Ethic Codes

Ethical oaths for bankers, economists and managers are increasingly seen as successful instruments to ensure more responsible behaviour. In this article, we reflect on the nature of ethical oaths. Based on John Austin's speech act theory and the work of Emmanuel Levinas, we introduce a performative concept of ethical oaths that is characterised by (1) the existential self-performative of the one I want to be, which is (2) demanded by the public context. Because ethical oaths are (3) structurally threatened by the possibility of infelicity or failure, we stress (4) the behavioural aspect of ethical oaths in economics and business. We conclude that a performative concept of ethical oaths can contribute to more ethical behaviour in economics and business, because the performative involves action and behaviour. At the same time, it becomes clear that a radical new perspective on the nature, function and limitation of oaths is needed.

Although long-established military virtues, such as honor, courage and loyalty, are what most armed forces today still use as guiding principles in an effort to enhance the moral behavior of soldiers, much depends on whether the military virtues adhered to by these militaries suit a particular mission or military operation. Clearly, the beneficiaries of these military virtues are the soldiers themselves, fellow-soldiers, and military organizations, yet there is little that regulates the behavior of soldiers towards civilian populations. As a result, troops trained for combat in today's missions sometimes experience difficulty in adjusting to the less aggressive ways of working needed to win the hearts and minds of local populations after major combat is over. It can be argued that today's missions call for virtues that are more inclusive than the traditional ones, which are mainly about enhancing military effectiveness, but a convincing case can be made that a lot can already be won by interpreting these traditional virtues in different ways.

This volume offers an integrated approach to the main traditional virtues, exploring their possible relevance and proposing new ways of interpretation that are more in line with the military tasks of the 21st century.

Purpose This paper reviews the world of ICT from its early days to the near future. The aim is to consider how successfully academia, industry and government have worked together in delivering ethically acceptable ICT which is accessible to those who might benefit from such advances. The paper concludes with suggestions of a fresh approach for the future. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws upon evidence from the history of computers, funded research projects, professional bodies in the field, the ETHICOMP conference series and reported ICT disasters. The author uses his experience as both an ICT practitioner and an academic in the ICT ethics field to synthesise the evidence so providing a foundation on which to build an outline global action plan. Finding The paper lays out the findings that there has been much detailed observation and analysis of the ethical challenges surrounding ICT but the transformation of this into widespread practical positive action remains elusive. It explores why progress has been difficult. Originality/value This review of the interconnecting landscapes of practical ICT, funded research and the ICT ethics community is new. The attempt to demonstrate what progress has been made and to identify the underlying factors which influence progress are valuable to future generations working in this area. The concluding suggestions for action offer a starting point for entering the next phase of ICT ethics.

Ethics in engineering and science has become a hot topic not only on the agendas of academic institutions and funding agencies, but also among scientists and engineers themselves and the general public. Analysis of misconduct cases shows that fundamental issues concerning proper methodology as well as ethics are at stake. Traditionally, questions of methodology and ethics have been treated more or less as separate issues, or as being related but fundamentally different, while practitioners tend implicitly to see ethics as the underpinning of their methodology. I contend that methodological and ethical normativity are linked in a very fundamental way. I argue that the relationship between method and ethics deserves to be addressed more explicitly and can form the basis of a new approach towards ethical issues in science and engineering. In particular, a virtue-ethical based approach, defining the figure of the ‘good practitioner’, has many advantages. As an example, I consider the issue of the function and utility of ethical codes of conduct. Practice shows that these codes are seldom known to practitioners and, that when they are, practitioners have not internalised them. In other words, they do not match with notions of proper behaviour as experienced by scientists and engineers themselves. I argue that as long as the ethical codes are top-down regulations of an institution, rather than the ‘living morality’ of the virtuous community of scientific practice, they will remain of limited applicability.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate school principals’, teachers’, parents’, and students’ opinions, arising from participation in a pilot program which used a media literacy curriculum
in Turkey. The research population covers all seventh grade students who attended the media literacy course during the 2006-2007 academic year, in five pilot cities and their
teachers, principals, and families. A semi-structured one-on-one interview technique was used to collect data. In order to determine students’ opinions regarding media’s conformance
to ethical codes, five ethical codes were determined and the “Basic Ethical Codes
for Media to Follow Scale” was developed. The study results clearly show that principals,
teachers, and parents have serious concerns with the content and quality of national
publishing and broadcasting. Participants’ critiques generally concentrate on media’s corrupting social values for the sake of ratings and circulation, and they violate individuals’
rights and exaggerate in publishing and broadcasting. Students, especially from four of the pilot program cities, state that media has problems concerning processes and ethical codes, and it conforms to ethical codes sometimes or hardly-ever. The study results show that students’ opinions regarding media’s objectiveness, respect for individual rights, honesty,
congruence for responsible broadcasting, and strengthening social values in publishing
and broadcasting coincide with those of the principals, teachers, and parents.

