nursing students' attitudes and beliefs about professional values at entry and exit of an online registered nurse-to-bachelor of science in nursing program that includes a standalone ethics course and integrates American Nurses Association Code of Ethics provisions throughout the curriculum. For this one-group pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design, longitudinal matched-pair data were gathered at program entry and exit using the Nurses Professional Values Scale-Revised. In all, 119 students of an online registered nurse-to-bachelor of science in nursing program at a Midwest public university who completed entry and exit surveys between spring 2015 and spring 2018 were included in this study. This study was reviewed and determined to be exempt by the university's institutional review board. The results showed a significant increase in total posttest scores when considering all participants. However, students who took the ethics course after the pretest demonstrated a significant increase in posttest scores, while students who took the ethics course prior to the pretest demonstrated a small increase that was not statistically significant. Significant increases were also found in the professionalism, activism, and trust factors. This study supports previous study findings where students scored higher on caring and lower on activism and professionalism factors. The largest gains were made after completing the ethics course. The results suggest that requiring a standalone ethics course in the registered nurse-to-bachelor of science in nursing curriculum had a positive impact on self-reported professional values.

Ethics Education in the Qualification of Professional Accountants: Insights from Australia and New Zealand

This paper investigates how ethics is incorporated in the qualification process for prospective professional accountants across Australia and New Zealand. It does so by examining the structure of these qualification processes and by analysing the learning objectives and summarised content for ethics courses that prospective accountants take either at university or through the post-degree programs provided by CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. We do this to understand how the ‘sandwich’ approach to teaching ethics (Armstrong, Journal of Accounting Education 11(1):77–92, 1993) is implemented. This approach advocates a standalone ethics course, followed by ethical cases that are integrated across accounting courses, and subsequently a capstone course that combines ethics and professionalism. We test the extent to which this approach is adopted and examine how its application relates to the components of moral behaviour (Rest, Moral development: Advances in research and theory, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1986). The results provide three significant contributions. The first is that the ‘sandwich’ approach is not in place for most prospective accountants as only a minority of programs include a mandatory course with a substantial ethics component, and this is more likely in undergraduate rather than postgraduate programs. The second contribution is that although moral sensitivity and moral judgement are widely considered, little attention is given to issues of moral motivation and moral character. We suggest that change is unlikely without explicit ethical education requirements from the professional accounting bodies. The paper also makes a final contribution by proposing a more nuanced typology characterising the degree to which ethics is incorporated in particular courses.

Student-Authored Ethics Vignettes: Giving Voice to Values All Semester

Critics of ethics education suggest that students need to learn about contextual pressures of workplace ethical decisions and develop skills to handle them. Thus, instructors are often challenged to integrate an ethics unit into organizational behavior courses in ways that complement, rather than duplicate, what may have been covered in their degree program’s stand-alone ethics course. This article outlines a multistage class exercise that incorporates student-authored cases. As homework, students write about a firsthand work or team ethical decision. The instructor selects several for subsequent class discussions and activities that foster skill development around contextual analysis and anticipatory strategies adapted from the Giving Voice to Values methodology. Students report peers’ ethics vignettes to be interesting and relevant, and a multiperspective exploration and strategizing of these situations prepares them to face future ethical dilemmas in the workplace.

Training the CSR Sensitive Mind-Set: The Integration of CSR into the Training of Business Administration Professionals

Current corporations are subject to stringent requirements in terms of sustainable development; however, a relevant problem is highlighted on the basis of the studies conducted. On the one hand, corporations experience greater or lesser pressure, while on the other hand, it must be admitted that the problem of demand for professionals, which is presupposed by the insufficient quality of training in higher education institutions, is important. This is somewhat strange given that the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability have attracted increased attention in management education in recent years, and a five-fold increase in the number of stand-alone ethics courses has been noted since 1988. This interaction could contribute to the development of CSR, however a certain dissonance of cooperation between higher education and business exists, as there is a lack of leadership in this area in the study programs of business administration approved by the states, as well as in higher education institutions. Given these facts, the goal of the paper is to analyze the Master of Business Administration programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to offer direction to the challenge of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into management and training. The method of analysis of professional business and administration training program content in terms of the integration of CSR was used during the survey. Using panel data of 28 full-time MBA programs, our findings show that that the core parts of MBAs under analysis merely—and mostly indirectly—cover CSR issues through one core course on business ethics. However, the leading MBA programs are currently missing an opportunity by ignoring their responsibility to support the training of CSR-minded future business administration professionals. The results of our research may act as a guide to which areas should be modified and/or changed.

Ethics Education in Public Relations: Differences Between Stand-Alone Ethics Courses and an Integrated Approach

ABSTRACTResearch has found that ethics are most likely to be integrated throughout the curriculum rather than taught as a stand-alone course in public relations. However, this study identified substantial differences in the types of content taught in the two formats on the basis of survey research with 96 educators. Some of the topics that are less likely to be taught outside of an ethics course included other codes of ethics beyond those of the Public Relations Society of America, classical theories by philosophers, decision-making models, the effect of organizational culture and values, and global perspectives on ethics. In addition, few educators reported that they discuss raising ethical concerns in their courses.

