Recent challenges in ethics
Ethical Framework
• Beneficence – doing good; helping
• Non-maleficence – avoiding harm
• Autonomy – client’s input and role
• Fidelity – consistent with what promised
• Justice -- welfare of client vs. others (e.g. duty
to warn); equitable use of resources – having
a basis to proportion them
Ethical Decision-Making
• It is often not what is ethical vs. unethical,
but the comparative ethicality of the
options
• This involves weighing which principles
are best dealt with through one option or
another
• What are the likely positive vs. negative
outcomes of choosing a given course of
action?
Decision table or chart
Electronic records
• As of 23 January 2012 US major healthcare information
privacy breaches are 19 million records in 385 major
HIPAA - reported incidents (each affecting 500 or more)
since Sept. 2009 (2 ¼ years)
• Minn. Attorney General Lori Swanson has announced a
lawsuit against Accretive Health Inc., a debt collection
agency, or its role in a breach impacting 20,000 patients
at North Memorial Health Care & Fairview Health
Services. Data was on an un-encrypted laptop stolen
from a parked rental car.
• It is recommended that all devices be encrypted, even
those which are not supposed to be used to transport
data, since people get careless
AMA Policy: Professionalism in the
use of social media
• Refrain from posting patient information
• Privacy settings; monitor internet presence
• Appropriate boundaries with patient interactions
on internet
• Separate personal & professional content on
line;
• Confront or report unprofessional conduct on
line
• Can undermine reputation & public trust
Ethics of Accounting Information
– Creative accounting, earnings
management, misleading financial
analysis.
– Insider trading, securities fraud, bucket
shops, forex scams: concerns (criminal)
manipulation of the financial markets.
– Executive compensation: concerns
excessive payments made to corporate
CEO's and top management.
Ethics of Human Resource Mgt.
–Discrimination issues include
discrimination on the bases of age
(ageism), gender, race, religion,
disabilities, weight and attractiveness,
affirmative action, sexual harassment.
– Issues arising from the traditional view
of relationships between employers and
employees, also known as At-will
employment.
–Issues surrounding the representation
of employees and the
democratization of the workplace:
union busting, strike breaking.
–Issues affecting the privacy of the
employee: workplace surveillance,
drug testing.
–Issues affecting the privacy of the
employer: whistle-blowing.
–Issues relating to the fairness of the
employment contract and the balance
of power between employer and
employee: slavery, indentured
servitude, employment law.
–Occupational safety and health.
Ethics of Sales and Marketing
– Pricing: price fixing, price discrimination,
price skimming.
– Anti-competitive practices: these include but go
beyond pricing tactics to cover issues such as
manipulation of loyalty and supply chains.
– Specific marketing strategies: greenwash,
bait and switch, shill, viral marketing,
spam (electronic), pyramid scheme,
planned obsolescence.
• Content of advertisements: attack ads,
subliminal messages, sex in advertising,
products regarded as immoral or harmful
• Children and marketing: marketing in schools.
• Black markets, grey markets.
Ethics of Production
– Defective, addictive and inherently
dangerous products and services (e.g.
tobacco, alcohol, weapons, motor
vehicles, chemical manufacturing,
bungee jumping).
– Ethical relations between the company
and the environment: pollution,
environmental ethics, carbon emissions
trading.
Ethics of Production
–Ethical problems arising out of new
technologies: genetically modified
food, mobile phone radiation and
health.
–Product testing ethics: animal rights
and animal testing, use of
economically disadvantaged groups
(such as students) as test objects.
Ethics of Intellectual Property,
Knowledge and Skills
– Patent infringement, copyright
infringement, trademark infringement.
– Misuse of the intellectual property
systems to stifle competition: patent
misuse, copyright misuse, patent troll,
submarine patent.
– Even the notion of intellectual property
itself has been criticized on ethical
ground.
International Business Ethics
• The search for universal values as a basis for
international commercial behavior.
• Comparison of business ethical traditions in
different countries.
• Comparison of business ethical traditions from
various religious perspectives.
• Ethical issues arising out of international
business transactions; e.g. bioprospecting and
biopiracy in the pharmaceutical industry; the
fair trade movement; transfer pricing.
• Issues such as globalization and cultural
imperialism.
• Varying global standards - e.g. the use of child
labor.
• The way in which multinationals take
advantage of international differences, such
as outsourcing production (e.g. clothes) and
services (e.g. call centres) to low-wage
countries.
• The permissibility of international commerce
with pariah states.
General business ethics
• This part of business ethics overlaps with the
philosophy of business, one of the aims of which
is to determine the fundamental purposes of a
company. If a company's main purpose is to
maximize the returns to its shareholders, then it
should be seen as unethical for a company to
consider the interests and rights of anyone else.
• Corporate social responsibility or CSR: an
umbrella term under which the ethical rights and
duties existing between companies and society is
debated.
• Issues regarding the moral rights and duties between a
company and its shareholders: fiduciary responsibility,
stakeholder concept v. shareholder concept.
• Ethical issues concerning relations between different
companies: e.g. hostile take-overs, industrial espionage.
• Leadership issues: corporate governance.
