Empirical investigation regarding ethical decision making: a stakeholder cross-impact analysis (SCIA)

Purpose The purpose of this research was to study senior and middle-level executive perspectives on ethical decision-making exploring stakeholder cross-impact analysis (SCIA). Given the complexities of business today, stakeholder identification, prioritisation and complexities of reciprocal stakeholder influences have become very important. Various philosophical approaches raised questions than responses to these problems. There was a clear need to find ways through which the worldview of agents could be assimilated and understood. Design/methodology/approach This study used the original hypothetical short case and brought in middle and senior executive reflections of Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) managers. Reflections of ten senior and 178 middle-level Indian FMCG managers were presented, exploring ethical dilemmas using short hypothetical case. These reflections have been analysed using the SCIA framework. The paired t-test was performed to compare the reflections of senior and middle-level executives. Findings The study results indicated that differences emerged regarding stakeholder identification, prioritisation and reciprocal stakeholder influences between Indian middle and senior FMCG executives. Hence, this study paved a reflective space for SCIA. The findings were in line with the tenets of agents’ dilemmas depicted in agency theory. Research limitations/implications This study made contribution to theory by integrating the perspective of ethical dilemma confronted by organisational decision-making units (DMUs) with respect to stakeholder influence and prioritisation. Specifically, theoretical contribution was made towards SCIA. Practical implications This study would help middle and senior executives to better understand the needs and complexities of stakeholder identification, prioritisation and complexities of reciprocal stakeholder influences. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was one of the first studies from an emerging market context country like India that applied SCIA in the FMCG sector. Organisational DMUs while facing ethical dilemma undertook stakeholder influence vis-a-vis stakeholder prioritisation.

Tele-Ethics in Communication Disorders: Asking the Right Questions, Finding the Right Answers

Purpose: A hypothetical case is used to illustrate legal and ethical issues involving the decision to replace the traditional in-person service delivery model with telepractice in schools beyond the context of the initial COVID-19 health emergency. In this clinical focus article, the reader follows Maria, the lead speech-language pathologist (SLP) in the district, as she determines the feasibility of continuing telepractice in her district now that students and clinicians are returning to schools. First, she considers the support needed to implement this service delivery model within the school setting given the anticipated changes to the rules and regulations governing lawful and ethical provision of telepractice after the health emergency ends. Next, she decides if telepractice is warranted in the district by considering the rationales behind the requests. Faced with balancing school, student, and clinician needs, Maria uses an ethical decision-making model to determine if requests for telepractice, tied to health safety concerns and potentially influenced by implicit bias, reflect legal, ethical, and/or moral issues driven by fear or unconscious discriminatory motives. Conclusions: The health emergency gave SLPs working in schools the unique opportunity to experience the benefits and utility of telepractice. Following the return to schools, continuation of telepractice services will require support and training of SLPs. Many factors must be considered including equivalency of services, technology, and protection of privacy as they relate to the changes to the laws and regulations governing telepractice after the health emergency allowances end. Of primary importance is the selection of telepractice to address student needs, not to avoid specific schools because of their characteristics or location. An ethical decision-making model can be used as a framework to guide service delivery model decisions that balance the needs of the student, the clinician, and the district.

Atsakomybės subjekto steigtis technikos amžiuje: Hansas Jonas ir Bruno Latouras

This article opposes the attempts to marginalize ethical issues and defend the thesis of technosphere as an autonomous phenomenon in the Anthropocene. The author points out that by evading the question of ethical perspective and responsibility, the technological activity and its trace are naturalised, and any ethical decision is therefore turned into a technical decision. The comparison of the positions of two philosophers of technology (Hans Jonas and Bruno Latour) enables us to reflect on how technology mediates the constitution of the subject of responsibility in the tension of global and local perspectives. The article shows that Jonas’ “heuristics of fear” leads to the conscious practice of asceticism and the collective control of technical power, while Latour leaves open a possibility of talking about the shared action of a multitude of hybrid actors, in which both the ethical solution is already “contaminated” with the technical and the technical solution retains the trace of the ethical. By using the example of the reverse vending machine, it is shown how ethical motivation is inscribed into technical media, which uses the technological accumulation to link global and local perspectives for environmental purposes.