Ethics Education in Midwifery Education Programs in the United States.

Familiarity with ethical concepts is a required competency for new graduates and a component of accreditation for midwifery education programs in the United States. While midwifery educators have acknowledged the importance of ethics education in midwifery programs, little is known about current methods, format, or evaluation of ethics education. A Web-based survey was developed for program directors of accredited midwifery education programs in the United States. Clock hours, formats, venues, content topics, barriers, and evaluation methods were evaluated by descriptive analysis. Fifty-one percent of programs completed the online survey (25/49). Of these, only 7 (28%) offer ethics as a stand-alone class, although all responding programs integrate some ethics education into other core classes. Programs show variation in format, venue, resources, and clock hours dedicated to ethics education. The most frequent barrier to ethics education is an already crowded curriculum (60%), although 32% of programs denied any barriers at all. The majority of programs include the ethical concepts of informed consent, shared decision making, and effective communication in curriculum content. This survey found that there is considerable variation in ethics education in terms of content, format, and evaluation among accredited midwifery education programs in the United States. Midwifery educators have an opportunity to explore the ethical dilemmas unique to maternity care from a midwifery perspective. There is also the opportunity to create a comprehensive and dynamic midwifery ethics curriculum, which incorporates both stand-alone ethics courses and ethics concepts that are woven throughout the core midwifery curriculum.

Ethics Education in Australian Preservice Teacher Programs: A Hidden Imperative?

This paper provides a snapshot of the current approach to ethics education in accredited Australian pre-service teacher programs. Methods included a manual calendar search of ethics related subjects required in teacher programs using a sample of 24 Australian universities and a survey of 26 university representatives. Findings show a paucity of required standalone ethics subjects in the pre-service teacher training programs despite recent accreditation requirements by AITSL. When analysed by program type, the prevalence of an ethics related subject requirement in pre-service teacher programs revealed a concerning trend; post graduate programs, as a general rule, had a much lower prevalence of a mandatory ethics-related subject, including those subjects which are traditionally used as vehicles for embedding ethics, such as the Foundations of Education. Notwithstanding, all respondents agreed that the value of ethics in pre-service teacher programs is irrefutable. Implications for further research are discussed.

A Five-Country Survey on Ethics Education in Preservice Teaching Programs

Despite a broad consensus on the ethical dimensions of the teaching profession, and long-standing efforts to align teacher education with wider trends in professional education, little is known about how teacher candidates are being prepared to face the ethical challenges of contemporary teaching. This article presents the results of an international survey on ethics content and curriculum in initial teacher education (ITE). Involving five Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries—the United States, England, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands—the study’s findings shed light on teacher educators’ perspectives on the contribution of ethics content to the education of future teachers and provide a snapshot of how well existing programs line up with their aspirations. The results showed that 24% of the ITE programs surveyed contain at least one mandatory stand-alone ethics course. The meaning of the results vis-à-vis opportunities for expanding ethics education in preservice teaching programs is also discussed.

Including ethics in banking and finance programs: teaching “we shouldn’t win at any cost”

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to identify whether ethics is incorporated into the curriculum in postgraduate banking and finance programmes. There is growing concern that moral failure preceded the global financial crisis with waves of ethical scandals overwhelming the global banking industry highlighting a lack of integrity. Consequently, banking and financial institutions have received much criticism for focusing on higher financial returns that bring personal rewards with significant costs to the majority of society.Design/methodology/approach– The population for this study is Australian universities offering banking and finance postgraduate programs. The data for this study were collected from information available on university websites. The study uses content analysis to examine course content in 897 courses offered within banking and finance programmes.Findings– Findings reveal that 809 (90 per cent) out of 897 courses do not incorporate ethics into banking and finance programmes. Most of the 88 courses incorporating ethics as include the course as “core”, with a relatively small number offering ethics as an “elective”. Only a few courses were offered as stand-alone ethics courses. It appears from the information available that little focus is given to assessment of ethics.Originality/value– This is the first study to explore whether ethics is featured in postgraduate banking and finance programmes.

Case studies and pervasive instruction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether journalism education techniques can be adapted for use in the information literacy classroom as a means of teaching the ethical use of information. Design – The author uses personal experience as a journalist and graduate of journalism education programs to examine the similarities between journalism pedagogy and information literacy and whether any aspect of journalism pedagogy is transferrable to the information literacy classroom. Findings – Journalism educators deliver a potent anti-plagiarism message using case studies and “war stories” from the newsroom delivered through the pervasive instruction method or stand-alone ethics class. Using case studies from a variety of different disciplines in information literacy classes could help students make a stronger connection between honest writing in all subjects. However, until information literacy is taught more widely in libraries as semester-long classes, it would be difficult to use journalism’s pervasive method of instruction. The same holds true with the stand-alone class, which does not appear to be used as a part of information literacy education. Originality/value – Given the many commonalities between journalism pedagogy and information literacy, there have been very few attempts to see whether it would be efficacious to adapt journalism education’s methodology to the information literacy classroom.