• Political contributions made by corporations.
• Law reform, such as the ethical debate over introducing a
crime of corporate manslaughter.
• The misuse of corporate ethics policies as marketing
instruments.
Acculturation Model of Ethical
Decision-making
Marginalization
Style: Lower focus on professional ethics
Lower focus on personal ethics
Risks: Greatest risk of harm
Lack appreciation for ethics
Motivated by self-interest
Less concern for patients
Separation
Style: Lower focus on professional ethics
Higher focus on personal ethics
Risks: Compassion overrides good
professional judgment
Fail to recognize the unique role
Assimilation
Style: Higher focus on professional ethics
Lower focus on personal ethics
Risks: Developing overly legalistic stance
Rigidly conforming to individual rules
while missing broader issues
Integration
Style: High focus on professional ethics
High focus on personal ethics
Reward: Implement values in context of
professional roles
Reaching for the ethical ceiling
Aspirational ethics
Ethics officers
• Ethics officers (sometimes called "compliance"
or "business conduct officers") have been
appointed formally by organizations since the
mid-1980s.
• led to the creation of the Defense Industry
Initiative (DII)
• In 1991, the Ethics & Compliance Officer
Association (ECOA)
Professional codes of conduct
in accounting
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
• Responsibilities: In carrying out their responsibilities as professionals,
members should exercise sensitive professional and moral judgments
in all their activities..
• The Public Interest: members should act in a way that will honor the
public interest.
• Integrity: members should perform all professional responsibilities with
the highest sense of integrity.
• Objectivity and Independence: a member should maintain objectivity
and be free of conflicts of interest in discharging services.
• Due care: a member should discharge professional responsibility to the
best of the member’s ability.
• Scope and nature of services: members should observe the Principles
of the Code of Professional Conduct in determining the scope and nature
of services to be provided.
Professional codes of conduct in finance
Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR)
Members of the Association shall:
1) Act with integrity, competence, dignity, and in an ethical manner when
dealing with the public, clients, prospects, employers, employees, and
fellow members.
2) Practice and encourage others to practice in a professional and ethical
manner that will reflect credit on members and their profession.
3) Strive to maintain and improve their competence and the competence of
others in the profession.
4) Use reasonable care and exercise independent professional judgment.
Professional codes of conduct in marketing
American Marketing Association (AMA)
Members of the AMA have embraced the following topics:
• Marketers must accept responsibility for the consequences of their activities
and make every effort to ensure that their decisions, recommendations, and
actions function to identify, serve, and satisfy all relevant publics.
• Marketers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of the
marketing profession.
• Participants in a marketing exchange should be able to expect that products
services offered are safe, communications about offered products and
services are not deceptive, all obligations in an exchange are discharged in
good faith, and appropriate internal methods exist for equitable redress of
grievances concerning purchases.
• Marketers should not demand, encourage or apply coercion to obtain
unethical behavior in their relationships with others.
Professional codes of conduct
in information technology
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
General imperatives for ACM members include:
• contributing to society and human well-being,
• avoid harm to others,
• be honest and trustworthy,
• be fair and take action not to discriminate,
• honor property rights,
• honor copyrights and patents,
• give proper credit for intellectual property,
• respect privacy of others, and
• honor confidentiality.
Why ethical problems occur in business
Principle-Based Ethics
Autonomy
Beneficence
Nonmaleficence
Fidelity
Justice
Respect for Autonomy
• Does not mean promoting autonomy
(individuation or separation)
• Means respecting the autonomous decision
making ability of the patient
Autonomy
It encompasses freedom of thought and action.
Individuals are at liberty to behave as they
chose.
- Determining goals in therapy
- Making life decisions (e.g., marriage, divorce)
- Scheduling appointments and terminating treatment
Beneficence
• The principle of benefiting others and
accepting the responsibility to do good
underlies the profession.
- Providing the best treatment possible
- Competency
- Referring when needed
Basis of foundational standard 2.01
“Psychologists provide services, teach, and
conduct research with populations and in
areas only within the boundaries of their
competence."
Nonmaleficence
The principle is doing no harm.
- Demonstrating competence
- Maintaining appropriate boundaries
- Not using an experimental technique as the
first line of treatment
- Providing benefits, risks, and costs
Nonmaleficence
Foundational Standard 3.04
“Psychologists take reasonable steps to avoid
harming their clients/patients, students,
supervisees, research participants,
organizational clients, and others with whom
they work, and to minimize harm when it is
foreseeable and unavoidable.”
Fidelity
This principle refers to being faithful to commitments.
Fidelity includes promise keeping, trustworthiness,
and loyalty.
- Avoiding conflicts of interests that could
compromise therapy
- Keeping information confidential
- Adhering to therapeutic contract (e.g., session
length, time, phone contacts, etc.)
Fidelity
Foundational Standard 4.01
“Psychologists have a primary obligation and
take reasonable precautions to protect
confidential information.”
Justice
Justice primarily refers to treating people fairly
and equally.
In their work-related activities, psychologists do not engage
in unfair discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity,
race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual
orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or any basis
proscribed by law. (3.01)