Studies of ethical challenges that can confront practicing scientists and engineers in the entrepreneurial stage of the overarching research-and-innovation process are virtually non-existent. This ...paper explores ethical challenges that arose at a specific entrepreneurial startup: Theranos, the defunct blood-testing company. The fundamental ethical responsibilities of scientists and engineers (FERSEs) offer a framework useful for evaluating the conduct of practicing scientists and engineers from an ethical responsibility perspective. Questionable conduct by Theranos’s former top managers has been widely discussed. However, the fact that a number of Theranos scientists and engineers responded to ethical challenges in several phases of the innovation/entrepreneurial stage with ethically responsible conduct has gone largely unrecognized. Ten mini cases involving these practitioners are discussed. Their deeds reflect different harm-prevention strategies. The Theranos case suggests several ethics-related takeaways for scientists and engineers who work or may work in technical startups. Familiarity with the FERSEs and knowledge of the ethical challenges, ethically responsible conduct, and harm-prevention strategies exhibited in the Theranos case provide valuable intellectual resources for startup scientists and engineers who aspire to be ethically responsible professionals.
PurposeThe authors intend to contribute to the lack of information about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in sports verified in the literature. The main purpose is to understand what the ...supporters' perceptions of CSR practices in sports clubs are and how these initiatives influence some of their attitudes towards the clubs they support.Design/methodology/approachUsing a total sample of 142 supporters, the study hypotheses were tested with PLS-SEM structural equation modeling.Findings The authors conclude that CSR initiatives have a positive influence in the supporters' perception of the club and contribute to the positive word-of-mouth communication about the club. The results also show that these initiatives do not have a significant influence on the supporters' intention to become or remain paid members of sports clubs.Originality/valueIt should be noted that research on CSR in the national sports context is scarce, which increases the importance of its contribution to the literature in this area.
Aim
To describe the ethical activity profile of nurse managers (NM).
Background
Ethical responsibilities require nurse managers to perform certain ethical activities. In this study, these activities ...are referred to as an ethical activity profile and are divided into five dimensions: (1) developing one's own ethics knowledge, (2) influencing ethical issues, (3) conducting or implementing ethics research, (4) identifying and (5) solving ethical problems. This paper focuses on the first four dimensions.
Methods
Survey data were collected in 2011 using a questionnaire (mainly open questions) amongst managers at the ward, middle and strategic levels (n = 122). The data were analysed using inductive content analysis and quantification.
Results
The ethical activity profile of nurse managers was high, referring to the identification of various work‐related ethical problems related to staff (31%), the nurse managers themselves (29%), resources (17%), patients (12%), superiors (7%) and organisations (4%). However, developing one's own ethics knowledge, influencing ethical issues and conducting or implementing research dimensions of the ethical activity profile were low.
Conclusions
There is room to improve the ethical activity profile of nurse managers.
Implications for nursing management
Organisations have to demand that nurse managers meet all their ethical responsibilities and support this via organisational structures.
► We review the role of pack animals in the emerging mountain tourism industry. ► We discuss the industry’s failure to recognise its responsibilities to pack animals. ► We analyse the ...expedition/mountain leader’s responsibilities to pack animals. ► The leader’s responsibilities must be understood, recognised and respected. ► The expedition: a common project with common objectives and a common code of ethics.
Mountain Guides and Expedition Leaders often find themselves using pack animals, such as mules, on expedition. In the absence of motorised transport, the mule’s ability to carry heavy loads over difficult mountainous terrain is thus exploited. Superficially, this can be reduced to a contractual arrangement between the mule owner and guide: the muleteer is able to secure employment because, together with his mule, he is able to offer a service in exchange for money. In employing the muleteer, the leader enters into a contract with another moral being that brings with it various rights and responsibilities. The nature of the contract between the leader and the mule, however, is far from clear and the leader’s responsibilities easily overlooked.
The article analyzes the marketing techniques of corporate social responsibility in the current conditions of the Ukrainian wood industry with an emphasis on the need to conduct non-financial ...reporting
A study was conducted of nanotechnology (NT) researchers’ views about ethics in relation to their work. By means of a purpose-built questionnaire, made available on the Internet, the study probed NT ...researchers’ general attitudes toward and beliefs about ethics in relation to NT, as well as their views about specific NT-related ethical issues. The questionnaire attracted 1,037 respondents from 13 U.S. university-based NT research facilities. Responses to key questionnaire items are summarized and noteworthy findings presented. For most respondents, the ethical responsibilities of NT researchers are not limited to those related to safety and integrity in the laboratory. Most believe that NT researchers also have specific ethical responsibilities to the society in which their research is done and likely to be applied. NT appears to be one of the first areas of contemporary technoscientific activity in which a long-standing belief is being seriously challenged: the belief that society is solely responsible for what happens when a researcher’s work, viewed as neutral and merely enabling, is applied in a particular social context. Survey data reveal that most respondents strongly disagree with that paradigmatic belief. Finally, an index gauging NT researcher sensitivity to ethics and ethical issues related to NT was constructed. A substantial majority of respondents exhibited medium or high levels of sensitivity to ethics in relation to NT. Although most respondents view themselves as not particularly well informed about ethics in relation to NT, a substantial majority are aware of and receptive to ethical issues related to their work, and believe that these issues merit consideration by society and study by current and future NT practitioners.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the extant literature on ethics of employment relations in China. Toward that goal, a meta-analytic approach is employed to conclude the ...business ethical issues from different results and lay foundation for further research by deeply understanding ethics of employment relation in China.Design methodology approach - A systematic literature review procedure is developed to identify all relevant articles and meta-analytic procedures are used to identify issues related to ethics of employment relations in China.Findings - The results suggest there are not many researches on business ethics, especially ethics of employment relations in China. The authors examine the researches about business ethics in research methodology, research perspective, ethical dimensions of employment relations and relationship between variables and find some disadvantages. The authors feel ethics of employment relations in China should cause more concern, in both the theoretical and practical areas.Originality value - The paper explores academics' perceptions towards ethical issues related to employment relations and shows the importance of ethics during the development of Chinese companies.
This article analyses anthropological surveys in Brazil that are conducted by consultant researchers (specialists in ethno-anthropological disciplines) for the national institutions responsible for ...officially recognising which lands are to become indigenous reserves. The complexities of the Brazilian situation and the theoretical, methodological and ethnic (identity) issues faced by the anthropologists are examined. This article attempts to answer the question: can anthropology, which since the 1960s has developed a specific analysis of the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic identity, provide specific answers to such institutions concerning the ethnic identity of these groups and their territorial borders? This article attempts to answer this question by drawing on field research that turned anthropologists into informers, just as Indians seeking to claim their territorial rights were turned into informers by these anthropologists. The article analyses the strategies adopted by these Brazilian researchers while performing their consultancies, concluding that the anthropologists who have decided to embark on this challenge assume a role as mediator between indigenous community and state rather than that of a classifier by and for the state. Adapted from the source document.
Ten advanced counseling psychology doctoral students participated in semi-structured telephone interviews designed to investigate their knowledge and understanding of clinical supervisors' ethical ...responsibilities. They responded to questions about clinical supervisor responsibilities and risks; inclusion of clinical supervision in professional codes of ethics; definition and use of informed consent for clinical supervision; approaches for addressing concerns about supervisee competence; ethical reasons to refuse to supervise an individual; and ethical obligations to different constituencies. Using an inductive analysis process, seven themes were extracted. These themes are described, and training and research recommendations are given.