El propósito global de esta investigación es analizar las dimensiones éticas de los códigos deontológicos de la profesión/carrera universitaria ‘Enfermería’, comprobando la existencia de relaciones entre lo real y lo ideal, entre lo determinado en los códigos deontológicos referidos y las situaciones reales de la práctica de la enseñanza de los estudiantes universitarios de esta Diplomatura. Para ello, se ha empleado una metodología de investigación de corte cuantitativo, fundamentalmente de tipo descriptivo, basada en el método de encuesta. En concreto, los datos han sido recogidos mediante un inventario de creencias deontológicas, construido ad hoc. Y el análisis estadístico que se les ha aplicado ha sido un análisis descriptivo. Entre los principales resultados obtenidos, cabe destacar que, en general, los futuros enfermeros valoran los principios declarados como muy importantes, aunque creen que casi la mitad de los principios deontológicos nunca se los han enseñado en su formación universitaria. La formulación de unas propuestas de mejora es presentada al final del artículo.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the ethical dimensions of the deontological codes of the university career ‘Infirmary’, checking the existence of relationships between the real thing and the ideal thing, among that determined in the deontological codes referred and the real situations of the practice of the teaching of the university students of this career. For it, a methodology of investigation of quantitative court has been used, fundamentally of descriptive type, based on the survey method. In short, the data have been gained through inventory of beliefs deontological, make ad hoc. And the statistical analysis that has been applied has been a descriptive analysis. Among the main results obtained, it is necessary to highlight that, in general, the students value the principles declared as very important, although they believe that almost half of the deontological principles have never taught to them in their university formation. The formulation of some proposals of improvement is presented at the end of the article.

ABSTRACT
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND ETHICS: PERENNIAL QUESTIONS
Okçu, Murat
Ph. D., Department of Public Administration
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Şinasi Aksoy
October 2002, 286 Pages
Ethical approaches trying to define what is to be ethical for public administration are clustered around two rival theoretical frameworks: bureaucratic and democratic ethos. These ethical frameworks are foundational theories mainly because they try to establish universal foundations that help to derive appropriate moral conduct for public administrators. In this regard, the distinction between bureaucratic and democratic paradigms is the reflection of modernist foundational ethical cleavage to public administration. This thesis, however, asserts that an anti-foundational postmodern perspective completely rejecting foundational moral positions can be found and that only such a perspective can move the debate on administrative ethics to its right place. Instead of offering more ‘universal’ ethical standards, principles and rules, it forces us to ask more significant perennial questions and re-think organization, structure and processes of public administration in a framework which appeals to public administrators’ moral responsibility of ‘being for the Other’. This thesis also asserts that only anti-foundational perspective can offer an antidote to (administrative) ‘ethics in the form of law’.
Keywords: Bureaucratic Ethos, Democratic Ethos, Anti-foundationalism, Postmodern Administrative Ethics.
ÖZ
KAMU YÖNETİMİ VE AHLAK: KÖKLÜ SORULAR
Okçu, Murat
Doktora, Department of Public Administration
Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Şinasi Aksoy
Ekim 2002, 286 Pages
Kamu yönetimi için neyin ahlaki olduğunu tanımlamaya çalışan etik yaklaşımlar birbirine rakip iki kuramsal çerçevenin etrafında kümelenmektedirler: bürokratik etos ve demokratik etos. Bu etik çerçeveler kamu yöneticileri için uygun ahlaki davranışı ortaya çıkarmaya yardımcı olacak nihai temelleri kurmaya çalıştıkları için temel arayıcı kuramlardır. Bu anlamda bürokratik ve demokratik paradigmalar modern temel arayıcı ahlaki yarılmanın kamu yönetimine yansımasıdır. Oysa bu tez, temel arayıcı moral konumları bütünüyle reddeden temel arayıcı karşıtı postmodern bir yaklaşımın bulunabileceğini ve ancak böyle bir bakış açısının yönetsel ahlak üzerine yürütülen tartışmayı olması gerektiği yere taşıyabileceğini iddia etmektedir. Temel arayıcı karşıtı yaklaşım daha fazla ‘evrensel’ ahlaki standartlar, ilkeler ve kurallar sunmak yerine bizi çok daha anlamlı köklü soruları sormaya iter ve bizi kamu yöneticilerinin ‘Öteki için olmak’ şeklindeki ahlaki sorumluluklarına gönderme yapan bir çerçeve içerisinde kamu yönetiminin örgüt, yapı ve süreçlerini yeniden düşünmeye zorlar. Aynı zamanda bu tez yalnızca temel arayıcı karşıtı bakış açısının ‘yasa şeklindeki (yönetsel) ahlak’ anlayışına gerçek bir çözüm sunabileceğini iddia etmektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Bürokratik Etos, Demokratik Etos, Temel Arayıcı Karşıtı Yaklaşım, Postmodern Yönetsel Ahlak.