Public Administration Reform over Time – Did Change Lead to a More Effective Integrity Management?

The following discussion adds to the discourse regarding the relationship between public administration reform and ethics policies. In this theoreti­cal paper, a narrative is employed that re-reads the old Weberian model as a model of ‘institutional integrity’, which is slowly replaced by a public management concept that focuses on individual integrity. Whereas the Weberian concept defined institutional integrity as a quality of institu­tions, more recent management concepts define institutional integrity as a quality of public officers within institutions. This also explains why the current focus of attention is ever more on individuals (as the main cause for unethical conduct) and the bad-person model of integrity. An alterna­tive framing of this paper is about ‘institutional ethics’ over time. During the last decades, we are moving from an institutional, but mechanical and rigid Weberian model, to an individual, but more fluid New Public Management model. We are moving towards a version of institutional in­tegrity that tries to use new behavioural mechanism to get back to some Weberian virtues, without its structures and technical focus. This novel ‘integrity management’ movement is really all about filling the gaps left by New Public Management doctrines. However, the reform of integrity management also develops into a specialised, sophisticated and profes­sionalised ethics bureaucracy. Trends are towards ever more broader and stricter integrity requirements. Still, ethics policies are ineffective and shortcomings in implementing integrity policies are neglected.

Developments on PlagZap, the Fast and Free Textual Plagiarism Detection Solution for Universities

Plagiarism among university students is an important issue that affects their preparation and undermines the universities’ efforts to prepare skilled graduates. Universities try to fight this problem back with strict ethics policies, but they require the proper plagiarism detection tools, at affordable costs, to implement these policies. In this paper, we present PlagZap, a cost-efficient, high-volume and high-speed plagiarism detection system built using open-source software and designed to be used on textual student assignments. We discuss the advantages of this design, plagiarism obfuscation methods and empirical results from using PlagZap.

The infantilized researcher and research subject: ethics, consent and risk

Current research ethics processes, based on the mantra of privacy and institutional protection, take a paternalistic approach to research participants that leaves them open to harm. Reflecting on our own research/consultancy as a case study to illustrate the current flaws, we explore our and our subjects’ experiences within the wider political context of institutional ethical rules and the Australian NHMRC guidelines. In doing so we argue for fundamental changes to the modern research ethics processes – a system that treats participants more as research collaborators rather than victims in waiting. A complete review of ethics processes is needed to empower participants and researchers to recognize the reality of the process as co-created and negotiated. This includes changes at the top level of research administration – a shift in ethics policies and procedures as well as greater education in ethics with commensurate trust for active researchers.

Freedom as non-domination in behavioral and biomedical research

In the biomedical and behavioral sciences, it is widely recognized that researchers conducting studies involving human participants must respect the autonomy of research subjects. There is significant debate in the clinical research ethics and bioethics literatures about what it means for an individual to be autonomous. According to proponents of the Liberal Conception of Autonomy (LCA), an autonomous person is an agent who has interests and opinions and the capacity to deliberate about them. In contrast, proponents of the Relational Conception of Autonomy (RCA) argue that because humans are social creatures, autonomy is a relational concept and ought to be recognized as such by medical professionals. In this article, I argue that the LCA/RCA debate is flawed, and that the notion of freedom as non-domination, rather than autonomy, ought to be adopted for biomedical research ethics policies regarding informed consent and research agenda-setting. I then argue that this view of freedom should also be adopted for research ethics policies for the behavioral social sciences.

Ethics policies, perceived social responsibility, and positive work attitude

Employers that emphasise ethics often encourage a variety of positive work-related outcomes, yet the manner inwhich different ethics policies and corporate social responsibility (CSR) enhance employee attitudes is still subject toinvestigation. Consequently, this study explored how ethics training and an ethics code work with perceived social responsibility to encourage positive feelings about work. Using survey data collected from 781 individuals employed in an education-based health science centre, the results indicated that hours of ethics training and a shared ethics code operated through perceived social responsibility to enhance a positive work attitude, measured as job satisfaction and an intention to stay. Creating an ethical environment and emphasising socially responsible business practices should encourage employees to respond more favourably to the workplace. In particular, companies should use ethics codes and training to emphasise CSR, thus enhancing employees’ work attitudes.